Trump Reclassified Thousands of Federal Jobs. Kentucky’s Stake Is the Services Those Agencies Deliver.

Federal workforce changes could affect services Kentuckians rely on.

Jun 04, 2026

The Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House in Louisville. Federal workforce rules can affect the employees who administer services, guidance, grants, and enforcement used across Kentucky. General Services Administration / Wikimedia Commons

On June 3, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order placing thousands of federal positions into a new employment category called Schedule Policy/Career. The order applies to positions listed in a 229-page appendix and requires federal agencies to notify covered employees within 7 days and update personnel records.

The Office of Personnel Management says these jobs remain career positions, filled on a nonpartisan basis.

The change is significant: OPM’s final rule states that Schedule Policy/Career employees are at-will and exempt from ordinary adverse action procedures and appeals.

Reuters reported that the order initially covers roughly 8,000 senior federal workers, with possible future reach up to roughly 50,000 positions. The administration says the change increases accountability among employees who help shape policy. Federal worker unions and watchdog groups argue it weakens merit-based civil-service protections and gives political appointees more control over career staff.

For Kentucky, the direct issue is not only federal employment. Kentucky residents depend on federal agencies for veterans’ care, agricultural programs, food assistance, tax administration, rural development, disaster assistance, civil rights enforcement, environmental enforcement, public health funding, and benefit guidance. When federal career employees lose removal protections in policy-influencing roles, the change can alter how those programs are written, interpreted, administered, and challenged from inside the agencies.

The order named thousands of covered jobs

Trump’s June 3 executive order establishes a personnel category first associated with his 2020 Schedule F order and later revived as Schedule Policy/Career. The new order identifies specific federal jobs that the White House says have a “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.”

The order does not convert the entire federal workforce. It covers positions listed in the appendix. Federal News Network reported that the initial conversion affects close to 8,000 federal employees, many in senior policy-related roles.

The affected positions include attorney advisors, program managers, public affairs specialists, budget officers, grants management specialists, policy analysts, senior advisors, deputy directors, and chief information officers. The appendix lists positions across multiple agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and other federal offices.

The order also creates a separate bonus pool for Schedule Policy/Career employees and directs OPM to begin rulemaking for a presidential award program. That means the change includes both removal risk and reward incentives for employees placed in the new category.

The change affects job protection

Federal career employees usually have civil-service protections that make it harder to fire, discipline, or demote them without procedures and appeal rights. Those protections grew from the effort to prevent federal jobs from becoming political spoils handed out or withdrawn based on loyalty to elected leaders.

OPM’s February 2026 rule changed that for Schedule Policy/Career positions. The rule says these employees remain career employees, but they are at-will and are excepted from adverse-action procedures or appeals.

The administration describes the change as a way to remove poor performers, address misconduct, and ensure policy-influencing employees carry out lawful presidential directives. OPM also says the rule prohibits political patronage, loyalty tests, political discrimination, mass layoffs, or attempts to evade reduction-in-force laws.

The warning sign comes from the combination of authority and vulnerability. A career employee who helps shape grants, legal guidance, enforcement priorities, benefit rules, communications, or policy analysis may now have fewer protections if agency leadership seeks to remove that employee from a covered role.

How the new category takes effect

The June order follows a sequence of executive and regulatory actions. Trump first created Schedule F in 2020. President Joe Biden revoked that effort, and OPM issued a 2024 rule designed to protect civil-service rights if a future administration tried to move career employees into policy-influencing categories.

On January 20, 2025, Trump signed an order restoring the policy under the name Schedule Policy/Career. OPM then issued the February 2026 final rule that established how the new category would operate.

The June 3 order supplies the implementation step. Agency heads must notify affected employees and update agency records within seven days. The President makes the final decision on which positions are placed into the category, after agency review and OPM involvement.

Unions and watchdog groups have already challenged the policy in federal court. Reuters reported that AFGE, AFL-CIO, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility are among the challengers. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Maryland, argues that the policy undermines federal worker protections and the merit-based civil service.

The Kentucky link is federal service delivery

Kentucky’s connection starts with federal offices and programs that affect everyday life. A 2025 National Treasury Employees Union fact sheet estimated that 23,118 federal employees lived in Kentucky in 2024, representing 1.1% of the Kentucky workforce, with an average salary of $87,438. The fact sheet listed Veterans Affairs, the Treasury, and the Agriculture Department among the top federal agencies with connections to Kentucky.

Those agencies reach Kentucky through specific services. Veterans use VA hospitals, clinics, disability claims, and benefits offices. Farmers and rural communities rely on USDA programs, conservation assistance, rural housing, rural utilities, broadband support, and farm-related services. Families and state agencies rely on federal guidance tied to SNAP, Medicare, Medicaid, education funding, disaster recovery, workplace rules, civil rights, and public health.

The appendix includes Department of Agriculture positions associated with offices such as the Food and Nutrition Service, the Farm Production and Conservation Business Center, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Rural Development, the Rural Utilities Service, and the Rural Housing Service. Those aren’t Washington concerns for Kentucky. They help shape food assistance, agriculture, rural development, housing, utilities, and conservation programs that touch Kentucky counties.

The risk is not that a Kentucky benefit changes overnight because of this order.

The order changes federal personnel authority. The program-level effects will depend on how agency heads use the new category, which employees are affected, whether courts intervene, and whether Congress demands state-level or agency-level reporting.

The concern for Kentucky is internal resistance inside federal agencies. Career employees often raise legal, scientific, financial, operational, and program concerns before policies reach states, counties, hospitals, schools, farms, or families. When those employees have fewer job protections, some may be less willing to challenge unlawful directions, document program risks, or slow decisions that conflict with evidence, law, or agency experience.

Federal workers are affected first

The most direct effect falls on federal employees listed in the appendix. Reuters reported that the initial order affects roughly 8,000 workers, many in senior roles connected to policy development and agency direction.

Those employees do not become political appointees. OPM says the jobs remain career positions filled on a nonpartisan basis. The change is that they can be removed from covered positions with fewer procedural protections than most competitive-service federal employees.

That difference can change workplace behavior. A grants specialist may think differently before flagging political influence in funding decisions. An attorney advisor may face more pressure when giving legal advice that agency leaders do not want to hear. A public affairs employee may have less room to resist misleading language. A program manager may have fewer protections when documenting operational risks.

Federal workers in Kentucky also have household and local economic stakes. Federal jobs support families in places such as Louisville, Lexington, Fort Knox, Bowling Green, Paducah, Frankfort, rural USDA service areas, and communities near federal facilities. Even if many of the first 8,000 jobs are based outside Kentucky, federal workforce instability can affect Kentucky families, local economies, and state unemployment claims.

Share this with someone who relies on federal services in Kentucky.

Actions you can take now

Ask Kentucky’s congressional delegation for state-level information. Kentuckians can call or email Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and their U.S. House member to request a list of affected positions by agency, state, job title, and duty station. The public should not have to guess whether Kentucky-based employees are included.

Track the Maryland lawsuit. Watch for amended complaints, emergency motions, injunction requests, and court orders after the June 3 implementation order. A ruling could delay, narrow, or uphold the new category.

Read the appendix for agencies that serve Kentucky. USDA, VA, Treasury, Social Security, FEMA, HHS, CMS, EPA, Department of Education, DOJ, and federal courts deserve special attention because their decisions directly affect Kentucky residents.

Ask state agencies what changed in federal guidance. The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Kentucky Department of Education, Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, and Kentucky Emergency Management should be watched for new federal instructions, delays, funding shifts, enforcement changes, or grant restrictions.

Document service changes. If veterans, farmers, benefit recipients, disaster survivors, local governments, schools, or nonprofit grant recipients experience delays, reversals, new eligibility interpretations, or unexplained changes in federal guidance, those instances should be recorded with dates, agency names, letters, emails, and case numbers.

Share the issue with people who use federal programs. This order may sound like an internal personnel action.

The public-facing test will be whether federal services become more political, less reliable, slower, or less willing to challenge unlawful directions.

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