Tag Glossary

Document Type Tags

Agency Filing or Order

This refers to a litigation document filed by a federal agency in an active legal matter, or to an order issued by an adjudicative federal agency (e.g., MSPB or FLRA).

Email

Inter-agency or intra-agency email communication. Emails occasionally are used to announce policy or its implementation.

Executive Order

A formal declaration signed by the president that has the force of law, the authority for which is derived from an existing statute or the Constitution. Executive orders are published in the Federal Register.

Letter

Formal correspondence to or from an agency. Such correspondence occasionally announces policy or reflects a practice of the government. 

News Media

A news article concerning a development related to federal employees. News media is used as a source when there appears to be reliable reporting about an internal governmental personnel policy or practice, but when no document reflecting policy or practice is publicly available.

Other

An item affecting federal personnel policy that does not fit into one of the identified categories.

Policy Document

Agencies may set policy via a memorandum, directive, manual, regulation or similar document. These documents may establish a single agency’s own policies, or they may set an executive branch-wide personnel policy. 

Presidential Memorandum

A less formal memorandum signed by the president that has the force of law, often used to direct federal agencies to create or enforce a specific policy. Presidential memoranda are not published in the Federal Register.

Press Release or Fact Sheet

An issuance from the White House or an agency that is intended to inform or persuade media outlets regarding a new or existing policy.

Regulation (Final)

A federal regulation that has been finalized and formally issued by an agency. Such regulations have the force of law.

Regulation (Proposed)

A notice in the Federal Register offering the public an opportunity to comment on a proposal to establish, rescind or modify a federal regulation.

Regulation (Withdrawal)

Employee Category Tags

Administrative Law Judges

Policies or changes that affect Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), who are adjudicators who engage in judge-like decisionmaking but sit inside the executive branch — not the judicial branch. Individuals serving as ALJs may only be removed (i.e. fired) for cause, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 7521. This tag refers to ALJs appointed pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 3105 to fulfill the functions of the Administrative Procedure Act under 5 U.S.C. §§ 556 & 557.

Intelligence Community

Policies or other changes affecting the 18 components of the federal executive branch, and the employees working in those components that have been officially designated as part of the United States Intelligence Community and are overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Those 18 components are listed in 3 U.S.C. § 3003.

Probationary Employees

Policies or actions affecting new hires who have not completed a mandatory initial 1-2 year period of federal employment; probationary employees lack most civil service protections related to adverse actions, such as removal from the federal service.

Schedule C or G

Policies or directives relating to two federal employment categories created for political appointees who do not enjoy the same employment protections as career civil servants. Schedule C contains “positions of a confidential or policy-determining character normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition,” while Schedule G contains “positions of a policy-making or policy-advocating character normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition.”

Schedule P/C

Policies or directives relating to Schedule Policy/Career (“P/C”), a new category of federal employment created in early 2025 by an Executive Order that purports to reclassify “positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character,” and in so doing removes traditional career employment protections from those positions.

SES & Supervisors

Changes that affect federal employees who supervise other federal employees, and/or who are formally classified at the Senior-Level (SL), Scientific and Professional level (ST), or as members of the Senior Executive Service (SES).

Policy Topic Tags

Employee Civil Rights

Rules or restrictions related to employees’ own rights to speech, equal treatment, religious rights, privacy, and other rights that belong to the employee as a person (as opposed to employment-related rights an individual may have as a federal employee). 

Employee Discipline

Policies or practices related to the process for disciplining employees, the reasons for doing so, challenges by the employee to discipline, and the “watchdog offices” — i.e., Office of Special Counsel (OSC), Merit System Protection Board (MSPB), Inspectors General (IGs) —  to which employees may turn. Discipline includes but is not limited to placement on leave, demotions, suitability actions, firings, some transfers, and some investigations.

Firing

Policies that change the process for firing employees, modify the protections employees have before they may be fired, and/or change the substantive standards for when an employee should be fired.

Hiring

Policies or practices related to hiring procedures, recruitment practices, pathways to being hired, people involved in hiring, factors that may or may not be considered in hiring, or anything related.

Performance Management

Includes professional development policies and procedures, performance work plans, trainings, assessment criteria, employee evaluations, feedback, and rules for supervisors that relate to performance management. This also includes policies affecting eligibility for or standards for receiving promotions, employment incentives, or awards.

Reorgs & Reductions

Policies or actions that advance efforts to downsize the federal workforce or reorganize people or functions. This includes efforts in furtherance of agency dismantling, reductions-in-force (RIFs), reorganizations within or between agencies, or “voluntary” separation programs including the “Fork in the Road” offer, the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA), and Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP).

Security Clearances

Grants or revocations of security clearances, as well as policies that change standards or procedure for obtaining, granting, keeping, or losing a security clearance.

Targeting DEIA

Orders or policies that target certain programs, policies, initiatives, or employees because they are labeled “DEI” or “DEIA” and cancelled, limited, or investigated on that basis.

Unions

Orders or policies that affect labor unions in any way, and/or that affect the collective bargaining rights of federal employees.

Whistleblowing

Policies or procedures that affect how federal employees report wrongdoing and the process for doing so. This includes protections for whistleblowing, procedures for how to blow the whistle legally, actual or threatened retaliation for whistleblowing, modifications as to who whistleblowing laws protect, and other related policies or changes.

Working Conditions

Any policy or practice that impacts an employee’s required location (including relocations and telework/in-office mandates), hours, pay, and other similar basic conditions.

Theme Tags

Censorship & Surveillance

Actions or policies that reflect close policing of employee behavior, limit what employees may do or say without risking employment-related consequences, or requirements that employees excessively report on their own work or their colleagues’ behavior. This includes surveillance methods such as cameras or tracking software.

Centralizing Power

Actions or policies that place extra authority in the hands of certain agencies under close Presidential control whose job has historically been to serve other agencies, including but not limited to OPM, OMB, and DOGE. This includes these agencies’ supervision of other agencies’ work or choices.

Ethics & Corruption

Actions or policies affecting governmental ethics or guardrails against corruption, including but not limited to disclosure requirements, asset divestiture, and other ethical requirements. This includes policies that may provide conditions for corruption to take hold, whether or not those actions or policies intend to further corruption.

Politicization & Loyalty

Actions or policies that require — or give the impression of requiring — certain political or ideological beliefs, or discourage expressions of un-aligned beliefs. This includes actions or policies that reflect the influence of partisan politics or specific ideologies, as opposed to a government operating based on technical expertise, merit, and neutral application of the laws.

Program & Service Cuts

Changes to the civil service, programs, or agencies that risk eroding government services, often because programs, funding, or personnel are cut. This includes changes that are likely to create waste, thus diverting funds from programs or services.

Weaponizing Government

Actions or policies that reflect a risk of the use of government institutions or powers for personal or political purposes, rather than for the public good.