Trump seeks to weaken civil service protections, expand firing powers

The Trump administration moved to strip the Merit Systems Protection Board of power over some federal worker firings, shifting those cases to the Office of Personnel Management and narrowing where employees can appeal. The proposal, unveiled on February 9, 2026, would affect probationary firings, suitability actions and reduction-in-force appeals, and it also sought to block some disputes from reaching court.

Congress created the independent, quasi-judicial agency in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, and it became effective on January 11, 1979, after the old Civil Service Commission was replaced by the Office of Personnel Management, the MSPB and the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Its mission is to protect merit system principles and promote an effective federal workforce free of prohibited personnel practices.

In February 2025, Trump fired MSPB Chair Cathy Harris, triggering litigation over whether the president can remove board members without cause. The board also spent long stretches without a quorum during Trump’s first term, a problem that again left the agency vulnerable to delay and dysfunction after Harris’s removal.

On June 3, 2026, Trump signed an executive order reclassifying roughly 8,000 to nearly 10,000 career federal employees into Schedule F or Policy-Career status. About 97% of those positions were senior policy jobs, including directors, chiefs of staff and senior advisers. The move effectively made those workers at-will employees and stripped long-standing protections from many of the government’s top career roles.

Limiting MSPB review would leave agencies with far less independent oversight when they seek to remove workers, employee advocates and former board officials said.

Its caseload jumped to at least 1,845 new cases in one week, compared with about 100 cases a week in December and January.