FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Matt Dorsey
(202) 550-6987
July 17, 2025
Washington, D.C. – In a brazen new move, the Trump administration unveiled an Executive Order (EO) yesterday creating “Schedule G,” a special employment category designed to place noncareer political appointees into high-paying senior executive roles – sidestepping long-standing rules that cap political appointments in the Senior Executive Service (SES) at 10%.
Early analysis reveals that Schedule G is nothing more than a corrupt workaround to funnel taxpayer dollars into the pockets of loyalists tasked with politicizing the federal government from within. The administration’s initiative signals a troubling willingness to spend taxpayer dollars not on strengthening the civil service, but on expanding a cadre of political loyalists responsible for consolidating power, undermining democratic institutions, and eroding public trust in government.
While the Trump administration scrambles to pay its lackeys above the GS-15 pay scale, the move ironically validates what federal unions and government watchdogs have said for years: federal pay for career civil servants is woefully behind the private sector, by as much as 27%.
Key Elements of the EO:
- Schedule G circumvents the legal 10% cap on noncareer SES across agencies.
- It allows the White House to appoint more political operatives and pay them inflated salaries at taxpayer expense.
- It is a backdoor admission that existing federal pay rates are inadequate for the responsibilities expected of real government professionals.
“This isn’t just another attack on the civil service – it’s a confession,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “The Trump administration knows federal civil service pay has been insufficient for several decades. Instead of raising wages for real public servants who serve the country with integrity, they’ve created Schedule G to reward political loyalists monetarily to assist in corrupting the government. This is yet another shameful display of President Trump’s efforts to undermine the federal workforce and American democracy.”