Executive Order Weekly Report - Week of July 14, 2025

This report is only a summary and editorial regarding the executive orders (“EOs”) signed by the Trump Administration during the last week. EOs are not legislation or court opinions. They do not carry the weight of law, and are merely statements of policy within the executive branch. That is not to say they cannot be cited in court or legal pleadings, or aren’t relevant to the application of law, only that they are almost never controlling outside of internal executive branch administration.

EOs are signed and reported on, generally, a week before they are published into the Federal Register. Until such a publication, it can be difficult to know the exact language of the signed EO. For that reason, these reports only include EOs published in the Federal Register. While this can lead to these reports feeling delayed or dated, it is to ensure precision and clarity.

While I am a licensed attorney, this is not paid legal advice.  Nothing in this communication is intended to create an attorney-client relationship.  Unless expressly stated otherwise, nothing contained in this article should be construed as a digital or electronic signature, nor is it intended to reflect an intention to make an agreement by electronic means.

Executive Order 14317 - Creating Schedule G in the Excepted Service

Signed: July 17, 2025

Published: July 23, 2025

This EO relies on the 5 USC 3301, 3302, & 7511.

Summary

Section 1 explains why there are some jobs within the government that require exceptions from the transition of power to allow for good policy making. Specifically it is discussing non-career policy making/determining/advocating positions.

Section 2 defines terms for the EO.

Section 3 requires that presidential appointments expected to change with the presidential transitions shall be under schedule G of the exempted service.

Section 4 amends Civil Service Rule VI to include a “schedule G’ that exempts positions expected to change due to a presidential transition.

What It Means

This is one of the more arcane EOs we’ve seen from this administration. Ultimately, it makes it so that presidential appointments, that are not expected to last longer than the term or presidency in which they are appointed, are not required to go through a competitive hiring process.

Looking Forward

The impact of this EO is hard to forecast, but ultimately it seems to be a way to further streamline the presidential appointment process.