Schedule F Has Arrived

Keith’s note: a modified version of the long-feared ‘Schedule F’ has arrived albeit in a somewhat truncated form. Thousands of career civil service positions are now political positions subject to new rules including greatly enhanced ease of quick dismissal. Curiously there has been no public mention of this dramatic personnel overhaul by NASA. (earlier posts).

• Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service, White House: “Section 1. Purpose. The President relies on subordinates in the executive branch to help him faithfully execute the laws and advance the priorities for which he was elected by the American people. Officials in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, and policy-advocating roles (policy-influencing positions) play particularly important roles in helping him fulfill this constitutional duty. Therefore, ensuring that such employees can be removed for misconduct or poor performance is essential to protecting democratic self-government by an elected President.”
• Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Increases Accountability in the Federal Workforce, White House: “Federal employee removal procedures are lengthy and burdensome. Removals and subsequent appeals often take a year or more to process. As a result, agencies seldom remove career employees, even at senior levels, including for egregious conduct or subversion of Presidential priorities.”
• Trump signs order moving thousands of federal employees into Schedule F, Government Executive: “The official said the vast majority — around 97% — of those impacted are either GS-15s or senior leaders (SL). Jobs targeted for conversion include agency office and division heads; C-suite posts like chief information officers; regional officers and their deputies and chiefs of staff; program managers; those who help write federal regulations and attorneys involved in crafting agency or internal policies, as well as advisors, senior HR officials and grantmaking posts.”
• Trump moves about 8,000 federal positions to Schedule Policy/Career, Federal News Network: “You can have any political views, but if you allow those views to basically interfere with your willingness to actually carry out lawful orders and policy directives with the administration, then this provides a mechanism for people in those agencies to be able to be removed effectively at-will,” [Office of Personnel Management Director Scott] Kupor continued.”