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The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has submitted draft regulations designed to streamline the process of firing career federal employees who resist implementing presidential directives.
The move revives a plan first proposed at the end of Donald Trump's first term in office, which sought to remove civil service protections for federal officials involved in policy development or advocacy. If implemented, affected employees would serve at the discretion of the president, potentially impacting tens of thousands of federal workers.
The proposed regulations, titled “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service,” have been submitted for review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Approval by OIRA is typically one of the final steps before new rules are publicly released.
The draft states that the changes would enable federal agencies to quickly dismiss employees who engage in misconduct, underperform, or obstruct presidential directives. It claims that some career officials use their positions to advance personal political agendas, thereby undermining the democratic process. “Such behavior allows government power to be exercised without accountability to voters or their elected representatives,” the draft states.
The initiative would place certain federal employees into a newly classified category, previously known as “Schedule F” and now renamed “Schedule Policy/Career.”
Those positions would no longer be protected by traditional civil service rules, making them easier to remove. The effort was initially halted after Trump left office but has now been rekindled following his return to the White House.
Legal and political implications
The regulatory push is expected to face legal challenges, joining a growing number of court cases questioning Trump's recent executive actions, which include placing federal workers on administrative leave and restructuring entire agencies. The draft rules also aim to roll back protections introduced by former President Joe Biden in April of last year, which granted federal employees the right to appeal reclassification decisions and allowed them to retain civil service protections.
The draft text criticizes the Biden-era rules, alleging they were “openly intended… to frustrate a re-elected President Trump.” It also claims that existing civil service regulations hinder accountability and make it difficult to terminate employees who either perform poorly or engage in partisan activities.
“For too long, cumbersome civil service regulations have made it virtually impossible to fire federal employees who engage in misconduct or who perform poorly. That is ending now,” an OPM spokesperson said.
Shift in Civil Service roles
The draft regulation contends that the Biden administration’s approach violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how agencies develop policy. By seeking to undo these rules, the Trump administration aims to give federal agencies greater latitude to separate employees deemed unaligned with presidential objectives.
If approved, this measure would mark a significant shift in how civil service roles linked to policy-making are managed, altering the landscape of federal employment and the very nature of federal employees within the political decision making and implementation process.
Trump’s “blitzkrieg” on Federal departments, lead by the unelected Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency is placing a huge strain on the administration and staffing of Government functions, with many employees unsure of the future of their roles and some opting to take up the offer of paid leave until September if they resign. Given it is less than a month into the new administration, HR departments are having to process a huge amount of new directives and legislation while continuing to help manage an exodus of employees and uncertainty among those that remain.
