Schedule Policy/Career explained: what applicants and staff should do

Schedule Policy/Career is the most significant change to federal job protections in decades, and it is surrounded by confusion. Some people think it turns career jobs into political appointments. Others think it affects every federal worker. Neither is right, and acting on either belief can lead you to a bad decision about a job offer or your current post.

This guide is for two groups: people applying for federal jobs, including in health agencies, who want to know whether a posting is covered and what that means; and current federal employees who have been told their position has moved, or fear it might. It sets out what the rule and the June 2026 executive order actually say, as of September 2026, and what you can do about it.

What is Schedule Policy/Career?

Schedule Policy/Career is a category of the excepted service for career positions of a "confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character" that are not normally expected to change when a new President takes office. The Office of Personnel Management calls these policy-influencing positions.

It has a short, contested history. It began as Schedule F, created by Executive Order 13957 on October 21, 2020, and revoked in 2021. On January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14171 reinstated that order and renamed the category Schedule Policy/Career. OPM then wrote the regulations: its final rule, titled "Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service", was published in the Federal Register on February 6, 2026, and took effect on March 9, 2026.

The rule itself did not move a single job. Under the final rule, positions are placed in the schedule by the President, by executive order, after agencies petition OPM and OPM makes recommendations. That happened on June 3, 2026, when the President signed Executive Order 14410, "Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service". The positions it moved are listed in an appendix to the order, which was published in the Federal Register on June 10, 2026.

How many jobs does it cover, and which ones?

Far fewer than first estimated, at least so far. When the proposed rule was announced in April 2025, a White House fact sheet said OPM estimated about 50,000 positions, roughly 2 percent of the federal workforce, would move into the new schedule.

The June 2026 order moved about 8,000 positions, according to reporting by Federal News Network. The same report said approximately 97 percent of them are at or above the GS-15 level, with a smaller number at GS-13 and GS-14, mostly in the Office of Management and Budget. In other words, the first wave was overwhelmingly senior staff whose work shapes policy, not the frontline workforce.

That matters for health job seekers. A registered nurse, pharmacist, medical technologist or clinic administrator is doing work that is not usually described as policy-determining, and nothing in the first order suggests those roles were the target. Senior policy, regulatory and program leadership posts in health agencies are a different matter, and the appendix is organized by agency, so the only reliable answer for a specific job is to check.

Two further points. First, the list can grow. OPM tells agencies to review new and existing positions at least once a year, and to petition for more placements where they judge a position to be policy-influencing. Second, a job that is later filled under the same position description as a covered job is covered automatically, without a new petition.

What changes if your position is moved?

OPM’s questions and answers on the final regulations, last updated June 8, 2026, are the clearest statement of what changes and what does not. The changes are real, and it is worth being precise about them.

• Employment becomes at-will. You are no longer covered by the procedures in chapters 43 and 75 of title 5 and OPM’s rules at parts 432 and 752.
• No performance improvement plan is required before action is taken for poor performance, and OPM tells agencies not to set up procedures giving advance notice of adverse actions.
• You cannot appeal the move itself to the Merit Systems Protection Board, and a classification appeal cannot be used to challenge the placement.
• Protection against prohibited personnel practices, including whistleblower reprisal and political discrimination, is enforced by your agency, typically its Office of General Counsel, rather than by the Office of Special Counsel.
• You are not eligible for new recruitment or relocation incentives or new student loan repayment agreements; existing agreements can continue under limited conditions.
• Schedule Policy/Career employees do not serve a trial period, because they are at-will from the first day.

Just as important is what stays the same. OPM says pay and benefits are generally unchanged, apart from those incentive exceptions. You keep competitive status if you already had it. Reduction-in-force procedures under 5 CFR part 351 still apply, and OPM says the schedule must not be used for workforce reshaping or to avoid those procedures. Your right to make whistleblower disclosures under 5 U.S.C. 1213 is unaffected. Equal employment opportunity laws, USERRA and the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act still apply, and agencies must still provide reasonable accommodations and issue performance appraisals.

On unions, OPM’s position is that moving into the schedule does not automatically remove a job from collective bargaining, although many of these positions may meet the definition of a management official. OPM has told agencies to ask the Federal Labor Relations Authority to decide unit status, and to keep honoring existing agreements until it does. Unions cannot grieve or bargain over the placement itself, in OPM’s view, but agencies may have to bargain over how it is implemented.

If you have been told your position moved: what to do in the next 30 days

Agencies were told to notify affected employees within seven days of the June 3 order and to process a Standard Form 50 effective June 3, 2026. If you received a notice, the move has already happened on paper. The useful question is how to protect yourself within the new rules.

• Get copies of everything: the notice, your new SF-50 and your updated position description. OPM’s guidance says a conversion is recorded as nature of action 570, "Conv to Excepted Appt".
• Check that your position is actually listed. Placement follows the position description named in the appendix to Executive Order 14410. If you believe your duties are not policy-influencing, raise it in writing with HR; only the agency can petition OPM to take a position back out, and removal then needs the President’s approval.
• You do not have to sign an acknowledgment. OPM says refusing does not stop the move and agencies should not take administrative action against you for refusing. Signing records receipt, not agreement, but read it before you decide.
• Find your agency’s internal procedures for prohibited personnel practices and any administrative grievance process. These are now your main routes if something goes wrong.
• Keep your own record of recent performance appraisals, awards and written feedback. With no required improvement plan, documentation you hold yourself is worth more than before.
• If you are in a bargaining unit, talk to your union representative about impact-and-implementation bargaining and the agency’s filing with the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
• Consider speaking to a federal employment lawyer, particularly if you are weighing a move, a retirement decision or a dispute. Several lawsuits are pending, and a lawyer can tell you what they could mean for you.

