President Donald Trump signed an executive order June 3 to reclassify about 8,000 senior policy-influencing roles into a new civil service category, making them at-will positions.
Five things to know:
1. The Schedule Policy/Career classification allows agencies to remove employees in those roles for poor performance, misconduct or corruption “without lengthy procedural hurdles that often prevent accountability, consistent with the ability to remove appointees responsible for implementing the President’s agenda,” according to the June 3 executive order.
2. The classification, which includes roles within HHS, makes those employees easier to fire, Politico reported June 4. A CDC official previously told Politico some managers received emails May 15 saying some agency employees were transitioning to the new classification in the first phase. Those affected will no longer have the protections granted to career civil servants, according to the report.
3. President Trump created the new classification in an executive order signed Jan. 20, 2025. The Office of Personnel Management implemented a rule about the change, effective in March. Under it, agencies will no longer be required to give Schedule Policy/Career employees a performance improvement plan or advance notice before suspending, demoting or terminating them. Employees retain protections against prohibited personnel practices, including whistleblower retaliation and political discrimination, though those would be enforced by the employing agency rather than the Office of Special Counsel, according to a document from OPM.
4. Most of the reclassified roles are senior-level positions, the highest-ranking positions outside of the senior executive service. They include agency jobs such as directors, deputy directors and senior advisors, as well as employees involved in determining who receives federal grants, the executive order said.
5. Removal decisions will be made without respect to political affiliation, according to the executive order. However, American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley described it as an alleged attempt to strip employees of their due process rights so they can be removed for political reasons.
“The practical implications of this action are clear,” Mr. Kelley said in a June 3 statement. “Workers who once felt comfortable reporting waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at their place of employment because they were protected from retaliation will now be afraid for their jobs if they speak out. That is a disservice to them and to the millions of Americans who rely on the federal government every day.”
Becker’s has reached out to HHS to confirm the new classification affects HHS employees and will update this story if more information becomes available.
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