Summary<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump signed an executive order removing civil service protections from about 8,000 senior federal policy workers.
\n The new Schedule Policy\/Career category allows agencies to fire these employees without the usual procedural requirements.
\n Critics argue the move politicizes federal employment, and several lawsuits are challenging the reclassification.<\/p>\n
\n AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/p>\n
\n President Donald Trump<\/a> on Wednesday signed an executive order that wipes away civil service protections from roughly 8,000 high-level federal workers by making them at-will employees.\n <\/p>\n \n The move is the president\u2019s latest effort to overhaul the federal workforce<\/a>, which he views as an impediment to carrying out his policies. During his second term, he has directed agencies to shrink their staffing, terminated union contracts in the name of national security and taken other steps that critics argue politicizes federal employment.\n <\/p>\n \n Wednesday\u2019s executive order reclassifies about 8,000 senior policy positions into a new category called Schedule Policy\/Career<\/a>. They include directors, chiefs of staffs, senior advisers, policy analysts and those with \u201csignificant involvement\u201d in drafting regulations and determining who gets federal grants.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAgencies can remove employees in Schedule Policy\/Career for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives without lengthy procedural hurdles that often prevent accountability,\u201d according to a White House fact sheet.\n <\/p>\n