Remember that you keep competitive status. That means you can still apply for competitive-service jobs open to status candidates, in your own agency or another one. If you would rather not stay in an at-will post, a lateral move into a position that is not covered is a legitimate option, and one you can pursue quietly while you decide.

If you are applying: how can you tell whether a job is covered?

OPM says announcements and onboarding documents should clearly tell applicants when a position is in Schedule Policy/Career, and it has given agencies sample wording to use. Look under "Conditions of Employment" on the USAJOBS announcement. The OPM template says, in part, that as a condition of employment you will be serving in a position in Schedule Policy/Career of the excepted service, that your employment will be at-will, and that MSPB appeals of adverse actions will not be available.

If you are selected, OPM’s template also has the agency give you a notice and ask you to sign a statement accepting an at-will, excepted-service position. That is a second chance to make sure you understand what you are accepting.

• Read the whole announcement, not just the duties. The conditions of employment section is where the schedule should be disclosed.
• If the wording is ambiguous, ask the HR contact listed on the announcement directly whether the position is in Schedule Policy/Career.
• Do not expect a recruitment or relocation incentive for a covered job. Applicants for these posts are not eligible for new ones.
• Price the risk honestly. An at-will senior post may still be the right move for you, but weigh it against a comparable competitive-service job, particularly if you are giving up tenure elsewhere.
• Apply the normal federal rules. Hiring is still merit-based, so a strong résumé that proves specialized experience matters as much as ever.

For most people applying for clinical, technical and support roles in government health care, none of this will appear on the announcement at all. That is the honest picture as of September 2026, but it rests on what one executive order covered, and it could change if more positions are added.

Where do the legal challenges stand?

Schedule Policy/Career is being challenged in court, and the outcome is genuinely uncertain. The Congressional Research Service described the main cases in a legal sidebar dated March 26, 2026, and they have continued since.

• National Treasury Employees Union v. Trump, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, filed the day the January 2025 order was signed. CRS reported that the court let the union amend its complaint once positions were actually placed in the schedule.
• Government Accountability Project and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association v. OPM, also in the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on June 24, 2026, three weeks after the June order.
• Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and several unions, including AFGE and AFSCME, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, challenging the executive orders and OPM’s final rule.

The plaintiffs argue, among other things, that the President lacks statutory authority to strip tenured career employees of their protections, that the rule breaks the Administrative Procedure Act and the Civil Service Reform Act, and that removing employees’ existing rights violates due process. CRS also flags a deeper question for the courts: what the statutory phrase "confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating" actually covers.

As of our check in September 2026, we found no court order blocking the rule or Executive Order 14410, and the cases were still ongoing. Litigation in this area moves quickly, so check for recent rulings before you rely on this. Congress could also act: CRS points to the Saving the Civil Service Act, introduced in the 119th Congress as H.R. 492 and S. 134, as an example of a bill that would limit the executive branch’s power to reclassify positions. It had not become law as of September 2026.

The case for and against, stated fairly

The administration’s argument is about accountability. OPM says supervisors find it very hard to remove poor performers, and gives an example from health: it says the Department of Health and Human Services removed 5, 4 and 7 career tenured employees for poor performance in fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024, out of an employee population of around 90,000. In OPM’s view, positions that shape policy need a faster way to deal with misconduct, poor performance or deliberate obstruction of presidential directives.

Critics, including the unions and advocacy groups bringing the lawsuits, argue that at-will status for career policy staff invites political pressure on experts whose job is to give candid advice, and that agency-run complaint systems are a weaker safeguard than an independent Office of Special Counsel and MSPB. Both sides agree on one thing: the rule changes the balance of power between senior career staff and political leadership. Where you land on whether that is good governance is a political judgment, and this guide does not make it for you.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming every federal job is now at-will. The first order covered about 8,000 positions, mostly very senior ones.
• Treating a covered job as a political appointment. It is a career job, filled on merit, and there is no expectation that you leave when the administration changes.
• Resigning in a panic after a notice. You keep your pay, benefits and competitive status; take time to plan.
• Assuming reduction-in-force rules no longer protect you. OPM says part 351 still applies.
• Missing the disclosure on an announcement because you skipped the conditions of employment section.

Can I be fired for my politics or for refusing a loyalty pledge?

The order and OPM’s rule say no. Agencies are barred from requiring a loyalty pledge and must have rules against appointing or promoting people based on political affiliation. Political discrimination remains a prohibited personnel practice. The difference is that the complaint goes through your agency’s own process rather than the Office of Special Counsel.

Do I lose my competitive status?

No. OPM amended its rules so that an employee with competitive status keeps it when moved into the excepted service. People hired directly into these positions obtain competitive status after two years of continuous service, and a probationer who was moved obtains it after one year.

Can I appeal the decision to move my position?

Not to the MSPB. OPM rescinded the regulations that allowed that appeal. The routes that remain are asking your agency to petition OPM to remove the position, your agency’s internal processes, and the pending lawsuits, whose outcome could change the picture for everyone.

Will more health agency jobs be added?

Possibly. OPM tells agencies to review positions at least annually and petition for more placements where they judge them policy-influencing. Any new placements would have to come through a further presidential designation, so watch for new executive orders and read each announcement.

Last reviewed Sep 13, 2026. First published Sep 25, 2026. Federal hiring rules change — confirm anything you act on against the agency's own announcement or OPM guidance.