President Trump signed an executive order on June 3, 2026 that reclassifies about 8,000 senior federal policy-influencing positions into a category called Schedule Policy/Career.
The change does one thing the swamp has fought for years. It makes the people who shape and execute policy answerable to the elected President.
These are not entry-level clerks. The White House says 97% of the reclassified jobs are GS-15 or Senior Level positions, the highest-ranking career posts outside the Senior Executive Service.
Agencies can now remove these employees for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of presidential directives without the endless procedural hurdles that have long protected bad actors.
Trump makes it easier to fire thousands of federal workers https://t.co/VStLrUszJ2
— TIME (@TIME) June 4, 2026
The mainstream framing is predictable, and it is also accurate as far as it goes. The order does make it easier to fire entrenched bureaucrats who refuse to do their jobs.
What the outlets leave out is the why.
The White House fact sheet described the order as a direct accountability move:
RESTORING ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order that makes senior Federal leaders that influence policy decisions more accountable to the American people.
The Order reclassifies about 8,000 senior policy-influencing positions into Schedule Policy/Career.
While this rule allows for heightened accountability, these remain “career” positions and the non-partisan hiring processes, competitive status, and other aspects of these roles will not change. Removal decisions will also be made without respect to political affiliation.
Roles listed on Schedule Policy/Career are at-will positions. Agencies can remove employees in Schedule Policy/Career for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives without lengthy procedural hurdles that often prevent accountability, consistent with the ability to remove appointees responsible for implementing the President’s agenda.
97% of reclassified positions are GS-15 or Senior Level positions (or the equivalent in agencies with different pay plans). These are the highest-ranking career positions outside of the Senior Executive Service.
The jobs covered include directors, deputy directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisors, and policy analysts.
They also include public affairs and legislative affairs leaders, plus employees with significant involvement in drafting regulations and guidance or deciding where federal grant money goes.
In other words, the people who can quietly slow-walk or sabotage an agenda the voters chose.
President Trump’s executive order explained why these positions are different:
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.
To enhance accountability in these policy-influencing positions, Executive Order 13957 of October 21, 2020 (Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service), as amended by Executive Order 14171 of January 20, 2025 (Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce), created Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted service. Schedule Policy/Career positions are policy-influencing career positions that will be filled based on merit and not political affiliation.
That last line answers the panic before it starts. Hiring stays merit-based and non-partisan.
The only thing that changes is the exit door for employees who fail or refuse to do the work.
Agency heads with covered positions have seven days from the order to notify affected employees and conform their records and practices.
This fits a pattern, not a one-off.
The White House fact sheet also tied the move to President Trump’s broader federal workforce cleanup:
DRAINING THE SWAMP: President Trump is delivering on his promise to dismantle the deep state and reclaim our government from Washington ineptitude and corruption.
President Trump authorized buyout programs to encourage Federal employees to leave voluntarily. Adoption was large, yet unsurprisingly, the Federal government has remained more than capable of delivering on its core functions for the American people.
Under President Trump, the Federal workforce has been reduced to its lowest level since 1966.
Today’s Executive Order builds on Executive Order 13957, which was issued in President Trump’s first term to reclassify senior federal workers in policy-related roles as at-will employees, enabling swift accountability for those in influential positions.
When President Biden took office, he revoked Executive Order 13957, reinstating a system that shielded unaccountable bureaucrats. The Biden Administration also issued regulations that sought to prevent such accountability measures by a future administration.
President Trump vowed on the campaign trail to reinstate Executive Order 13957, a promise he kept on his first day returning to office. The Office of Personnel Management has since rescinded the Biden Administration regulations that prevented Schedule Policy/Career’s immediate implementation.
The federal workforce now sits at its lowest level since 1966, and the agencies still function.
President Biden killed the first version of this order and built regulations to stop a future president from bringing it back. President Trump promised to restore it and did so on day one back in office.
This order finishes the job by putting real teeth into accountability for the most powerful career officials in government.
For decades, the deal in Washington was simple. Voters elected a president, and the permanent bureaucracy decided how much of his agenda actually happened.
President Trump just rewrote that deal. The people who execute federal policy now have to answer for whether they do their jobs, and that is exactly how a government of the governed is supposed to work.
