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The president Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday that eliminates labor protections for nearly 8,000 federal employees involved in the development and implementation of public policies, a measure that will make it easier for the Administration to terminate their employment.
According to the agency EFE from Washington, the order was signed in the Oval Office and affects career employees who hold managerial positions, advise on drafting regulations, participate in decisions regarding federal grants, or perform other functions related to the design of government policies.
The affected employees are reclassified into a new category called "Schedule Policy/Career," thereby losing the adverse action procedures and the appeal rights that previously protected them from discretionary dismissals, a privilege traditionally reserved for political appointments made by the president.
97% of the positions reached by the measure correspond to GS-15 levels or higher, with salaries around $200,000 per year.
The government argues that the measure responds to the obstacles that, in its view, Trump faced during his first term from career officials who resisted certain decisions from the White House, particularly in legal and regulatory matters.
The Administration asserts that employees in the new category are not required to support the president personally or politically, but they must faithfully implement the policies of the Administration, and failure to do so could be grounds for dismissal.
The order revives and expands the original concept of "Schedule F," which Trump first introduced in October 2020 at the end of his first term.
President Joe Biden revoked that order in January 2021 before it was fully implemented. Upon returning to the White House, Trump reinstated it on January 20, 2025, under its current name, and the Office of Personnel Management issued implementation guidelines in February 2026.
This week's order represents the first large-scale concrete application of the scheme, although the Administration had previously estimated that up to 50,000 positions could eventually be reclassified.
The unions representing federal employees criticized the order and warned that it could pave the way for dismissals based on political reasons.
Its leaders argue that the measure "undermines the guarantees of professional independence in the public service and erodes the mechanisms of protection against arbitrary decisions."
The measure is part of the broader strategy to reduce the federal government initiated at the start of Trump's second term, which included tens of thousands of layoffs across multiple agencies.
In July 2025, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Administration to move forward with reorganizations and mass layoffs, after overturning previous judicial blocks.
The Administration has come to estimate that up to 50,000 employees could be affected by this policy in the future, making the order signed this week the first step in a broader transformation of the federal civil service.
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