Trump Federal Workforce Order Would Reverberate in Second Term

An executive order from President Donald Trump that could potentially make it easier to hire and fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers in policymaking jobs will take a while to fully implement—meaning it will be of much greater consequence if the president is reelected.

The order, which the White House said is intended to give federal agencies more leeway to hold top employees below the level of the Senior Executive Service “accountable,” creates a new “excepted service” hiring authority, Schedule F, that applies to federal workers in “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions.”

Employees in positions covered by...