Schedule F — Stripping Job Protections to Build a Loyalty-Based Civil Service

Trump reclassified roughly 8,000 senior career federal positions into a new "Schedule Policy/Career" category, stripping the civil-service job protections that had insulated career staff from being fired without cause since the 1880s Pendleton Act reforms. The administration says no loyalty tests are used, but the change makes it dramatically easier to remove senior civil servants who resist a president's policy direction — precisely the outcome career protections were created to prevent. Of over 40,000 public comments on the proposed rule, roughly 94% opposed it.

Donald Trump — Republican Party

In power 2025–present