Federal Workforce and Civil Service

The Office of Personnel Management finalized a rule to be published in the Federal Register on Feb. 6, 2026 that will take effect March 9, 2026 and allow agencies to reclassify roughly 55,000 federal positions into a new "Policy/Career" category that strips longstanding civil‑service protections — agencies will propose positions but the president will make the final determinations. The administration says the change will let agencies remove employees who "insert partisanship" or undermine presidential priorities, while critics and federal‑service advocates — noting more than 40,000 public comments with about 94% opposed — say it politicizes the career corps, could enable purges tied to Project 2025 and allow replacement of law‑focused career staff with political loyalists.