# Federal Workforce Structure Tree An ASCII-art map of the **federal civilian workforce as a legal structure** — not who works where, but which *service* each position sits in, and what removal protections come attached to it. The competitive service, the seven excepted-service schedules, the Senior Executive Service, the political appointee layer, the statutory systems that sit outside Title 5 entirely, and the four agencies that are supposed to enforce the whole thing. Time-slice: **August 16, 2026**. The map exists because the second term's central personnel project is not firing people one at a time — it is **moving positions between the boxes on this chart**. [[Schedule F]], now formally *Schedule Policy/Career*, is one arrow on this tree: competitive service → excepted service, with [[Merit Systems Protection Board]] appeal rights stripped on the way across. That arrow was drawn for real on **June 3, 2026**, when [[Executive Order 14410]] transferred roughly 8,000 named positions. Companion to the [[Executive Branch Org Chart]], which maps *what the agencies are*; this maps *what the people inside them legally are*. See also the [[DOJ Component Tree]] and [[DHS Component Tree]] for the departmental layer. → [[How a Federal Agency Is Dismantled]] — the process companion: this tree shows the boxes, that map shows the procedure for emptying them. > [!note] How to read this chart > **★** marks a category whose occupants have full adverse-action and appeal rights before the Merit Systems Protection Board. **✗** marks a category with no MSPB appeal — removable at will or at pleasure. **◐** marks a category whose protections are contested, newly narrowed, or conditional. Counts are position counts, not headcounts, except where noted. `[bracketed]` text flags dated changes and caveats. Names inside the fence are plain text; the wikilinks are in the prose and the Notes. ``` FEDERAL CIVILIAN WORKFORCE — SERVICE STRUCTURE & REMOVAL PROTECTIONS (as of Aug 16, 2026) │ ~2.0–2.1M civilian employees excluding the Postal Service — lowest since the mid-1960s │ Executive-branch employment fell ~281,000 (≈12%) between Jan 2025 and Mar 2026 (OPM) │ ★ = full MSPB appeal rights ✗ = no MSPB appeal ◐ = contested / newly narrowed │ ■ THE FEDERAL CIVILIAN WORKFORCE │ ├─◆ COMPETITIVE SERVICE ★ the merit system — Pendleton 1883, rebuilt by CSRA 1978 │ │ Entry by competitive examination · veterans' preference · "for cause" removal only │ │ │ ├─ General Schedule .............. GS-1 through GS-15, the pay & classification spine │ ├─ Federal Wage System ........... trade, craft, and labor positions │ └─ Probationers ◐ ................ no appeal rights until tenure vests │ [EO 14284, Apr 24 2025 — tenure no longer vests by default; an affirmative │ retention decision is now required 30 days out or the appointment ends] │ ├─◆ EXCEPTED SERVICE positions excepted from competitive examination │ │ by statute, by OPM regulation, or by presidential order — seven schedules │ │ │ ├─ Schedule A ★ ......... examination impracticable (agency attorneys · chaplains · │ │ the 213.3102(u) disability-hiring authority) │ ├─ Schedule B ★ ......... noncompetitive examination; specialized or critical need │ ├─ Schedule C ✗ ......... POLITICAL — confidential or policy-determining, GS-15 and │ │ below; serve at the pleasure of the appointing official │ ├─ Schedule D ★ ......... Pathways — interns, recent graduates, Presidential │ │ Management Fellows │ ├─ Schedule E ◐ ......... Administrative Law Judges [excepted by EO 13843, Jul 2018; │ │ removal still requires an MSPB good-cause finding, │ │ 5 U.S.C. § 7521 — the protection survived the reclass.] │ ├─ Schedule POLICY/CAREER ✗ ...... FORMERLY SCHEDULE F │ │ Career employees, merit-hired, in "policy-influencing" positions — who keep │ │ competitive status but lose adverse-action procedure and MSPB appeal. │ │ EO 13957 (Oct 21 2020) → rescinded by EO 14003 (Jan 2021) → │ │ EO 14171 (Jan 20 2025, renamed, designation moved to the President) → │ │ OPM final rule published Feb 5 2026, effective Mar 9 2026 → │ │ EO 14410 (Jun 3 2026) — the transfer actually happens │ │ [≈8,000 positions in a 229-page appendix; ~97% at or above GS-15; │ │ the GS-13/14 exceptions are concentrated at OMB. OPM's rulemaking │ │ estimate was ~50,000; earlier outside estimates ran to 200,000.] │ └─ Schedule G ✗ ......... NONCAREER policy-making / policy-advocating positions that │ turn over with a presidential transition │ [created by EO 14317, Jul 17 2025 — a second political │ layer above Schedule C; appointment and withdrawal run │ through the White House Office of Presidential Personnel] │ ├─◆ SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE ◐ the corps between career staff and appointees │ │ 6,647 members (Apr 2026) · statutory cap: noncareer ≤10% government-wide, │ │ ≤25% within any one agency · removal and demotion run through a separate track │ │ │ ├─ Career SES ............ competitively selected, certified by a Qualifications │ │ Review Board; MSPB rights are narrower than GS │ ├─ Noncareer SES ✗ ....... politically appointed, no QRB, serve at pleasure │ ├─ Limited term · limited emergency ..... time-capped appointments │ └─ [The lever here is REASSIGNMENT, not removal: 15-day notice, a 120-day │ moratorium after a new agency head arrives — and then a career executive │ can be sent anywhere in the country. OPM memos of Jan 20 2025 and │ Dec 1 2025 both urged agencies to use it.] │ ├─◆ PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTEES ✗ outside the civil service entirely │ ├─ PAS ... Presidential Appointment, Senate confirmation required (~1,200 seats) │ ├─ PA .... Presidential Appointment, no Senate vote (~800 seats) │ └─ [PAS + PA + noncareer SES + Schedule C + Schedule G = the "Plum Book" layer, │ historically ~4,000 positions and now growing by the addition of Schedule G] │ ├─◆ SEPARATE PERSONNEL SYSTEMS statutorily outside the Title 5 competitive service │ │ Their own hiring, pay, and appeal regimes — reached by different levers │ ├─ Foreign Service (State) · VA Title 38 clinicians · FBI · the intelligence agencies │ ├─ TSA screeners · FAA · Postal Service · TVA · Federal Reserve Board staff │ └─ Legislative & judicial branch staff · GAO · the Article III judiciary │ └─◆ THE ENFORCEMENT LAYER who hears the appeal — and whether it still functions │ ├─ Office of Personnel Management ....... Director: Scott Kupor (sworn Jul 14 2025) │ Writes the rules; receives agency petitions and recommends positions to the │ President for Schedule Policy/Career. [OPM cut its own staff by ~a third.] ├─ Merit Systems Protection Board ....... Acting Chairman: Henry J. Kerner │ Member: James J. Woodruff II · THIRD SEAT VACANT │ [Quorum lost Mar 2025 when Chair Cathy Harris was removed; restored │ Oct 28 2025 when Woodruff was sworn in — the Board runs on 2 of 3.] ├─ Office of Special Counsel ............ NO CONFIRMED SPECIAL COUNSEL │ [Hampton Dellinger removed Mar 2025; Charles Baldis nominated May 2026 — │ Senate action not confirmed as of this writing] ├─ Federal Labor Relations Authority .... [chair unconfirmed] │ Jurisdiction hollowed by EO 14251 (Mar 2025) and EO 14343 (Aug 2025), │ which invoke the § 7103(b)(1) national-security exclusion; OPM guidance │ Feb 12 2026 told covered agencies to terminate their CBAs outright └─ The federal courts ................... the only forum left once the above are gone ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── THE EXIT RAMPS — five ways a career position stops being a protected career position ├─ 1. Reduction in force ..... abolish the position; competitive-area rules decide who ├─ 2. Deferred resignation ... the "Fork in the Road" offer, Jan–Feb 2025 ├─ 3. Probationary firing .... no appeal; the default flipped by EO 14284 ├─ 4. Reclassification ....... competitive service ──▶ Schedule Policy/Career (EO 14410) └─ 5. Function transfer ...... move the work to another agency and leave the box empty ``` ## Notes **The transfer stopped being hypothetical on June 3, 2026.** Everything the vault recorded about Schedule Policy/Career through May 2026 described a *framework*: the executive order that created the category, the OPM rule that operationalized it, and an agency-recommendation phase in which no position had actually moved. [[Executive Order 14410]] ended that phase. It placed the positions listed in a 229-page appendix into Schedule Policy/Career by presidential determination, gave agency heads **seven days** to notify the affected employees and conform their records, and reversed the flow of the designation process — under the amended EO 13957 § 5(a), an agency head now *petitions* the OPM Director to recommend a position to the President, with a written justification attached. **What the order does beyond the transfer, and what it conspicuously preserves:** - Reclassified employees **keep competitive status** and, per the amended Civil Service Rule VI, agencies must still use **merit-based hiring procedures and veterans' preference** to fill these positions. The administration's own framing is that these remain career, non-political jobs from which people can simply be fired more easily. - The order amends 5 CFR 550.704 to add a new ground for **denying severance pay**: separation from a Schedule Policy/Career position where the agency identifies unacceptable performance or misconduct in writing. - It directs every agency with Schedule Policy/Career employees to **set aside a separate bonus pool**, and orders OPM to create a presidential award program — the carrot bolted to the stick. - Reporting on the rollout notes that reclassified employees generally **lose eligibility for student-loan repayment and for recruitment, retention, and relocation incentives**, and that they **cannot challenge the reclassification itself**. **The scope came in far below the advertised number — and that is the thing to watch.** OPM's own rulemaking estimated ~50,000 affected positions; outside estimates ran as high as 200,000. The June order moved roughly **8,000**, about 97% of them at or above GS-15 — agency subcomponent and field-office heads, chief information and chief learning officers, senior HR officials, deputies and chiefs of staff, senior program managers, regulation writers, high-level agency attorneys, and the senior public-affairs and legislative-affairs layer. An administration official described it as "a relatively small slice." Nothing in the order caps future additions, and the President can add positions at his discretion. **The frame worth keeping — the protections and the protectors were stripped in the same motion.