RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at increasing the accountability of senior Federal leaders who influence policy decisions. This move is intended to make them more answerable to the American public.
- The Order reclassifies approximately 8,000 senior policy-influencing roles into Schedule Policy/Career positions.
- Despite this reclassification for increased accountability, these roles will continue to be “career” positions, maintaining existing non-partisan hiring processes, competitive status, and other role aspects. Decisions regarding removals will be made without considering political affiliations.
- Positions under Schedule Policy/Career are classified as at-will positions, allowing agencies to remove employees for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives without cumbersome procedural hurdles. This aligns with the ability to remove appointees tasked with implementing the President’s agenda.
- 97% of these reclassified roles are GS-15 or Senior Level positions (or equivalent in agencies with varying pay plans), which are the highest-ranking career roles outside the Senior Executive Service.
- These positions include agency roles such as directors, deputy directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisors, policy analysts, employees heavily involved in drafting regulations and guidance, public affairs and legislative affairs leaders, and those significantly involved in determining Federal grant recipients.
FIXING A BROKEN SYSTEM: The existing personnel rules make it exceedingly difficult to remove Federal employees for any reason. Consequently, employees with significant policy-making responsibilities can continue in their roles for years, even if they perform poorly, engage in misconduct, or refuse to advance Presidential policies across different administrations, thereby reducing their agencies’ effectiveness in serving the American people.
- The procedures for removing Federal employees are lengthy and burdensome. Removals and their subsequent appeals can take a year or more to resolve, leading agencies to rarely remove career employees, even for egregious conduct or failure to follow Presidential priorities.
- A survey indicated that a plurality of senior federal employees in Washington, D.C., would ignore a lawful order from President Trump if they deemed it bad policy, despite all executive branch employees reporting to the President.
- During the first Trump Administration, some career employees refused to engage in policy matters like prosecuting racial discrimination in higher education or drafting Title IX reform rules due to personal policy disagreements.
- Elected officials must be able to hold policy-making career employees accountable for their performance and conduct to implement the policies that voters elected them to pursue.
DRAINING THE SWAMP: President Trump is committed to dismantling the deep state and reclaiming government from Washington’s inefficiency and corruption.
- President Trump authorized buyout programs to encourage Federal employees to leave voluntarily. Despite large uptake, the Federal government has continued to fulfill its core functions effectively for the American people.
- Under President Trump, the Federal workforce has been reduced to its lowest level since 1966.
- Last year, President Trump signed an Executive Order mandating that Federal hiring adhere to specific policies and procedures established by agency leadership to enhance the efficient delivery of government services.
- President Trump’s Office of Personnel Management has proposed rules to improve Federal employee performance appraisals, expedite removals for serious misconduct, and streamline the cumbersome reduction-in-force process.
- President Trump established a new Civil Service Rule XI, requiring agencies to affirmatively determine whether probationary employees’ performance warrants retention, rather than defaulting to them becoming tenured permanent employees.
- Today’s Executive Order builds on Executive Order 13957, initially issued in President Trump’s first term, which reclassified senior federal workers in policy-related roles as at-will employees to ensure quick accountability for those in influential positions.
- Upon entering office, President Biden revoked Executive Order 13957, reinstating a system that protected unaccountable bureaucrats. The Biden Administration also issued regulations aimed at preventing similar accountability measures by future administrations.
- President Trump promised on the campaign trail to reinstate Executive Order 13957, a commitment he fulfilled on his first day back in office. The Office of Personnel Management has since rescinded the Biden Administration’s regulations that delayed the immediate implementation of Schedule Policy/Career.
