WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Friday his administration would move to more easily terminate federal government workers who oppose the Republican’s agenda — saying he wanted Washington “to finally be ‘run like a business.’”
The new rule from the Office of Personnel Management — long referred to as “Schedule F” — will reclassify those working on important policy matters as “Schedule Policy/Career,” removing their civil service protections and making them “at-will” employees.
OPM estimates 50,000 workers — or about 2% of the federal workforce — will ultimately be dismissed for either poor performance or “subversion” of Trump’s directives.
“If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’ We must root out corruption and implement accountability in our Federal Workforce!”
Trump first proposed the “Schedule F” rule near the end of his first term.
Former President Joe Biden rescinded the rule, but Trump reinstated it in an executive order signed on the first day of his second term.
Trump and his allies have long accused career government officials of either subverting or stalling the executive’s plans through bureaucracy, choosing to act on their own policy desires instead of the president’s.
Removing a federal worker usually takes six months to a year before appeals, according to an OPM fact sheet which noted the new rule would allow the swift removal of those “who put their own interests ahead of the American people’s.”
“Policy-making federal employees have a tremendous amount of influence over our laws and our lives. Such employees must be held to the highest standards of conduct. Americans deserve a government that is both effective and accountable,” OPM Acting Director Chuck Ezell said in a statement.
Those on the front lines of implementing policy, such as law enforcement agents, will generally be excluded, according to the agency.
Federal employees are not required to agree with the president politically, “but must faithfully
implement the law and the administration’s policies.”
