★ Presidential Survey
Start voting
Domestic Policy · Live

Should it be easier to fire federal civil-service employees?

0 votes 237 voting nowDemo data 23 hrs ago Cast your vote to see the split
Live right now
Should states be allowed to bar transgender athletes from female sports categories?TrendingShould the federal government attach work and eligibility conditions to SNAP funding for states?TrendingShould the Voting Rights Act require congressional maps to preserve majority-Black districts?TrendingShould the Electoral College Be Abolished?BriefDid Reaganomics deliver on its promises?BriefFilibusterTermGerrymanderingTerm
The facts

President Trump signed an executive order on June 3, 2026, easing removal procedures for roughly 8,000 federal employees in senior career positions.

The federal civilian workforce totals about 2.3 million employees, with most protected by Civil Service Reform Act procedures enacted in 1978.

Supporters of looser firing rules argue current protections make it difficult to remove poor performers; a 2015 GAO report found agencies took an average of six months to a year to fire a tenured employee.

Critics argue weakening protections risks politicizing the career civil service, which has operated on merit-based principles since the Pendleton Act of 1883.

Federal employee unions and several Democratic state attorneys general have signaled legal challenges, arguing the order conflicts with statutory protections set by Congress.

Understand the issue
Civics quick read
Glossary
Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
A 1978 law that sets the rules for hiring, managing and firing most federal workers, and gives them a process
Glossary
Schedule F / Career Civil Service
Career civil servants are government workers hired for their skills, not their politics, who keep their jobs w
Civics
How hard is it to fire a federal civil servant?
A look at the rules, history and trade-offs behind removing federal employees from their jobs.
Open the full guide
Cast your vote
Should it be easier to fire federal civil-service employees?
Live
Live results — — voters
Yes — presidents should have broad authority to remove federal workers0%
Yes — but only for documented performance or misconduct issues0%
No — but streamline existing removal procedures for clear-cut cases0%
No — keep current civil-service protections in place0%
See live results from live voters
Cast your vote to unlock America’s reaction
Anonymous · one vote per person
You vs America
You matched the majority.
Your vote lines up with the current national reaction: most voters say the court was right.
Your vote
—
VS
America
——
How states are voting
Demo data
Once geographic aggregates ship, this section shows your state and the most dramatic agreement/disagreement around the country.
Virginia
55% Yes
Your state
Florida
51% No
leans opposite
Pennsylvania
53% Yes
close split
Michigan
57% Yes
strongest shift
Texas
54% No
disagrees
Georgia
50% Yes
nearly tied
Northeast
58% Yes
South
47% Yes
Midwest
54% Yes
West
61% Yes
Compare with people like you?
Optional: pick how you describe yourself politically to unlock sharper anonymous comparisons.
Live shifts
Demo data
Updating live
YES gained 4% nationally in the last hour as new votes surged from the Northeast.
1 hr
Florida flipped toward NO after trending narrowly YES earlier this afternoon.
18 min
1,248 new votes were submitted in the last 10 minutes.
Live
Full results — — votes
Your vote lines up with the current national reaction: most voters say the court was right.
Yes — presidents should have broad authority to remove federal workers0%
Yes — but only for documented performance or misconduct issues0%
No — but streamline existing removal procedures for clear-cut cases0%
No — keep current civil-service protections in place0%