White House reclassifies federal epidemiologists and other scientists from civil servants to “at-will” hires

White House reclassifies federal epidemiologists and other scientists from civil servants to “at-will” hires

The long-anticipated “Schedule F” order strips job protections meant to safeguard federal employees from political interference

The White House on Wednesday moved to strip civil service protections from about 8,000 federal workers , including many working at public health agencies.

The executive order effectively transforms these positions—which include “epidemiologist”, “health scientist” and “toxicologist” jobs—into “at-will” positions—meaning they can be readily fired without cause. The job category, initially called Schedule F and now called Schedule Policy/Career, strips these federal workers of protections meant to prevent political interference.

According to the order, “policy-influencing positions” must be transferred to the new status, thereby “ensuring that such employees can be removed for misconduct or poor performance is essential to protecting democratic self-government by an elected President.” The move reflects President Donald Trump’s long-standing complaint of a “ deep state ” of federal workers resistant to his policies, and he has for years called for the schedule change in order to fire civil servants he views as impediments to his policies.

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The move already faces at least three legal challenges from federal employees . Notably, these jobs include positions that don’t involve policy work, such as “human resources officer”, “customer experience specialist” and “data management specialist”, as well as for some scientist roles . The administration also instituted a political loyalty questionnaire for new federal hires in 2025. U.S. Office of Personnel Management official Scott Kupor said on Wednesday that the new directive would not lead to a political “litmus test” for civil servants, according to Government Executive .

“Just what I wanted for health scientists at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, fewer employment protections!,” legal writer Chris Geidner posted on BlueSky . Mark Histed, a National Institutes of Health neuroscientist who has been critical of the administration, also voiced concern , posting on social media that certain jobs at science agencies such as officials overseeing peer review of scientific grant proposals may be affected by the order.