Executive Order 14410

Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service

Signed June 3, 2026, printed at 91 FR 34893. 5 sections of substance, 2,933 words.

In plain English

This order is about federal jobs. It sets up a job class called Policy or Career. Staff in policy roles would move into it.

Read it at the Federal Register →

Sec. 1. Purpose

The President relies on subordinates in the executive branch to help him faithfully execute the laws and advance the priorities for which he was elected by the American people. Officials in confidential, policy-determining, policy- making, and policy-advocating roles (policy-influencing positions) play particularly important roles in helping him fulfill this constitutional duty. Therefore, ensuring that such employees can be removed for misconduct or poor performance is essential to protecting democratic self-government by an elected President. To enhance accountability in these policy-influencing positions, Executive Order 13957 of October 21, 2020 (Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service), as amended by Executive Order 14171 of January 20, 2025 (Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce), created Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted

In plain English

This states the aim. It says the President relies on staff to carry out the laws. It says some jobs shape policy. Those roles matter most for that duty. It says such staff must be removable for bad conduct. Poor work counts too. It recalls a 2020 order creating a job schedule. A January 2025 order renamed it.

Sec. 2. Amendments to the Civil Service Rules and Regulations

(a) Civil Service Rule I is amended by removing the text of 5 CFR 1.3(d) that follows the words ``Provided, that an employee who is in the competitive service'' and adding in its place ``with competitive status at the time his position is first listed under Schedule A, B, C, Policy/Career or G shall be in the excepted service but shall retain his competitive status.'' (b) Civil Service Rule III is amended by adding at the end of 5 CFR 3.1(a) a new paragraph 5 that reads: ``(5) An employee whose initial appointment was to a Pathways Program position in Schedule D of the excepted service, and who was subsequently converted to a position in Schedule Policy/Career, with or without an intervening term appointment, and without a break in service of one day.'' (c) Civil Service Rule VI is amended as follows: (i) 5 CFR 6.2 is amended by: [[Page 34894]] (A) revising the first sentence to read:

In plain English

This changes civil service rules. One rule is rewritten. A worker moved into a listed schedule keeps competitive status. Several schedules are named. A second rule adds a new class. It covers staff hired through an entry program. They later moved into the policy schedule. There must be no break in service. A third rule is amended too.

Sec. 3. Amendments to Executive Orders

(a) Executive Order 13957, as amended by Executive Order 14171, is further amended as follows: (i) by removing the fourth paragraph of section 1; and (ii) by amending section 5(a) by removing everything that follows ``Following such reviews each agency head'' and inserting in its place: ``shall petition the Director to recommend that the President place in Schedule Policy/Career any such competitive service, Schedule A, Schedule B, or Schedule D positions within the agency that the agency head determines to be of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character and that are not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition. Any such petition shall include a written explanation documenting the basis for the agency head's determination that such position should be placed in Schedule Policy/ Career.'' (b) Executive Order 13562 of

In plain English

This changes two earlier orders. One paragraph is struck from a 2020 order. Another part is rewritten. Agency heads must ask the personnel office to move jobs. Those jobs shape or advocate policy. They must not normally change with a President. Each request needs a written explanation. A 2010 order is changed as well.

Sec. 4. Performance Awards

(a) Consistent with 5 CFR Part 451 and applicable law, the head of each agency with employees in Schedule Policy/Career is directed to set aside a separate bonus pool, and use existing award authorities, to ensure that Schedule Policy/Career employees are appropriately recognized and rewarded for outstanding work. (b) The Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall promptly initiate a rulemaking pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 4504 and 4506 to create a Presidential award program for Schedule Policy/Career employees. [[Page 34895]]

In plain English

This covers bonuses. Each agency with staff in that schedule must set aside a bonus pool. Existing award powers may be used. The aim is to reward strong work. The personnel office must also start a rulemaking. Two pay laws give the power. The result would be a presidential award program for those staff.

Sec. 5.

Schedule Policy/Career Determination and Transfer. (a) The positions set forth in the Appendix to this order are determined to have a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character. It is further determined that it is necessary and warranted by conditions of good administration to except these positions from the competitive service because of their confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character. (b) The positions set forth in the Appendix to this order are hereby placed in Schedule Policy/Career of the excepted service. Subsequent changes to a listed position description's numbering or a position's organizational realignment do not alter its placement in Schedule Policy/Career. (c) The head of each agency with positions covered by subsection (b) of this section shall within 7 days of the date of this order: (i) notify

In plain English

This moves a set of jobs. An appendix lists them. Each is found to shape or advocate policy. Each is therefore taken out of the open hiring system. Good administration is the stated reason. The listed jobs go into the policy schedule. A renumbering does not change that. Each agency head must give notice within 7 days.

Sec. 6. General Provisions

Every order carries this. It is not what the order does.

(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. (d) If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstances, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of any of its other

In plain English

This is the closing clause that nearly every order carries. It says the order does not change what the law already allows. It also says no one can sue to enforce it.

How this order is quoted

Each section is quoted as the order prints it, under its own number and heading. Executive orders are United States government works and are not under copyright. Long sections are cut at a sentence and the whole order is a click away.