EO-14410
Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service
- Signed
- Jun 3, 2026
- Published
- Jun 10, 2026
Federal Register: 2026-11594
Source: Federal Register.
Reclassifying Federal Policy Jobs to Allow Easier Removal
Impact6/10
What it does
This order formally transfers a large number of federal career civil service positions — those in roles that shape, advise on, or carry out policy — into a new employment category called "Schedule Policy/Career." Employees in this category lose access to the standard civil service procedures that protect them from removal for poor performance or misconduct, making it easier for agency heads to dismiss them. The order also directs agencies to create separate bonus pools to reward high-performing employees in these reclassified positions.
Who benefits
The sitting President and future presidents, who gain greater ability to remove career federal employees in policy-influencing roles who are not executing administration priorities. Agency heads and political appointees, who would have more direct managerial control over their workforces. Members of the public who believe a more responsive federal workforce would lead to faster or more effective implementation of elected officials' agendas. High-performing Schedule Policy/Career employees, who would be eligible for new dedicated bonus pools and a Presidential award program.
Who is affected
Career federal employees currently in competitive service positions that are reclassified under Schedule Policy/Career, who lose standard civil service removal protections (5 U.S.C. § 7511 adverse action procedures). Federal employee unions, whose collective bargaining leverage over disciplinary procedures would be reduced for covered positions. Whistleblowers and employees who raise internal policy objections, who may face greater job insecurity. Veterans in reclassified positions, whose veteran preference in hiring is retained but whose job security protections are reduced. Future administrations of either party, whose inherited workforce in these roles would be more easily replaced.
Supporters argue
Supporters contend that the President's constitutional duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" (Art. II, §3) requires meaningful control over the employees who shape and implement policy, and that the current civil service system makes it nearly impossible to remove even seriously underperforming or insubordinate employees — a problem the order documents with survey data showing most supervisors believe they cannot remove problem workers. They argue that democratic accountability demands that elected officials be able to direct the executive branch effectively, and that Schedule Policy/Career preserves merit-based hiring while simply aligning removal standards with the actual policy-influencing nature of these roles.
Opponents argue
Opponents contend that stripping civil service protections from thousands of career employees who were hired on merit — not political affiliation — creates a pathway to replace nonpartisan experts with politically loyal personnel, undermining the professional, nonpartisan federal workforce that Congress built through the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. They argue that the order's broad definition of "policy-influencing" could sweep in scientists, lawyers, economists, and other technical staff whose work is not inherently political, and that weakening removal protections exposes these employees to retaliation for providing objective analysis or legal advice that conflicts with an administration's preferences.
Constitutional basis
Executive orders rest on constitutional authority or statutory delegation. This summary describes the legal grounding cited or implied by the order.
The order cites the President's Article II authority over the executive branch, including the Take Care Clause (Art. II, §3), and invokes statutory authority under 5 U.S.C. §§ 3301, 3302, 5595, and 7511, which delegate to the President broad power to prescribe rules governing the civil service and to define the "excepted service." The order's authority to remove employees from competitive service protections rests on the President's recognized power to classify positions within the excepted service under 5 U.S.C. § 3302, though this power is in active tension with Congress's authority to establish civil service protections under its Article I powers.