Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce

The order reinstates Executive Order 13957 — originally "Schedule F," now renamed "Schedule Policy/Career" — creating a special employment classification for career federal employees in policy-influencing positions. Employees in this schedule have reduced civil service protections and can be dismissed more easily. The order simultaneously revokes Biden's EO 14003, which had abolished Schedule F in 2021, and directs agency heads to rescind any actions taken under it. Certain civil service regulations stemming from a 2024 rulemaking are declared immediately inoperative while formal rescission proceeds.

The OPM Director must formally amend those regulations and issue guidance within 30 days on additional position categories agencies should recommend for the schedule. A new provision explicitly states that employees in the schedule are not required to personally or politically support the President but must faithfully implement administration policies; failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.

Career federal employees in policy-influencing, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating roles across all executive agencies. The Office of Personnel Management and heads of every executive department are also directly directed to take specific regulatory and administrative actions under this order.

Career civil servants in policy roles could lose standard procedural protections — including appeal rights — that normally shield them from removal without cause. The immediate suspension of 2024 regulations means those protections are gone now, before the formal rulemaking process to rescind them formally concludes.

The reinstatement of EO 13957 and revocation of EO 14003 take effect immediately. The 2024 civil service regulations that reinforced protections are suspended at once, pending formal OPM rescission through rulemaking. Within 30 days, OPM issues guidance on which position categories agencies should consider for Schedule Policy/Career; agencies then identify and recommend specific positions to OPM, which recommends placements to the President. The actual reclassification of individual positions requires completing that future identification and recommendation process.