President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order intended to ease the removal of roughly 8,000 federal employees who the administration says occupy high-level roles and influence government policy. The White House and the Office of Personnel Management issued the order, which eliminates certain job protections for a mostly senior cohort of civil servants paid up to nearly $200,000 a year.
Officials at the Office of Personnel Management - the agency that oversees the government’s human resources policies - previewed the action on a call with reporters. Scott Kupor, identified on that call as director of the Office of Personnel Management, said the administration needs staff who will be willing and able to implement lawful orders and advance the administration’s stated policy priorities.
"You can have any political views, but if you allow those views to basically interfere with your willingness to actually carry out lawful orders and policy directives with the administration, then this provides a mechanism obviously for people in those agencies to be able to be removed effectively at will," Kupor said.
The order is presented by the administration as part of a broader effort to overhaul the federal workforce and to discipline or remove career employees the president views as undermining his political goals. The action comes about a year after billionaire Elon Musk left a post that, according to the administration, was charged with overseeing efforts to cut government spending and payrolls.
While the new directive applies to an estimated 8,000 workers, that figure is substantially lower than a previously cited ceiling estimate of up to 50,000 employees who could have been made subject to the revised rules. Senior administration officials on the call said the president could expand the group covered by the order, but that there are no immediate plans to do so.
Opposition to the policy has already produced legal pushback. Federal worker unions and allied groups filed a lawsuit in January aiming to block the policy before it was finalized. According to the administration, federal judges put the litigation on hold while the changes to the personnel rules were being completed.
The order and the surrounding legal activity underscore ongoing tensions between the administration and parts of the permanent federal workforce. The immediate effect is to remove certain civil service protections from a specified set of senior employees, while questions about possible expansion and the outcome of paused litigation remain unsettled.
Summary
The executive order strips job protections from about 8,000 mostly senior federal employees earning up to nearly $200,000, targeting those described as influencing government policy. The Office of Personnel Management said the change is intended to ensure staff will carry out lawful orders and policy directives. While the administration may broaden the covered group in the future, officials said there are no immediate plans to do so. Unions sued in January and judges paused the litigation while the administration finalized the changes.