In the latest move to weaken the federal workforce, the Trump administration on Thursday issued a rule that would move an estimated 50,000 senior career staff to a new category to make it easier to fire them.
The controversial rule allows agencies to reclassify federal employees involved in the policy into arbitrary positions that do not provide the same job protections as workers in other occupations.
It is expected to impact 2% of the federal workforce.
The Trump administration made it clear in the rules why it created the new category — called “timesheet policy/occupation.”
“Agency directors report that it is very difficult to terminate employees who perform poorly or engage in inappropriate behavior,” the report said. The new category “will allow agencies to quickly remove from critical positions employees who engage in inappropriate behavior, perform poorly, or intentionally subvert presidential directives to impede the democratic process.”
The rule stems from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office last year.
It reinstates a similar executive order signed by Trump shortly before the 2020 election that created a category, Schedule F, for federal employees involved in policy. Former President Joe Biden quickly reversed the previous order and finalized a new rule in 2024 that further strengthened protections for career federal workers.
The new rule, which repealed the 2024 rule, quickly prompted a pledge to sue from a coalition of more than 30 unions, advocacy groups and other organizations that had already filed lawsuits over the 2025 executive order.
Democracy Forward, which represents the groups, said in a statement that the measure “allows the government to bypass existing civil service laws, deny employees the protections they deserve, and opens the door to politically motivated firings and hirings, which have occurred since President Trump took office.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported the release of the rule.
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