Career government employees working on policy will be classified ‘at will’: White House

President Trump on Friday said that career government employees working on policy matters for the administration will be reclassified “Schedule Policy/Career,” – or at will employees – and will be fired if they don’t adhere to his agenda.

“Following my Day One Executive Order, the Office of Personnel Management will be issuing new Civil Service Regulations for career government employees,” the president wrote on Truth Social Friday afternoon. 

He added, “Moving forward, career government employees, working on policy matters, will be classified as ‘Schedule Policy/Career,’ and will be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance.”

This comes as the Trump administration continues to fire federal employees in an effort to shrink the government. 

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The administration’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) estimated the rule change in Trump’s executive order “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” would affect around 50,000 employees or 2% of the federal workforce, the White House said in a Friday memo. 

The regulations for civil service employees “with important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties” will now be considered “at-will” employees, “without access to cumbersome adverse action procedures or appeals, overturning Biden Administration regulations that protected poor performing employees.” 

Trump added in his post: “If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job. This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’ We must root out corruption and implement accountability in our Federal Workforce!” 

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The White House said the “rule empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles.”

The employees aren’t required to personally support the president, but “must faithfully implement the law and the administration’s policies.”

The proposed rule won’t change the status of affected employees’ jobs until another executive order is issued, the White House said.