Donald Trump’s pick to lead the White House budget office, Russell Vought, attempted to whitewash his previous record leading the powerful agency during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

The Project 2025 co-author, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump 1.0, downplayed the impact and intent of one of the administration’s most controversial policies, Schedule F — a tool that would enable the federal government to mass fire civil servants and demand their political loyalty.

On the eve of the 2020 election, Trump signed an executive order intended to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees as political appointees, stripping their federal protections and making it easier to fire them. The executive order was never implemented and was eventually rescinded by President Joe Biden.

With Trump’s imminent return to office, however, the likely reimplementation of Schedule F is one of several moves that will put countless federal jobs on the line. Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, Trump’s picks to co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency,........

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