** Schedule Policy/Career removes MSPB appeal rights from ~8,000 senior career employees. Three weeks later, on **June 29, 2026**, [[Trump v. Slaughter]] overruled [[Humphrey's Executor v. United States]] 6–3, holding that for-cause removal protection for FTC commissioners is unconstitutional. The MSPB, the [[Office of Special Counsel]], and the [[Federal Labor Relations Authority]] are all multimember or fixed-term bodies whose members hold the same kind of statutory tenure the Court just voided. So the employee who *keeps* appeal rights now appeals to a board whose own members serve at the pleasure of the executive they are being asked to rule against. That is a sharper claim than "civil-service protections are under attack": **the adjudicator and the adjudicated were converted to at-will in the same season, and the second conversion is what makes the first one durable.** **The enforcement layer's actual condition, verified for this map:** - **MSPB** runs on two of three seats. Henry J. Kerner is Vice Chairman and **Acting** Chairman; James J. Woodruff II, confirmed October 7, 2025 and sworn October 28, 2025, restored the quorum that had been lost since Chair Cathy Harris's removal in March 2025. Harris no longer appears on the Board's membership page. - **OSC** has had **no confirmed Special Counsel** since Hampton Dellinger's removal in March 2025. Charles Baldis was nominated in May 2026; his confirmation could not be verified and is marked `[unconfirmed]` rather than asserted. - **FLRA** — the current chair could not be confirmed from public sources and is left `[unconfirmed]`. Its jurisdiction is the bigger story: [[Executive Order 14251]] (March 2025) and [[Executive Order 14343]] (August 2025) invoke the national-security exclusion at 5 U.S.C. § 7103(b)(1) to remove large parts of the workforce from collective bargaining, and OPM guidance of February 12, 2026 directed covered agencies to terminate or modify their collective bargaining agreements. - **OPM** itself shrank its own workforce by roughly a third and has sought further cuts — the agency writing the rules is running the playbook on itself. **Structural caveats.** - **Schedule E is the counter-example.** Administrative law judges were moved out of the competitive service by EO 13843 in 2018, but their removal protection lives in a *statute* — 5 U.S.C. § 7521 requires an MSPB good-cause finding — so the reclassification did not strip it. This is the cleanest available demonstration that the vulnerability is in the *regulatory* layer, not the excepted-service category as such. - **Schedule G is the underwatched one.** Created by [[Executive Order 14317]] in July 2025, it is a *noncareer* schedule for policy-making positions expected to turn over with a president. It grows the political layer directly rather than converting the career layer — the same objective by addition instead of subtraction, and it attracted a fraction of the attention Schedule Policy/Career did. - **Workforce totals.** OPM reports executive-branch employment down about 281,000 (≈12%) from January 2025 to March 2026, leaving roughly 2.0–2.1 million civilian employees excluding the Postal Service — the lowest level since the mid-1960s. Agency-level extremes: USAID down ~95%, the [[Department of Education]] down ~44%, and DoD the largest absolute decline at roughly 88,000. - **The Senior Executive Service count** is 6,647 as of April 2026 (CRS R48932). The SES is not a schedule; it is a separate personnel system with its own appointment types, and the lever used against it in 2025–26 has been geographic and functional reassignment rather than removal. ## See also - [[Schedule F]] — the concept page for what is now Schedule Policy/Career; this map places it in the structure - [[How a Federal Employee Is Fired]] — the process companion: the five routes out, and what removal protection actually buys at the exit - [[Executive Order 14410]] · [[Executive Order 14317]] — the June 2026 transfer order and the Schedule G order - [[Excepted Service]] · [[Competitive Service]] · [[Senior Executive Service]] · [[General Schedule]] — the categories on the tree - [[Schedule G]] · [[Administrative Law Judge]] · [[Reduction in Force]] · [[Deferred Resignation Program]] — the moving parts - [[Pendleton Act of 1883]] · [[Civil Service Reform Act of 1978]] · [[Spoils System]] — what the merit system was built out of - [[OPM]] · [[Merit Systems Protection Board]] · [[Office of Special Counsel]] · [[Federal Labor Relations Authority]] — the enforcement layer - [[Scott Kupor]] · [[Russell Vought]] — the officials running the personnel project - [[Trump v. Slaughter]] · [[Humphrey's Executor v. United States]] — why the enforcement layer's own tenure is now in question - [[Executive Branch Org Chart]] · [[DOJ Component Tree]] · [[DHS Component Tree]] — the agency-structure companions - [[Administrative State]] · [[Unitary Executive Theory]] · [[Project 2025]] — the doctrine this structure is being rebuilt to serve - [[DOGE and Federal Workforce]] — the 2026 midterms issue page - [[How a Security Clearance Is Granted and Revoked]] — the second status a federal employee holds alongside the one this tree maps, adjudicated by a different agency under a different rulebook and stripped by a procedure Title 5 does not govern; a clearance action can end a career that the service protections here would otherwise cover - [[Federal Agencies Hub]] · [[Foundations Hub]] — parent hubs