President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that reclassifies thousands of career federal employees into at-will positions to make them easier to fire.
The move fundamentally alters the structure of the U.S. civil service by stripping job protections from non-partisan employees. This allows the administration to remove staff it deems are influencing policy or hindering efficiency.
The order establishes a category known as Schedule F. This reclassification removes the standard civil-service protections that typically shield career officials from political termination. The administration said the change is intended to increase accountability and efficiency within the federal workforce.
Reports on the scale of the order vary. Some sources said that approximately 8,000 career federal employees [1] are affected, while other reports suggest the administration plans to reclassify as many as 50,000 federal workers [2]. Those affected may include employees with maximum annual salaries of about $200,000 [1].
By moving these roles to at-will status, the president can terminate these employees without the lengthy appeals process usually required for career civil servants. This change targets positions that the administration believes have too much influence over the implementation of government policy.
The order was signed in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2026. It marks a significant shift in the relationship between political appointees and the permanent professional staff of the federal government.
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that reclassifies thousands of career federal employees into at-will positions.”
The creation of Schedule F represents a shift toward a 'spoils system' in the U.S. federal government. By removing civil-service protections, the administration can replace career experts and non-partisan bureaucrats with political loyalists, reducing the independence of the federal bureaucracy but potentially increasing the speed of policy implementation.
