Under the new classification, Schedule G, federal employees will be subject to hiring and firing by the president
Michael Sainato and Rachel Leingang at The Guardian:
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday creating a new classification of federal employees who would be subject to hiring and firing by the president, Schedule G, for employees working on policy, in the latest action by his administration to reshape the federal workforce. The non-career classified employees will be expected to leave in changing presidential administrations, with the order claiming it will “improve operations, particularly in agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs, by streamlining appointments for key policy roles”. The order did not cite how many employees would fall under the new classification. “President Trump is delivering on his promise to dismantle the deep state and reclaim our government from Washington corruption,” the White House said in a fact sheet on the order. The classification appears similar to Schedule C, which refers to temporary federal employees working on policy issues.
“We already have Schedule F (turning career civil servants into at-will employees). Now Trump is announcing Schedule G: Opens space at top ranks of govt for Trump loyalists as policymakers, with no limit on hires. Continues pattern of politicization,” wrote Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, on social media in response to the executive order.
Schedule F, which Trump tried to implement near the end of his first term in office, was revived earlier this year. It strips civil service protections afforded to other federal employee classifications, making it easier to fire these employees at-will. Since Trump took office, his administration has sought to strip civil service protections for large swaths of federal employees, eliminate collective bargaining rights, and make it easier for the administration to fire federal employees at-will and without cause.
Donald Trump signs an executive order out of the Project 2025 playbook creating Schedule G, a new worker classification, to weaken civil service protections.