The Trump administration finalized a major overhaul of the federal civil service on Thursday, giving the president the power to hire and fire roughly 50,000 career employees and shifting how whistleblower complaints are handled.
The Office of Personnel Management said agencies will now manage protections for employees who report wrongdoing, instead of relying on the independent Office of the Special Counsel.
The changes, the largest to U.S. civil service rules in over a century, fulfill Trump’s long-standing plan to strip career protections from workers deemed to be “influencing” government policy. The administration will decide which positions lose their job security, reviving a concept called “Schedule F” from Trump’s first term.
