in effect
This is a presidential executive order (EO 14317, signed July 17, 2025) that creates a new personnel category — “Schedule G” — within the federal government’s excepted service, the portion of the civil service that operates outside standard competitive hiring rules. It directs the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to list positions of a “policy-making or policy-advocating character” that are expected to turn over with each presidential administration under this new schedule.
Before this order, federal jobs in the excepted service were slotted into schedules covering confidential/policy-determining roles (Schedule C), career policy roles (Schedule Policy/Career), and several other categories — but there was no schedule specifically for noncareer positions that are policy-making or policy-advocating in nature, which the order identifies as a gap. Schedule G fills that gap: noncareer positions of a policy-making or policy-advocating character that are “normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition” must now be appointed under Schedule G. Standard civil service removal rules and regulations do not apply to Schedule G positions, meaning occupants of these roles do not have the same procedural protections against removal that competitive-service employees have. The Department of Veterans Affairs receives a specific instruction: when filling Schedule G slots, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs must consider whether candidates would support the President’s policies, but may not consider their political party affiliation or political activity.
Federal employees placed into Schedule G positions — primarily noncareer appointees in policy-making or policy-advocating roles — lose the civil service removal protections that would otherwise apply, making them easier to dismiss. Agencies across the executive branch, and the Department of Veterans Affairs in particular, must apply the new Schedule G framework when making these appointments going forward. Job seekers and current federal workers in roles that OPM subsequently designates as Schedule G will be subject to these revised hiring and removal rules.