Government Worker Protections — Week of Jan 27, 2025

During the last week of January 2025, President Trump signed two executive actions that would significantly change how career government workers can be hired and fired. The first, Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce, brings back the Schedule F policy from Trump's first term under a new name. It allows the reclassification of potentially thousands of career federal employees into a category where they can be dismissed more easily—including specifically for failing to "faithfully implement administration policies." The second, Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives, declares that senior career officials serve "at the pleasure of the President" and directs agencies to put political appointees in charge of evaluating their performance.

This might matter because the civil service system exists to ensure that government workers are hired and fired based on competence, not political loyalty. If career employees can be dismissed for disagreeing with a policy rather than for poor performance, the protections that have kept the federal workforce nonpartisan since 1883 could be significantly weakened.

Members of Congress documented real-world effects during floor speeches that same week. Senator Alsobrooks described employees with decades of service being placed on leave or let go. Senator Kaine reported that all federal employees received an offer to resign with pay through September—bypassing normal procedures for workforce reductions. Simultaneously, a broad freeze on federal spending caused disruption to Head Start programs, VA clinics, domestic violence shelters, and law enforcement grants across multiple states.

There are alternative explanations to consider. Most importantly, the administration argues—with some justification—that the current system makes it genuinely difficult to remove underperforming employees; the order itself cites survey data showing most supervisors lack confidence they can do so. The broader goal, the administration contends, is to make government more effective and responsive to elected leadership. Additionally, the Supreme Court has affirmed broad presidential authority over executive branch personnel, and these orders have not yet been fully implemented; the actual number of affected positions could be modest. It is also worth noting that the congressional criticism this week came entirely from Democratic senators.

Still, the specific language making "failure to implement administration policies" a fireable offense goes beyond typical performance accountability, and placing political appointees in charge of career employee evaluations could represent a notable change in how the civil service operates.

Limitations: This analysis is AI-generated and relies on publicly available documents. Implementation details remain uncertain, and the full scope of these changes is not yet known.