NTEU sues OPM for Schedule F records

The National Treasury Employees Union on Friday filed a federal lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management, alleging that the federal government’s dedicated HR agency unlawfully ignored a public information request related to the looming implementation of Schedule F.

First devised during Trump’s first term, Schedule F is a new job classification within the government’s excepted service for “policy-related” positions. Since renamed Schedule Policy/Career, the initiative would convert potentially tens of thousands of career federal employees into the new category, effectively making them at-will employees.

Though the first iteration of Schedule F failed to get off the ground before Trump left office in 2021, he quickly signed an executive order reinstating the measure when he returned to the White House last January. OPM issued proposed regulations to implement the new job category in April; the publication of a final rule is expected later this year.

Though agencies have not yet gotten the green-light to begin transferring employees into Schedule Policy/Career, January guidance from OPM instructed them to create and submit lists of petitions for inclusion in the new job category by late August. That month, NTEU filed a Freedom of Information Act request for “all petitions” agencies sent to OPM, which went unanswered.

Although FOIA requests often can take months, or even years, to be fulfilled, federal agencies are required to issue a response within 20 working days—or 30 working days in “unusual circumstances.”

“OPM has not responded to NTEU’s FOIA request at all, and the statutory time period for any response has lapsed,” the union’s lawsuit states. “[NTEU] has a statutory right to the records requested in its August 20, 2025, FOIA request to OPM, and there is no legal basis for OPM’s failure to respond to NTEU’s request or for its failure to produce the requested records within the statutory time period.

NTEU has previously filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Schedule Policy/Career, which remains pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. OPM did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Though the Trump administration has repeatedly described itself as “the most transparent” in history, agency FOIA offices, which are tasked with responding to public records requests, have experienced staffing cuts across government.

“The government cannot hide information that is critical to safeguarding workplace rights and protections for frontline federal employees in multiple agencies across the country,” said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald in a statement. “We expect OPM and the administration to identify as soon as possible which federal jobs are being targeted so we can do everything we can to stop the reclassification.”