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Subject
The Federal Workforce
What this site holds on the federal workforce, taken from every part of it: the chapters of Project 2025 assigned to this subject, the actions recorded against those proposals, every order, presidential document, agency rule and public law whose own title carries one of this subject's words, and the measures the chamber voted on that the site already groups under it.
This page is about the federal workforce.
It gathers what the site holds on it. Parts of the book. Orders and rules. Laws. Votes in Congress.
What Project 2025 proposes
Every proposal indexed from chapter 1 (White House Office) and chapter 3 (Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy). A proposal in another chapter that touches this subject is not here.
- White House Counsel should advocate for the agenda, not restrain itChapter 1 · p. 27 · the document says “should”
- Choose a Counsel loyal to the President over one with elite credentialsChapter 1 · p. 28 · the document says “should”
- Reexamine the limits on White House contact with the Justice DepartmentChapter 1 · p. 28 · the document says “should”
- Prepare to reverse the previous Administration's litigation positionsChapter 1 · p. 28 · the document says “must”
- Reexamine press access to space on the White House groundsChapter 1 · p. 29 · the document says “should”
- Consider replacing the White House Correspondents AssociationChapter 1 · p. 30 · the document says “should consider”
- Presidential Personnel should plan for tools such as Schedule FChapter 1 · p. 32 · the document says “is responsible for”
- Hold regular meetings of Deputy SecretariesChapter 1 · p. 33 · the document says “should”
- Policy councils should move first on named cross-cutting prioritiesChapter 1 · p. 38 · the document says “will need to”
- Limit detailees on the National Security Council staffChapter 1 · p. 38 · the document says “should try to”
- Assign each overlapping policy area to a single councilChapter 1 · p. 38 · the document says “will help to”
- The Domestic Policy Council Director should chair a standing meeting of EOP principalsChapter 1 · p. 40 · the document says “should”
- Create an economic opportunity working group under the Domestic Policy CouncilChapter 1 · p. 40 · the document says “should”
- End or narrow the disparate impact doctrineChapter 3 · p. 72 · the document says “could”
- Reintroduce the 2018 order on removal and performance proceduresChapter 3 · p. 73 · the document says “will need to”
- Restore general ability testing for federal hiringChapter 3 · p. 73 · the document says “must”
- Build policy goals into career employees' performance appraisalsChapter 3 · p. 74 · the document says “is essential”
- Consolidate federal employee appeals in the MSPBChapter 3 · p. 76 · the document says “should”
- Set federal pay by occupation and region against market ratesChapter 3 · p. 77 · the document says “should (ideally)”
- Regular GSA–OPM coordination on contractors and transition rulesChapter 3 · p. 78 · the document says “would make sense”
- Freeze top career hiring to prevent burrowing-inChapter 3 · p. 79 · the document says “is needed”
- Make performance the first factor in reductions-in-forceChapter 3 · p. 79 · the document says “should”
- Reinstate Schedule FChapter 3 · p. 81 · the document says “should”
- Reconsider whether public-sector unions should existChapter 3 · p. 82 · the document says “should consider”
- Reinstate the three 2018 federal labor relations ordersChapter 3 · p. 82 · the document says “should”
- Give the OPM Director a place in the CabinetChapter 3 · p. 83 · the document says “would make sense”
What has happened against those proposals
Actions this site has already recorded against the proposals above, with the note that says how far each one goes. Nothing new is matched here: every pairing is the one on the proposal's own page.
Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government
January 20, 2025 · 90 FR 8235
This order is about federal law offices. It says they were used to go after foes. It calls for a review of what they did.
- Prepare to reverse the previous Administration's litigation positions: partly matches. Executive Order 14147 directs the Attorney General to review the civil and criminal enforcement activities of every department and agency over the previous four years, and to report to the President through the Counsel to the President with recommendations for remedial action, which routes a review of the prior Administration's legal actions through the office the passage assigns the task to. The fit breaks down because the review is conducted by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence rather than by the Counsel, because it is limited to conduct the order describes as weaponization rather than covering significant litigation generally, and because it addresses enforcement actions brought by the government rather than the positions the government takes in defending suits.
Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service
January 20, 2025 · 90 FR 8621
This order told the government to write a new plan for hiring. The plan is meant to pick people on skill.
- Restore general ability testing for federal hiring: partly matches. Addresses merit hiring and candidate assessment, which is the subject of the chapter's proposal. The chapter's specific ask was that OPM restore testing on knowledge, skills and abilities against the 1981 consent decree and the Uniform Guidelines; whether the hiring plan does that is not established by the order alone.
Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce
January 20, 2025 · 90 FR 8625
This order brought back the Schedule F rule from 2020. It also canceled the Biden order that had undone it. Workers whose jobs shape policy can now be moved into a group with much less job protection.
- Reinstate Schedule F: closely matches. The chapter asked for Executive Order 13957 to be reinstated, and the Federal Register records this order as reinstating it. The chapter attached a qualification, 'but SES responsibility should come first', and this order does not sequence Senior Executive Service reform ahead of the reinstatement.
Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives
January 20, 2025 · 90 FR 8481
This covers top career staff. OPM must write the plans used to grade them. Political appointees now run the boards that review their work.
- Build policy goals into career employees' performance appraisals: partly matches. The chapter asks that political executives build policy goals into employee appraisals and supervise those appraisals themselves rather than delegating them. The memorandum puts political appointees in control of the bodies that run senior executive appraisal: clause (d) reconstitutes each agency's Executive Resources Board with senior noncareer officials as a majority, and clause (e) reconstitutes the Performance Review Boards. Two differences. The performance plans themselves are issued centrally by OPM and OMB for agencies to adopt, rather than written by political executives at each agency as the chapter describes. And the memorandum reaches only the Senior Executive Service, while the chapter speaks of employee appraisals without that limit.
Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Workforce Optimization Initiative
February 11, 2025 · 90 FR 9669
This order told agencies to cut jobs and slow down hiring. Some jobs were left out, such as police and border work.
- Make performance the first factor in reductions-in-force: partly matches. Directs reductions in force, which is the subject of the chapter's proposal. The chapter's specific ask was to change the order of retention so that performance outranks tenure, veterans' preference and seniority, a change it noted had repeatedly failed as legislation. This order directs reductions; it is not established here that it reorders retention factors.
- Freeze top career hiring to prevent burrowing-in: partly matches. Limits hiring across agencies. The chapter proposed something narrower and differently aimed: a freeze on top career positions specifically, to stop outgoing political appointees converting into career jobs. The chapter separately warned that broad hiring freezes and buyouts have not produced lasting reductions and can raise costs.
Exclusions From Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs
March 27, 2025 · 90 FR 14553
Most federal workers can join a union. The union can then bargain for them. But a law lets the president take that right away. He can do it where the work involves security. This order did that at a long list of agencies. The list includes State, Defense, and the Treasury.
- Reinstate the three 2018 federal labor relations orders: same subject, different route. Same subject, different instrument, and much wider. The chapter asked for three 2018 orders to be reinstated. Those orders regulated how agencies bargain, how official time is used, and how grievances are handled, while leaving bargaining rights in place. This order instead invokes the national security exclusion in 5 U.S.C. 7103(b) to remove listed agencies from the labor-management relations program altogether. Chapter 3 does not propose that mechanism. It does say Congress should consider whether public-sector unions are appropriate at all, which is a separate proposal indexed here.
- Reconsider whether public-sector unions should exist: contested reading. Whether this order answers the chapter's question is a reading, not a fact. The chapter put the question to Congress and proposed no executive action on it; this is executive action, and it removes coverage from named agencies rather than deciding the general question. Recorded here because readers reasonably connect the two, and left unresolved.
Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy
April 23, 2025 · 90 FR 17537
One rule said a test can count as unfair if fewer people from one group pass it. It did not matter what anyone meant to do. This order set out to stop the government using that rule.
- End or narrow the disparate impact doctrine: closely matches. The chapter raised ending or narrowing disparate impact as a possibility rather than a recommendation: 'could be ended legislatively or at least narrowed through the regulatory process'. This order acts by the executive route on the narrower of the two. The chapter's framing was conditional, so a reader should not treat this as an implemented plank.
Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service
April 24, 2025 · 90 FR 17729
New government workers get a trial period. This order says a boss must sign off before that worker becomes permanent. Without that sign-off the job ends.
- Reintroduce the 2018 order on removal and performance procedures: partly matches. Shares the chapter's subject of removing poor performers, and the chapter's list of Executive Order 13839's requirements includes reminding supervisors of expiring probationary periods. This order goes further than that item by making tenure conditional on affirmative agency certification, which the chapter did not propose.
Creating Schedule G in the Excepted Service
July 17, 2025 · 90 FR 34753
This order creates a new class of federal job. Those posts are filled without the usual hiring rules.
