Trump-Vance Administration Seeks to Implement Cornerstone of Project 2025
New Unlawful Rule Sidesteps Due Process Protections for Federal Workers, Politicizes the Civil Service
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Trump-Vance administration previewed their final rule to implement Schedule/Policy Career—an unlawful effort that will undermine long-standing civil service protections and threaten a nonpartisan federal workforce. This final rule follows both a day-one Executive Order—which Democracy Forward, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and co-counsel, on behalf of a broad coalition of organizations, have sued to stop—and a proposed rulemaking.
The administration went through a public comment process on the administration’s flawed proposal. Democracy Forward, Protect Democracy, and more than 115 organizations submitted a coalition comment explaining how the proposed rule was unlawful, lacked evidence, and was designed to sidestep the due process protections Congress guaranteed to career federal employees. The final rule fails to address those concerns. Instead, it allows the government to bypass existing civil service laws, strips employees of earned protections, and opens the door to politically motivated firings and hirings, which have already occurred since President Trump took office.
“This proposal was wrong when it was outlined in Project 2025, wrong when the President issued an executive order, and it remains wrong now. During the public comment period, the Trump-Vance administration was clearly warned by the American public that this approach violates the law and threatens the nonpartisan civil service that people in America depend on, yet it chose to move forward anyway,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “This is a deliberate attempt to do through regulation what the law does not allow—strip public servants of their rights and make it easier to fire them for political reasons and harm the American people through doing so. We have successfully fought this kind of power grab before, and we will fight this again. We will return to court to stop this unlawful rule and will use every legal tool available to hold this administration accountable to the people.”
The final rule continues to weaken more than a century of bipartisan civil service protections by allowing the administration to remove experienced, nonpolitical federal employees at will while stripping away civil service protections, meaningful oversight, and appeal rights. Existing law already provides mechanisms to address employee misconduct. This rule is not about accountability, but about politicization.
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