Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, AGENCY NEWS—OPM releases guidance on Schedule G hires, (Jul 30, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Hires under the new Excepted Service schedule must be run by the White House first.

This week, the Office of Personnel Management released guidance clarifying the process for newly-created Schedule G hirings. A few weeks ago, the President signed an executive order (E.O. 14317) creating a new Schedule G in the excepted service intended to cover “[a]ppointments of individuals to positions of a policy-making or policy-advocating character normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition.”

In the memo, the OPM Director states that Schedule G is a gap-filler, allowing for noncareer positions of a policy-making or policy-advocating character and that it is “available to all agencies with the authority to make excepted service appointments under 5 C.F.R. § 6.3(a).” It provides specific instructions for how agencies should document the appointments.

White House approval required. However, it notes that, “as a matter of process, use of the Schedule G appointing authority requires coordination with OPM’s White House Liaison, through OPM’s Executive and Schedule C System (ESCS)” and that “approval or withdrawal of the Schedule G appointing authority requires review from the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, through the employing agency’s White House Liaison.”

“As a matter of practice,” the memo explains, “no Schedule G appointment(s) should be advanced without coordinating with the employing agency’s White House Liaison.”

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