- Presidential Personnel should plan for tools such as Schedule F: partly matches. Executive Order 14317 creates Schedule G of the excepted service for noncareer positions of a policy-making or policy-advocating character, which is the kind of political workforce tool the passage has the Office of Presidential Personnel planning for, and the order's definition section ties the covered positions to those whose appointment requires the assent of that office. The fit breaks down in three places: the passage asks for a planning practice inside Presidential Personnel rather than a new schedule, Schedule G is a different schedule from the Schedule F the passage gives as its example, and the order's instructions on making Schedule G appointments run only to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Further Exclusions From the Federal Labor- Management Relations Program
August 28, 2025 · 90 FR 42683
A later order added more agencies to that same list.
- Reinstate the three 2018 federal labor relations orders: same subject, different route. Extends the approach taken in Executive Order 14251. The same distinction applies: the chapter asked for the three 2018 orders to be reinstated, not for agencies to be excluded from the program.
Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring
October 15, 2025 · 90 FR 48387
This order kept the hiring limits going.
- Freeze top career hiring to prevent burrowing-in: partly matches. Continues government-wide hiring controls rather than the targeted freeze on top career positions that the chapter proposed.
Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service
June 3, 2026 · 91 FR 34893
This later order carried the same plan further. It moved senior workers whose jobs shape policy into the new group. The order says they are still hired on merit. It also says the usual rules that make firing hard do not apply to them.
- Reinstate Schedule F: closely matches. Carries the reinstated schedule into effect and transfers positions into it. This goes beyond what the chapter asked for, which was reinstatement of the 2020 order; the chapter did not propose the transfer mechanism this order uses.
Executive orders
Orders whose title carries one of this subject's words. The word is printed beside each one.
- Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted ServiceEO 14410 · June 3, 2026 · “Excepted Service”
- Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal HiringEO 14356 · October 15, 2025 · “Hiring”
- Creating Schedule G in the Excepted ServiceEO 14317 · July 17, 2025 · “Excepted Service”
- Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal ServiceEO 14284 · April 24, 2025 · “Probationary”
- Restoring Equality of Opportunity and MeritocracyEO 14281 · April 23, 2025 · “Merit”
- Exclusions From Federal Labor-Management Relations ProgramsEO 14251 · March 27, 2025 · “Labor-Management”
- Continuing the Reduction of the Federal BureaucracyEO 14238 · March 14, 2025 · “Bureaucracy”
- Commencing the Reduction of the Federal BureaucracyEO 14217 · February 19, 2025 · “Bureaucracy”
- Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based OpportunityEO 14173 · January 21, 2025 · “Merit”
- Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government ServiceEO 14170 · January 20, 2025 · “Hiring”
- Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal WorkforceEO 14171 · January 20, 2025 · “Federal Workforce”
Proclamations, memoranda and the rest
Everything else the President signed whose title carries one of these words.
- Strengthening the Suitability and Fitness of the Federal WorkforceMemorandum · March 20, 2025 · “Federal Workforce”
- Limiting Lame-Duck Collective Bargaining Agreements That Improperly Attempt To Constrain the New PresidentMemorandum · January 31, 2025 · “Collective Bargaining”
- Hiring FreezeMemorandum · January 20, 2025 · “Hiring”
- Memorandum To Resolve the Backlog of Security Clearances for Executive Office of the President PersonnelMemorandum · January 20, 2025 · “Personnel”
Agency rules
Final rules that name an executive order indexed here and whose title carries one of these words.
- Updates and Amendments to the Civil Service RulesPersonnel Management Office · August 14, 2026 · “Civil Service”
- Streamlining Probationary and Trial Period AppealsPersonnel Management Office · August 3, 2026 · “Probationary”
- Exempting Certain Career Federal Employees From Ethics Reporting RequirementsGovernment Ethics Office · July 23, 2026 · “Federal Employee”
- Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil ServicePersonnel Management Office · February 6, 2026 · “Civil Service”
- Reinvigorating Merit-Based Hiring Through Candidate Ranking in the Competitive and Excepted Service (Rule of Many)Personnel Management Office · September 8, 2025 · “Merit”
- Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal ServicePersonnel Management Office · June 24, 2025 · “Probationary”
Public laws
Public laws of this Congress whose short title carries one of these words.
No law's short title carries one of these words.
Roll call votes
Measures the House or Senate took a final vote on, kept in the grouping the site already publishes at how votes are grouped, which covers final-passage questions only.
That grouping does not carry this subject, so no vote is listed here.
About This Page
These subjects are this site's own grouping, not an official one. Nothing here says whether an action carries a proposal out: where a match between a proposal and an action has been recorded, the match and its note are the ones already on the proposal's own page, and where none has, none is made here.
A document about this subject may not be listed. The way to find it is the document index or the search.