Policy/Career Schedule Employment and Federal Service
Dismantling Neutral Competence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21422674 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Roberts (0000-0001-7137-7444, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 307-330 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Public Personnel Management (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-0260 • E-ISSN: 1945-7421 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00910260251340103 |
| OpenAlex | W4411039410 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
The article examines President Trump’s authority to reinstate Executive Order (EO) 13957, which established a new Policy/Career Schedule for federal executive branch employees with policy-influencing positions. The order seeks to move many of the executive branch’s competitive service employees to a new non-competitive schedule where they will serve as at-will employees with no procedural due process removal rights. In October 2020, EO 13957 created Schedule F. On January 22, 2021, President Biden signed EO 14003, “Protecting the Federal Workforce,” which revoked EO 13957. The article argues that establishing a Policy/Career Schedule has little to do with giving federal agencies and departments more discretion to remove federal executive branch employees for inferior performance. It has everything to do with turning large numbers of competitive schedule federal civil servants into presidential public policy foot soldiers or robots. Establishing a Policy/Career Schedule gives the president unrestricted authority to remove Policy/Career federal civil servants for a perceived lack of policy loyalty. The article argues that the lack of clear civil service jurisprudence creates considerable uncertainty about whether federal courts and, ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court will hold, regarding the legality of Trump establishing Schedule Policy/Career
Business · Economics · Executive order · Federal jurisdiction · Management · Political science · Politics · Presidential system · Schedule · Supreme court · Law · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Legal and Policy Issues · Public Administration
History of the United States civil service.
Trump and the Bureaucrats
The Possibility of Administrative Ethics
The Brownlow Committee Fifty Years Later
Responsiveness and Neutral Competence in American Bureaucracy
Public Management for Populists
The Emerging Doctrine of Privilege in Public Employment
Chevron, State Farm, and the Impact of Judicial Doctrine on Bureaucratic Policymaking
Exit, Voice, and Sabotage
Public administration and the erosion of the rule of law in the United States
Delegitimization, Deconstruction and Control
Walking the Moral Tightrope
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |