Schedule F or How to Gut the Administrative State

On October 21, 2020, President Donald Trump signed the most dangerous and reckless executive order of his presidency. Executive Order 13957 established “Schedule F,” reclassifying all policy or rulemaking federal employees as “at will” employees within the exempted service. By law, non-political rulemaking employees apply for positions through a rigorous process and can only be dismissed with cause. This new classification would allow the President to remove any policy-focused individuals from federal service that they deem disloyal to their agenda. Loyalty to the sitting President replaces merit as a qualification for employment. President Joe Biden repealed Schedule F upon entering office, but a future president could reinstate the order on their first day in office. Both Axios and the Washington Post have already outlined former President Trump’s plan to reimplement this order. If re-elected, a second Trump Administration would replace approximately 50,000 career civil servants with candidates chosen not for their acumen or experience but for their loyalty to Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda. This vetting process would include asking government officials “What part of Candidate Trump’s campaign message most appealed to you and why?” Former Trump White House aides have already started vetting candidates. Over 2 million employees make up the federal workforce in non-political positions. While many public servants provide basic services like mail delivery, food inspection, and air traffic control, the Schedule F policy most gravely threatens the national security apparatus’ human infrastructure. Former President Trump has purportedly said he would prioritize “cleaning house” in the national security apparatus if re-elected, targeting “woke generals” at the Pentagon, senior trial attorneys at all levels within the Department of Justice, senior members of the intelligence community, and the most experienced diplomats at the State Department.

Well, that sounds scary.

Purging the most vital and knowledgeable federal civil servants sits somewhere between ending free media and questioning election legitimacy in the authoritarian playbook. The MAGA movement did their best to attack the media as the “enemy of the people,” continuing to back the lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. At present, Schedule F represents the most aggressive authoritarian action to reshape the government thus far. As the Axios story outlines, the worst authoritarian flunkies and sycophants have spent their time since leaving the White House vetting loyalists to immediately take over the civil service should Trump win in 2024. Some would argue that incompetence limited the Trump Administration, but a dedicated law-abiding civil service provided a critical backstop against some of the most damaging excesses of Trump’s presidency.

Saying Donald Trump demonstrates authoritarian tendencies is not a groundbreaking statement. Neither is pointing out that a second Trump term could yield even greater damage to democratic institutions. Instead, we need to explore why this executive order and potential hollowing of the federal civil service has failed to break through the normal political horserace coverage. Summary dismissal of critical civil service employees represents a potential five-alarm fire, yet the aforementioned two news stories by Axios and the Post have long since faded from the American consciousness. This may serve as confirmation that the decades-long conservative project of “reducing the size of government until it can be fit into a bathtub and drowned” has succeeded, at least in the minds of many Americans. The average American does not realize the critical role rulemaking federal employees play.

When asked for the greatest lesson he learned through his lobbying efforts for the PACT Act, former Daily Show host and comedian Jon Stewart responded that “this country is held together by a thin line of hundreds of legislative aides who are brilliant, incredibly tenacious, and hardworking and they are part of a system that seeks to chew them up and spit them out.” While members of Congress may vote on laws, it is their legislative aides who research and write the legislation. A single aide for a Congressperson may cover as wide a range of issues as the judiciary, oversight, financial services, economics, taxes, trade, housing, labor, education, technology, foreign affairs, and immigration (this is not hypothetical; this comes from a current staffer’s LinkedIn). Any one of these topics would require an advanced degree or years of work experience to qualify as an expert; aides are expected to cover this full portfolio and to understand the rules of the House of Representatives. As a result, many of our laws include provisions that pass off specifics to executive branch agencies that have the expertise to make logical and coherent rules. Civil servants with years of government experience and knowledge of their specific policy domains transform vague notions and principles from bill text into actionable and enforceable rules. The “thin line” of legislative aides create legislation; it is the career civil servants and agency experts that make the laws applicable and then do the hard work of implementation – often under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

These civil servants are the foot soldiers of the regulatory state. They create rules that protect us from poisonous food and unsafe cars. We need experts writing rules about pipeline safety, baby formula contamination, and water treatment safety. The basic infrastructure we rely on grows only more complex and we need expert practitioners to oversee healthcare, financial services, education, and technology just to name a few. Donald Trump has already made it clear that he values personal loyalty over expertise, and Schedule F has now given him the mechanism to enforce that allegiance.

This reconceptualization of the federal workforce to grossly extend the ability of political appointees to gut federal agencies of expertise and bring critical functions to a grinding halt is deeply alarming. Thankfully, the House of Representatives recently passed the PPSA Act which would prevent any future president from reclassifying federal employees. The bill currently awaits consideration in the Senate though it may be included in other must-pass legislation. Congress should do whatever is necessary to get the bill passed this session or else they will leave the door open for a president from either party to take another step toward authoritarianism.