CREW requests records on Schedule F and Project 2025
In October 2020, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order establishing a new Schedule F employment category for federal employees. Under this new employment classification, tens of thousands of federal workers would be stripped of most merit-based civil service protections. Without these protections, including the protection against being fired based on political alignment, federal employees could be easily removed in favor of hiring individuals more willing to craft policy institutionalizing Trump’s agenda.
Although the Executive Order was rescinded shortly after President Biden took office, Trump has pledged to reimpose Schedule F, if re-elected. In addition, former Trump officials leading the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” a right-wing plan to overhaul the functioning of the federal government, have called for the order to be reinstated, hoping to replace career government employees with party loyalists.
CREW has requested records from several federal agencies and departments to identify the name, title and position of all officials with the authority to initiate or implement terminations, suspensions, reductions in force, demotions, transfers or any other similar personnel actions. The public should know who has the delegated authority to implement these actions in the event that Schedule F becomes law.
CREW has also requested copies of all communications between agency employees appointed to career civil service positions by the Trump administration through a process known as “burrowing” and The Heritage Foundation or any of the other conservative organizations involved with Project 2025.
Burrowing is the process of transitioning political appointees into career civil service positions. These conversions often draw concerns that hiring decisions are being made based on political affiliation, as appointees seeking to gain a permanent position are often able to bypass the typical competitive nonpartisan hiring process for government jobs.
There are currently several political appointees that were “burrowed” into career civil service positions by the Trump Administration. The public deserves to know whether these employees might be privy to any undue influence from groups, such as The Heritage Foundation, who are planning to implement Schedule F through Project 2025.