Policy/Career Schedule Employment and Federal Service: Dismantling Neutral Competence

The article examines President Trump’s authority to reinstate Executive Order (EO) 13957, which established a new Policy/Career Schedule for federal executive branch employees with policy-influencing positions. The order seeks to move many of the executive branch’s competitive service employees to a new non-competitive schedule where they will serve as at-will employees with no procedural due process removal rights. In October 2020, EO 13957 created Schedule F. On January 22, 2021, President Biden signed EO 14003, “Protecting the Federal Workforce,” which revoked EO 13957. The article argues that establishing a Policy/Career Schedule has little to do with giving federal agencies and departments more discretion to remove federal executive branch employees for inferior performance. It has everything to do with turning large numbers of competitive schedule federal civil servants into presidential public policy foot soldiers or robots. Establishing a Policy/Career Schedule gives the president unrestricted authority to remove Policy/Career federal civil servants for a perceived lack of policy loyalty. The article argues that the lack of clear civil service jurisprudence creates considerable uncertainty about whether federal courts and, ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court will hold, regarding the legality of Trump establishing Schedule Policy/Career.