Politics

Trump plan to upend civil service advances under new name

Published

1 year ago

January 28, 2025

The Trump administration pressed ahead Monday with rebranded plans to make it easier to fire certain federal workers.

In a memorandum to all federal agencies, the Office of Personnel Management spelled out guidance for what is now called “Schedule Career/Policy.” The name amends what was called “Schedule F” when the idea was initiated at the end of the first term of President Donald Trump.

“Effective performance management of employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions is of the utmost importance,” the OPM stated, adding that “due to these requirements, agencies should have a greater degree of appointment flexibility with respect to these employees than is afforded by the existing competitive service process.”

The six-page OPM memo and an accompanying amended executive order direct federal agency heads to conduct a preliminary review within 90 days of their agency’s positions that may fit into the “policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.” The review includes determining which of the positions “are not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition.”

A complete review must be completed within 210 days.

The OPM declares that employees in or applicants for Schedule Policy/Career positions “are not required to personally or politically support the current president or the policies of the current administration,” but they are expected to be administratively loyal.

“They are required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability, consistent with their constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority solely in the president,” the OPM states. “Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.”

The memo and amended executive order mark the latest turn in a civil service dispute launched by Trump’s issuance of Executive Order 13957 in October 2020. The order created the new Schedule F class of federal worker who would be more vulnerable to dismissal.

According to a Government Accountability Office summary, civil servants are generally entitled to notice of a removal, an opportunity to reply, representation by an attorney and a written decision. They can also appeal the removal to the Merit Systems Protection Board or file a grievance under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. These procedural protections generally would have been unavailable to Schedule F employees. Hiring would also be streamlined; for instance, hiring preferences for veterans would no longer apply to Schedule F hires.

Former President Joe Biden subsequently revoked Executive Order 13957 in January 2021 through an executive order of his own.

“[It] not only was unnecessary to the conditions of good administration but also undermined the foundations of the civil service and its merit system principles, which were essential to the … repudiation of the spoils system,” Biden said at the time.

Last year, the Biden administration issued rules that strengthened the barriers against a return of the Schedule F concept. Trump rescinded the Biden-era moves in an executive order issued his first day in office.

“Agencies need the flexibility to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from these positions without facing extensive delays or litigation,” the OPM stated Monday.

The National Treasury Employees Union, on behalf of employees in 36 federal agencies, has already filed a lawsuit challenging the moves that the union’s President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement would lead to “political loyalty tests” for public employees.

Politics

DC is about to pick new leaders. Trump is watching.

Published

6 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Washington will soon enter a new chapter after voters pick the capital’s first new mayor in a dozen years and its first new Congressional delegate since 1991. And no matter who wins Tuesday’s primaries, they’ll be on a collision course with President Donald Trump.

The frontrunners in both races have hinged their campaigns on opposition to Trump, who since returning to office has chipped away at Washington’s autonomy and sought to remake parts of the city in his image. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has led the city since taking office in 2015, has taken a pragmatic approach to working with the president in an apparent effort to avoid further furor. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has represented the District since 1991 and condemned Trump’s actions in strongly worded statements, but the 89-year-old has dodged the spotlight amid questions about her acuity and ability to serve.

The candidates running to replace them say that’s far from enough.

In interviews with Blue Light News, those leading candidates emphasized that they hoped to find common ground with the Trump administration and coordinate where possible, especially on projects that could jumpstart Washington’s sluggish economy. But they all drew a red line at Trump’s extraordinary law enforcement actions, including sending in the National Guard indefinitely and surging federal immigration agents in coordination with local police.

“Washington, D.C., residents want and deserve a mayor who’s going to stand up and fight back, and that’s what I’m bringing,” said Kenyan McDuffie, a relatively moderate, pro-business former D.C. Council member who is polling second in the mayor’s race. He has pledged to end coordination between the Metropolitan Police Department and ICE on his first day in office.

Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. council member who is polling more than 10 points ahead of McDuffie, has taken an even more adversarial posture against the president. She told Blue Light News she would “actively tell our employees to resist” if Trump again federalized the MPD, adding that she would work with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb “to defend D.C.”

Trump is already making known his displeasure — particularly with Lewis George, a democratic socialist whose platform and campaign are reminiscent of those of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Asked last week about the possibility of Lewis George winning the primary, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “I wouldn’t like it.”

“Maybe we’ll take back Washington, run it on a federal basis,” he continued. “We won’t put up with it. We’re not gonna lose our businesses.”

Lewis George’s campaign almost immediately cut Trump’s comments into an ad. “Look, we’re not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president,” she said in response. “We’re not going to protect our rights, or Home Rule, by complying in advance. Threatening Home Rule because you don’t like how residents are voting is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect their mayor, and they want someone who’s gonna stand up to Donald Trump.”

There’s a similar sentiment among the leading delegate candidates.

Robert White, a city council member and one of two frontrunners in the delegate race, described Trump’s surge of federal agents and National Guard troops to the city as “lawlessness” and “the opposite of public safety.” He said he would seek to build a coalition in Congress to “push back in every way.”

Brooke Pinto, a fellow council member and the other delegate frontrunner who has centered public safety in her campaign, said the administration’s use of National Guard troops and ICE agents have not helped the city. “While I am very committed to advancing public safety in the District of Columbia, what we’re seeing from the Trump administration undermines those efforts,” she said.

That type of messaging is politically savvy in a city with an electorate that heavily supported Kamala Harris in 2024 and whose lives have been directly impacted by the president’s grip over Washington — from the troop surge to his sweeping cuts to government programs and razing of the federal workforce, which have severely contracted the District’s economy. That’s not to mention his efforts to splash his name and face across federal buildings, and mounting moves to beautify portions of the city and stand up ambitious architectural projects.

“When politicians try to interfere with our local public safety, when they are sweeping up unhoused residents, cutting jobs, when they are pushing policies that negatively affect our local economy and driving up overall costs of everything from gas to housing, I’m going to fight back,” McDuffie said.

But it sets the candidates — whoever wins — in explicit opposition to Trump, who has consistently sought to bring his enemies to heel whenever he gets the chance. The president has several levers at his disposal if he chooses to retaliate against Washington, from another federal law enforcement surge to using his influence over Congress to weaken D.C. Home Rule. The city also depends on the federal government for high-profile projects that would improve public spaces and bring jobs to the District, including upgrades to Union Station and the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium campus.

Asked how the White House is preparing for a potentially more adversarial mayor and delegate, a spokesperson referred Blue Light News back to Trump’s Oval Office comments.

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