Trump Strips Civil Service Protections from 8,000 Senior Federal Workers
President Trump signed an executive order on June 3, 2026 reclassifying approximately 8,000 senior federal workers — nearly all at the GS-15 pay grade — into a new "Schedule Policy/Career" category that makes them at-will employees who can be fired without cause. The affected positions include policy directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisers, public affairs officials, and grant managers. The administration framed the move as accountability reform; critics called it a politically motivated purge designed to replace qualified career officials with loyalists. The order is already subject to legal challenges, and Democrats introduced the Saving the Civil Service Act to block the reclassification.
civil service
federal workers
executive order