The Fight Over Schedule F

Roger Berkowitz

Before former President Trump left office in January of 2021, he issued an executive order that would reclassify nearly 70% of federal civil service bureaucrats into a new job category dubbed “Schedule F.” Schedule F employees would then lose many of the civil service protections and could be fired more easily by the President and his political appointees. President Biden rescinded the executive order before it was fully implemented. A major promise of former President Trump’s current campaign is that he would quickly reclassify and fire large numbers of the civil service and, at least in part, replace them with loyalists who will seamlessly implement his preferred policies. 

Last week, the federal Office of Personnel Management published the final version of a new regulation that would effectively shield federal bureaucrats from such a reclassification that Trump has promised to implement. It is presented as a way to protect career civil servants who “provide the expertise and continuity necessary for our democracy to function.” There is something paradoxical about protecting democracy by protecting unelected civil servants. And yet, there is also a way in which something essential about the American way of life is bound up with the non-democratic rule by professional managers. Carten Cordell explains:

The new regulation — which will be published in the Federal Register for public inspection on Thursday — seeks to provide 2.2 million federal employees with defined protections that would make it difficult for a future administration to re-apply the Trump policy, known as Schedule F.

“We are confident that our final rule is the best reading of civil service statutes and is grounded in the civil service in the statutory language, congressional intent, legislative history and decades of applicable case law and practice,” said OPM Deputy Director Rob Shriver on a press call. “The rule is strong, it will help to ensure the rights employees earned as envisioned by Congress when it enacted the Civil Service Reform Act in 1978 and expanded and strengthened those protections through subsequent enactments.”

"Today, my administration is announcing protections for 2.2 million career civil servants from political interference, to guarantee that they can carry out their responsibilities in the best interest of the American people," said Biden, in a statement. Day in and day out, career civil servants provide the expertise and continuity necessary for our democracy to function. They provide Americans with life-saving and life-changing services and put opportunity within reach for millions. That’s why since taking office, I have worked to strengthen, empower and rebuild our career workforce. This rule is a step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people." 

The final rule states that an employee’s civil service protections cannot be taken away by an involuntary move from the competitive service to the excepted service; clarifies that the “employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating positions” terminology used to define Schedule F employees means noncareer, political appointments and won’t be applied to career civil servants; and sets up an appeals process with the Merit Systems Protection Board for any employees involuntarily transferred from the competitive service to the excepted service and within the excepted service.

The move comes in an election year where Trump is seeking a return to the White House, and GOP allies, and rivals, have sought to revive the policy if elected.