Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service

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. At the same time, Schedule Policy/Career positions are exempted from the adverse action procedures that make removals for poor performance or misconduct so difficult that barely two-fifths of Federal supervisors believe they could remove subordinates who engage in serious misconduct, and only a quarter believe they could remove serious underperformers. Further, two-thirds of senior Federal executives report that their agencies rarely or never reassign or dismiss underperforming managers.

Senior policy-influencing positions must be transferred into Schedule Policy/Career to increase accountability in such positions. This order effectuates these transfers and amends the Civil Service Rules and Regulations and previous Executive Orders to implement Schedule Policy/Career. In addition to ensuring accountability for poor performance, this order also advances merit in the Federal civil service by directing executive departments and agencies (agencies) to appropriately recognize and reward Schedule Policy/Career employees for outstanding work.

(b) Civil Service Rule III is amended by adding at the end of 5 CFR 3.1(a) a new paragraph 5 that reads: “(5) An employee whose initial appointment was to a Pathways Program position in Schedule D of the excepted service, and who was subsequently converted to a position in Schedule Policy/Career, with or without an intervening term appointment, and without a break in service of one day.”

(c) Civil Service Rule VI is amended as follows:

(i) 5 CFR 6.2 is amended by:

(A) revising the first sentence to read: “OPM shall publish at least annually a list of the positions excepted from the competitive service in the following schedules, which constitute parts of this rule:”; and

(B) revising the second sentence of the paragraph labeled “Schedule Policy/Career” to read: “In appointing an individual to a position in Schedule Policy/Career, each agency shall follow merit-based hiring procedures as may be prescribed by OPM and shall follow the principle of veteran preference as far as administratively feasible.”

(ii) 5 CFR 6.8 is amended by adding a new subsection (e) to read: “(e) An employee in the competitive service serving a probationary period when his position is first listed under Schedule Policy/Career of the excepted service shall acquire competitive status upon satisfactorily completing 1 year of current continuous service in that position.”

(d) Civil Service Rule XI is amended by revising 5 CFR 11.3(a) by removing the period at the end and inserting in its place the following text: “; provided that individuals appointed to positions in Schedule C, Schedule E, Schedule Policy/Career, and Schedule G are not subject to trial periods.”

(e) Subsection (c) of the definition of “Qualifying appointment” at 5 CFR 550.703 is revised to read: “(c) An excepted appointment without time limitation, except under Schedule C or Schedule G, or another noncareer appointment.”

(f) 5 CFR 550.704(b) is amended by striking “or” at the end of subparagraph (4), striking the period at the end of subparagraph (5) and inserting “; or” in its place, and adding a new subparagraph (6) as follows: “(6) Occupies a position in Schedule Policy/Career of the excepted service and his or her agency identifies unacceptable performance or misconduct as the basis for separation in a written notice to the employee.”

(g) Within 60 days of the date of this order the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall take steps to prepare and issue revisions that remove or update, as applicable, obsolete provisions of the Civil Service Rules that do not substantively affect agency operations.

(i) by removing the fourth paragraph of section 1; and

(ii) by amending section 5(a) by removing everything that follows “Following such reviews each agency head” and inserting in its place: “shall petition the Director to recommend that the President place in Schedule Policy/Career any such competitive service, Schedule A, Schedule B, or Schedule D positions within the agency that the agency head determines to be of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character and that are not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition. Any such petition shall include a written explanation documenting the basis for the agency head's determination that such position should be placed in Schedule Policy/Career.”

(b) Executive Order 13562 of December 27, 2010 (Recruiting and Hiring Students and Recent Graduates), as amended by Executive Order 14217 of February 19, 2025 (Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy), is further amended by adding a new sentence at the end of section 5(c): “Such career appointments may include positions in Schedule Policy/Career, subject to review by OPM.”

(b) The Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall promptly initiate a rulemaking pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 4504 and 4506 to create a Presidential award program for Schedule Policy/Career employees.

(b) The positions set forth in the Appendix to this order are hereby placed in Schedule Policy/Career of the excepted service. Subsequent changes to a listed position description's numbering or a position's organizational realignment do not alter its placement in Schedule Policy/Career.

(c) The head of each agency with positions covered by subsection (b) of this section shall within 7 days of the date of this order:

(i) notify officers or employees encumbering such positions of their placement in Schedule Policy/Career; and

(ii) conform agency records and practices to reflect the changes made by this order.

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d) If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstances, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of any of its other provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

(e) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Office of Personnel Management.