Make a Difference: Work Against Schedule F

What is Schedule F? Schedule F is a rule change proposed by the Trump Administration’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that would reclassify as many as 50,000 of the federal government’s 2.5 to 3 million civilian employees from civil servants to political appointees. Civil servants are unelected civilian government employees who are charged to do the work of the government with neutrality, professionalism, and loyalty to institutions—not to political parties or their leaders. Political appointees serve at the behest of their appointer (in this case the president) and can be fired at will. Currently only 4,000 members of the millions of federal civilian workforce are political appointees.

What you can do: The OPM has posted the contents of Schedule F and will accept public comment on it until May 23. Public comments are theoretically reviewed and used to make final decisions on implementing this rule change. You can help tilt the balance toward non-implementation by submitting an official comment.

Get informed: For more background on Schedule F, check out these articles or do your own web or library research:

“DOGE Was Bad. Schedule F Will Be Worse,” from The Atlantic, April 28, 2025; note that The Atlantic will require you to set up an account. You can read three articles a month before needing a paid subscription.
“Connolly demands rescission of regulations reviving Schedule F,” from Government Executive, May 1, 2025; Government Executive also requires that you sign up for an account.

You can also read comments already submitted on the federal government website, Regulations.gov.

How to submit Schedule F comments

First, get your thoughts in order. Write up your thoughts, or choose from among the sample comments as a starting point. These were drafted by a task force of Holland Zeeland Indivisible; feel free to use as presented or adapt it to reflect your own thoughts and voice. You can also be inspired by already submitted official comments. You’ll find that copying and pasting text into the submission form is easier than composing in the small space provided.
Go to the Schedule F website. Click on “Comment” in the upper left, below the headline and above the Document Details tab.
Enter your comment. Enter your comment where the form says “Start typing comment here.” Copying and pasting from a document you have will make this easier, since the field shows you only a few lines at once.
Complete the form. Choose “Agency” as the topic of your comment. You can attach files if you like by dragging and dropping or browsing your computer. Identify yourself as either Anonymous (in which case you’re almost done) or Individual (which will require your name and optional contact information).
Submit your comment by clicking the “submit comment” button.
Save your tracking number (which will look like “mab-gmhz-8t1e”) if you have provided your email address. With that number, you can search for your submission on the comment page.