What Is Schedule F? Trump’s Move to Fire 50k Federal Workers More Easily

President Donald Trump announced on Friday his administration will be issuing new civil service regulations reclassifying around 50,000 federal employees under Schedule F, a designation that would strip them of key civil service protections.

Why It Matters

The Trump administration has repeatedly pledged to root out what it considers waste, fraud and abuse across federal agencies, aiming to shrink the size of government and reduce federal spending. As part of that effort, the White House established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force led by billionaire Elon Musk that has recommended severe workforce cuts. The administration has said that accountability is among its key priorities.

Thousands of federal workers have been fired as part of Trump’s efforts to shrink what he calls a “bloated” federal government. The administration has faced a flurry of lawsuits, including several from unions representing recently terminated employees.

The federal workforce shrank by 10,000 jobs in February and another 4,000 in March as a result of various cuts, according to the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Critics are concerned Trump’s latest move could allow the administration to purge nonpartisan career officials and replace them with political loyalists, undermining the independence of the federal workforce.

What To Know

In Truth Social post Friday afternoon, Trump said, “Moving forward, career government employees, working on policy matters, will be classified as ‘Schedule Policy/Career,’ and will be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance.”

His outlined plans aim to reclassify around 50,000 federal employees, around 2 percent of the federal workforce, under Schedule F, a classification Trump created in 2020 during his first presidential term.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on April 18 in Washington, D.C.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

In that executive order, he wrote: “Separating employees who cannot or will not meet required performance standards is important, and it is particularly important with regard to employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions.”

The classification applies to career employees who typically stay on through changes in political leadership. Under Schedule F, they would be treated functionally as “at-will” workers, making it easier to dismiss them and removing many of the civil service protections designed to guard against political interference.

Trump added in his social media post: “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,” adding, “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!”

Then-President Joe Biden rescinded the order upon taking office. Reinstating Schedule F is among the goals of Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint.

What People Are Saying

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a Friday statement: “President Trump’s action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government’s merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on.”

Project 2025 states: “The new Administration should be able to draw on the enormous expertise of state agency personnel throughout the country who are capable and knowledgeable about land management and prove it daily. States are better resource managers than the federal government because they must live with the results. President Trump’s Schedule F proposal regarding accountability in hiring must be reinstituted to bring success to these reforms.”

American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, said in January: “Project 2025 seeks to undermine this expectation of efficiency and expertise in public services by dismantling the Federal Government and reinstating Trump’s 2020 “Schedule F” Executive Order. This would allow the ruling administration to reclassify many civil servants as policymaking or policy-evaluating workers, thereby removing their civil service protections and making them at-will employees. President Trump could then install whomever he pleases based on favoritism and loyalty to his administration.”