Overview
- The final rule creates a new Schedule Policy/Career category that shifts policy‑influencing roles out of traditional protections and ends appeals to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
- Agencies have proposed roughly 50,000 positions for potential conversion, with White House review underway and the president to designate specific roles by executive order after publication.
- The 255-page regulation says agencies can swiftly remove employees who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or "intentionally subvert" presidential directives.
- Whistleblower handling moves from the independent Office of Special Counsel to agency-run processes overseen by officials such as general counsels, a change critics say weakens safeguards.
- OPM says merit-based hiring, veterans’ preference and bans on political patronage remain in place, while groups including AFGE and Democracy Forward warn of politicization and plan immediate lawsuits.