Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday completed an overhaul of the US government’s civil service system, giving the president the power to hire and fire an estimated 50,000 federal workers, according to a government statement.
The reformation, Released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).Trump is making good on a campaign promise to strip federal workers of what his group says will “influence” government policy.
The move marks the biggest change to civil service management rules in more than a century. Trump proposed a so-called “Schedule F” plan at the end of his first term in office, but his 2020 election defeat prevented him from following through on the initiative.
Trump would have the authority to choose which government jobs would lose job protections, according to the OPM statement.
The new policy wIll be examined by a federal judge. Federal labor unions and their allies filed a lawsuit in January to stop the policy before it was fully drafted. A federal judge stayed the litigation while the Trump administration finalized the changes.
Court arguments will continue in the coming days, said Democratic forward Sky Perryman, one of the groups behind the suit.
“We will return to court to stop this illegal law and use every legal tool available to hold this administration accountable,” she said in a statement.
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OPM Director Scott Cooper said Thursday that the transition will “ensure taxpayer dollars support an efficient, responsive and high-quality workforce.”
Budget data suggest little, if any, cost savings. Since Trump returned to the White House, the government has spent nearly $244 billion on federal payrolls, three percent more than under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, according to recent Treasury Department data from Reuters.
Kapur said the final law “clearly prohibits political support, loyalty tests or political discrimination.”
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But Democrats in Congress and some employees suing the government disputed those claims. For example, the Justice Department has previously moved to fire lawyers and FBI agents who worked on investigations into Trump, even though those duties were classified.
The departures resulted in backlogs and staff shortages. The Associated Press reported last month After more than half a dozen employees were fired from the Department of Justice.
Senior management requested job applications, some employees said. Last week Chad Mizell, General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security and former Justice Department Chief of Staff under Trumpthe clarion call recruitment message on social media platform X raised eyebrows.
“If you are a lawyer, interested in becoming an (Assistant United States Attorney) and support President Trump and his anti-crime agenda, DM me,” Mizell posted.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said on the same forum, “If you want to be a federal prosecutor, send me a DM. That’s not how government hiring works.”
The lowest level in ten years
OPM projected 317,000 federal job losses by fiscal year 2025, bringing the U.S. federal workforce to its lowest level in at least a decade, according to government data published last month, amid Trump’s campaign to weaken the government.
A center for progressive thinking thanks to budget and policy priorities Released last month According to Labor Department data, by the end of 2025, the federal civilian workforce had fallen to the smallest share of the total U.S. workforce on record, going back to the 1930s.
Trump said at the White House last month that his administration had “cut millions of people from the federal payroll.”
I don’t feel bad because now they are getting private sector jobs and some are earning double, triple money.– US President Donald Trump
“I don’t feel bad because now they are getting private sector jobs and sometimes they are making double or triple the money.”
Trump added that data from his own administration showed that those who were laid off were “getting factory jobs.” He pointed to the decline of manufacturing operations.
The US government employs 2.1 million workers, according to OPM statistics. The federal government has been seen as a stable employer, with employees typically spending decades working in US agencies.
Trump and his team tried to change that early in his second term, arguing that the federal government was sprawling and ineffective.
In the year Ahead of his re-election in 2024, the Heritage Foundation led several conservative groups in contributing ideas to a hoped-for second Trump administration. With the project 2025 plan He promised to “destroy the administrative state”.
Data From the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) At least on a per capita basis, it contradicts the demand for weakened public services. The US recently had a public sector employment share of just over 14 percent, four percentage points below the OECD average.
Also, comparative data indicates that the U.S More political appointees than almost all Western nations in numbers and percentages.
Trump has tapped billionaire CEO Elon Musk to fight to slow down the effort, even though several of his businesses have put him in a conflict of interest. Young employees in Musk’s government efficiency unit have been accused of improperly accessing Americans’ personal information.
According to OPM statistics, all major federal agencies were hit with cuts last year. Many have lost more than a quarter of their staff, including education, agriculture and housing and urban development departments. The Department of Homeland Security is an exception, as its head count has fluctuated since Trump took office.
As a result, federal labor unions and their allies sued. Many of the cases are still pending in court.
Musk, who clashed with Trump months after taking the job, told a podcast in December that DOGE’s efforts had been “somewhat successful.”
DOGE does not exist as a centralized entity, Kupor told Reuters in November.
OPM’s statement Thursday also said the Trump administration is changing the extent to which legal protections that prevent U.S. government agencies from retaliating against whistleblowers will apply.
Federal agencies are responsible for establishing job protections for their own employees who are accused of crimes such as breaking the law or embezzling money. This is a change from the past, when an independent office known as the Office of the Special Counsel handled false declarations from most civilian federal employees.