On April 23, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management issued a proposed rule in the Federal Register, 90 Fed.Reg. 17182-17224 (available at Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 77 (Wednesday, April 23, 2025) and at 2025-06904.pdf). The proposed rule seeks to implement Schedule F (now restyled as “Schedule Policy/Career”), which would strip MSPB appeal rights (by OPM’s own estimate) from no less than 50,000 federal employees, who would then be converted to at-will employees.
The deadline for comments is May 23, 2025. Comments may be submitted online at https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/OPM-2025-0004-0001.
The proposed rulemaking is designed to implement a recent executive order setting up Schedule Policy/Career, which was previously analyzed in this blog. The proposed parameters for this second attempt at Schedule F generally tracked the executive order’s provisions. OPM in its proposed rule further attempted to restate or recast much of the same history that it cited in its Biden Administration-era rulemaking which promulgated regulations designed to protect federal employees from future attempts to recreate Schedule F, rules which the present rulemaking now seeks to abolish.
If you are a federal employee and wish to discuss how Schedule Policy/Career (a/k/a Schedule F) may impact your job and your rights, consider contacting Gilbert Employment Law to request an initial consultation.