Little-known policy embraced by Trump and included in Project 2025 would transform previously nonpartisan jobs

The Democrat Eugene Vindman stood before a group of roughly 30 fellow veterans and warned of an impending danger if Republicans like his opponent, Derrick Anderson, won key House races next month: a little-known policy called schedule F.

The policy, initially embraced by Donald Trump in the final months of his first term in office and now included in the rightwing manifesto known as Project 2025, would transform previously nonpartisan jobs in the federal government into political appointments. The change could fundamentally alter and perhaps jeopardize the employment of tens or even hundreds of thousands of government workers, including 14% of the residents in Virginia’s seventh district, where Vindman is running for Congress.