A scant three weeks remain before the Donald “Grover” Trump administration #2 arrives. For my last column in 2024, I’ll review some of the big questions affecting federal employees. In no particular order:

Schedule F

President-elect Trump vows to re-establish this anxiety-producing category of senior federal career official. It would remove certain civil service protections against firing, namely people with jobs “of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.”

No one can say for certain precisely who would be affected, or how many. It will be more than just the Senior Executive Service’s 7,700-odd members, but probably less than the 480,000-odd GS 13s, 14s, and 15s.

Attempts to preclude Schedule F by law have failed in Congress. I doubt the idea of Schedule F would affect anyone immediately, even though the executive order is likely already printed and slid into a White House binder. Agencies will need to make inventories of who would fall into Schedule F. Some entity could get a court to require rule-making.

Even people not in positions described in the last Schedule F executive order worry. I spoke the other day with a large department inspector general, a position Trump was fussy about the last time. The IG is actively worried about his job, given than IGs have sensitive positions reporting to both the president and to the agency head.

FBI headquarters

In his first term, Trump opposed the relocation of the FBI. He proposed moving it to temporary space. The existing building on 9th St. Northwest in Washington, D.C. would be torn down and a new one built right there. It took years to even select a site, with congressional delegations from Virginia and Maryland sniping at one another. The question has dragged on since the Obama administration, even as the FBI’s building deteriorates.

General Services Administration building people said last spring the new headquarters in Prince George’s County, Maryland would take 10 years to complete. GSA’s prospectus called for construction to start in 2029, with initial occupancy in 2036.

Can you believe that? I’ve cited this fact before, but the Pentagon took 16 months to build, the Empire State Building 13.5 months. For the FBI, not much as really happened yet, construction-wise, only 10 years of planning. GSA has yet to actually acquire the Maryland site.

The White House has requested, for fiscal 2025, $3.5 billion from the Federal Capital Revolving Fund. This would add to $845 million he GSA already has squirreled away for move. But a Trump objection and a Republican House and Senate will likely put the FBI back to square one.

I don’t give the government advice, but I’d say don’t conclude the only fate for the 9th street building is demolition. Even buildings of this era are candidates for rehab. I’ve personally seen 1960s era modernistic, concrete buildings transformed to accommodate mission and technology changes. You can hardly recognize them from the inside. If the government needs more space for the FBI, once everyone else returns to their own offices, there’s always the defunct Hotel Harrington on 11th Street. A new Harry’s Bar, anyone?

Artificial intelligence

The Biden administration has issued extensive policy on the acquisition and use of AI by federal agencies. It’s taken a high regulated stance for AI in the private sector. People who watch these things expect relaxation of the former and cancellation of the latter.

That is, for agency use, expect the Trump administration to remove emphasis on climate or equity considerations in federal use of AI. For industry, Trump will likely take a lower-regulation approach. It will definitely repeal the Biden EO. The 2019 Trump EO on AI showed an administration with a great deal of interest in AI. Another, agency-focused EO came in 2020. Expect AI to remain a priority. Policy will have a different twist, but for agencies it won’t feel radically different. The 2020 memo emphasized performance, reliability, accuracy and reliability, security, transparency and accountability in how agencies use this technology.

Telework

The mystery of our time: Why is traffic so bad if so many people telework? Time to scour that stainless steel travel mug. Every early morning line has the Trump administration ordering a return-to-office policy.

Trump didn’t mention the agency by name, but he’s got the Social Security Administration’s contract deal with the American Federation of Government Employees in crosshairs. It assures covered employees, some 50,000, a high degree of teleworking until 2029. Trump vowed to challenge the contract in court.

Moving agencies out of D.C. area

Shuffling agencies always gores someone’s ox. That means the idea of relocating agencies away from Washington arouses fierce opposition. The same goes for rearranging agencies.

The last Trump administration wanted to reorganize the Office of Personnel Management. The policy side would have become part of the Office of Management and Budget. The operational side, which among other things determines the exact dollars for federal retiree annuities. They could have made good arguments for these moves, but no one made the effort to sell. That requires ‘splainin’, negotiating, building an allies network. In short, groundwork.

Bureau of Prisons

I don’t think this is high on the Trump team’s agenda, but the Bureau of Prisons, part of the Justice Department, is a deeply distressed agency. Hundreds of its employees face potential job losses because of the closing of prisons and prison camps.

As I reporter earlier, BOP is closing its prisons in Duluth, Minnesota and Dublin, California, plus several prison camps.

Brandy Moore, the president of AFGE Council 33, the national for BOP employees, had an unprintable phrase for the move (the first word is cluster). She said the union received no advance notice of what she called a “truly devastating” move. For employees at camps adjacent to full prisons, the disruption will be minimal. Others might be offered jobs hundreds of miles away.

The Bureau cited deteriorating buildings beyond its budgetary ability to maintain. Moore said the Bureau keeps closed facilities alive, consuming money. She cited the correctional facility at Taft, California, closed for years. Yet a skeleton crew does in and flushes toilets and otherwise checks on the place.

The president of the local union for Duluth, Tonya Gajeski, noted that many BOP employees grew up in the areas they work. Therefore uprooting to move far away is not trivial matter. No one relishes two or three hour one-way commutes, either. Perhaps the presumed new attorney general, Pam Bondi, can give this troubled bureau the attention it needs.

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