The administration of President Donald Trump is planning to remove the job protections of hundreds of senior officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a job reclassification plan, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
Employees of various agencies within HHS received this memo stating that positions within their teams would be reclassified. This change means that these employees can now be fired ‘at will’ without cause. Previously, they could only be dismissed for valid reasons and had recourse rights.
This measure is part of the overhaul of the federal civil service system announced by the administration in February.
This reform gives the president increased power to hire and fire up to 50,000 career officials who would be reclassified under the ‘Schedule Policy/Career’ status, previously known as ‘Schedule F’ during his first term.
An HHS official confirmed the authenticity of the email but did not respond to questions about the exact number of affected agents, their agencies, or roles. The category targeted, the GS-15 grade, generally includes high-level technical experts, managers, policy advisors, and supervisors.
The email specified that initially, ‘a relatively modest number… in the hundreds, not thousands’ of HHS staff in this category would likely be affected by this reclassification.
The document indicates that other ‘batches’ of conversions will follow. However, the official clarified that there would be no massive layoffs within the department beyond those already announced.
During his campaign, Donald Trump pledged to remove job protections for federal employees deemed by his team to ‘influence’ government policy. Governance experts believe this change will make it easier to implement larger collective layoffs.
Unions representing federal workers have challenged this measure in federal courts.
The Trump administration aims to reduce the federal workforce and make officials, as well as historically independent boards and commissions, more accountable to the White House.
