U.S. Office of Personnel Management
The Office of Personnel Management is the federal agency that manages the civilian workforce of the United States government, overseeing hiring, pay, benefits, and retirement systems for federal employees. It administers personnel policy across the executive branch and serves as the human resources department for the federal government. In 2025, OPM became central to the administration's effort to reduce the federal workforce through mass resignations, terminations, and reclassification of career employees as political appointees.
Also known as OPM
2026 Events (6)
ProPublica investigation found DOGE cuts left OPM FOIA office unable to fulfill records requests
A ProPublica investigation published August 11, 2026 found that the Office of Personnel Management's FOIA and Privacy Act office has become largely non-functional since the Department of Government Efficiency's early-2025 staffing cuts, which eliminated more than 600 government-information specialists across federal agencies, including 12 of OPM's own. OPM's FOIA backlog grew to over 1,600 requests by the end of fiscal 2025 — seven times the prior year's total — and average processing time doubled to more than 84 days, while a reporter attempting to file a routine request in July 2026 was bounced between broken web portals and abandoned email inboxes for weeks. OPM did not respond to a request for comment.
OPM finalized rule ending independent MSPB, Federal Circuit review of suitability firings for ~1M workers
On August 3, 2026, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management published a final rule, "Suitability Action Appeals," eliminating Merit Systems Protection Board and Federal Circuit review of suitability-action appeals and replacing them with an appeal process OPM adjudicates itself, effective September 2, 2026. The rule follows a separate OPM rule, effective July 30, 2026, that for the first time extended suitability actions -- a vetting tool historically used only to screen job applicants -- to post-appointment conduct by sitting federal employees, with only a written response and no evidentiary hearing before removal. OPM's own rule text projects the July 30 change will reclassify about half of federal employee removals government-wide, previously handled through the standard disciplinary process that carries a right to appeal to the MSPB.
OPM moved to collect health insurance claims data on 8 million federal workers and retirees, retaining the right to re-identify pseudonymized records
On June 23, 2026, the Office of Personnel Management published a Federal Register notice establishing a modified system of records that authorizes the agency to collect health insurance claims data—including diagnoses, prescriptions, and payment details—from 65 insurance carriers covering over 8 million federal workers, retirees, and their family members enrolled in FEHB and PSHB programs. The notice added pseudonymization provisions in response to earlier criticism—removing names, Social Security numbers, and addresses before analyst review—but expressly reserved OPM's right to re-identify records and set an effective date of July 23, 2026 for new data-sharing provisions. Health privacy lawyers warned that pseudonymization was insufficient given that medical conditions alone can identify individuals, and Senate Democrats called on OPM to work with Congress before implementation.
Trump signs order stripping civil-service protections from ~8,000 senior federal workers
On June 3, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order implementing "Schedule Policy/Career" — a revival of the first-term "Schedule F" — that reclassifies roughly 8,000 senior career federal positions, about 97% of them at the GS-15 level or above, into a new at-will category. Affected employees lose civil-service removal protections and the right to appeal adverse actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board, letting agencies fire them without cause. The Office of Personnel Management, which finalized the underlying rule, had earlier estimated up to 50,000 positions could ultimately be covered and has not ruled out expanding the pool.
Trump reclassified ~8,000 senior career federal workers as at-will under Schedule Policy/Career
On June 3, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order formalizing the "Schedule Policy/Career" classification, converting roughly 8,000 senior career civil-service positions into at-will employment removable without the procedural protections established by the Civil Service Reform Act. The order revives the first-term "Schedule F" concept (EO 13957) and lists "subversion of Presidential directives" among the grounds for removal; about 97% of affected positions are GS-15 or Senior Level roles, including directors, chiefs of staff, senior advisers, and regulation drafters. Federal unions and good-government groups warn it strips merit-system protections from policy-influencing career staff by executive action, outside the legislative process.
OPM proposes government-wide NDA for federal workers, with civil and criminal penalties for press disclosures
On May 26, 2026, the Office of Personnel Management posted a Federal Register notice proposing a draft non-disclosure agreement for use by all federal agencies with both new and existing employees. The draft exposes signatories to civil and criminal penalties — and entitles the government to any royalties they receive — for disclosing information the administration deems "confidential" to the press, and requires former employees to obtain written permission from an authorized agency official before speaking to journalists about such material. OPM frames the NDA as preserving whistleblower channels through inspectors general and Congress, but the named target of the proposal is press disclosure of non-public information.
2025 Events (7)
OPM directed federal health carriers to exclude gender-affirming care from FEHB, PSHB coverage
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued FEHB Program Carrier Letter 2025-01b on August 15, 2025, directing all Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits carriers to exclude coverage for hormone treatments and surgical procedures tied to gender transition, effective Plan Year 2026. On August 3, 2026, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and federal employees filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the exclusion violates Title VII's sex-discrimination protections.
Trump signed EO 14317 creating unlimited Schedule G political appointee class, bypassing Senate confirmation and SES caps
President Trump signed Executive Order 14317 on July 17, 2025, creating Schedule G in the Excepted Service — a new, numerically unlimited class of non-career political appointees who fill "policy-making or policy-advocating" roles without Senate confirmation. Unlike the Senior Executive Service, whose political appointments are capped at 10 percent by statute, Schedule G positions do not count against that limit, allowing the administration to install an unrestricted number of Trump loyalists in senior agency positions. The White House described the order as providing "horsepower for agency implementation of administration policy" and as a tool to "dismantle the deep state."
Trump signed presidential memo granting OPM authority to dismiss career civil servants based on post-appointment conduct
On March 20, 2025, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the Office of Personnel Management to make final suitability determinations against career federal employees based on conduct that occurred after their initial appointment — an authority previously limited to job applicants. The memo required agency heads to remove any employee OPM found unsuitable within five business days, overriding the civil service removal protections established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. OPM was further directed to propose new regulations under 5 C.F.R. Part 731 to implement the expanded authority.
OPM demanded weekly work reports from 2 million federal employees under DOGE direction; Musk threatened mass resignation for non-response
On February 22, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management sent a government-wide email to approximately 2 million federal employees directing them to submit five bullets summarizing their weekly work accomplishments and copy their managers, with a deadline of the following Monday at 11:59 PM ET. The email was sent at the direction of Elon Musk, a White House special government employee leading DOGE, who simultaneously posted on X that failure to respond would be taken as a resignation. OPM's own February 5 privacy impact assessment, published in response to ongoing litigation, had explicitly stated seven times that responses to government-wide emails are voluntary.
OPM directed agencies to fire 25,000+ probationary federal employees, bypassing statutory RIF procedures
On February 14, 2025, Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell sent a memorandum to the Chief Human Capital Officers Council directing all federal agencies to separate probationary employees not identified as mission-critical by end of day February 17. Agencies across government fired more than 25,000 employees using template termination letters citing employee "performance" — a rationale contradicted by the absence of any individualized performance review. Federal courts ruled the directive unlawful, finding OPM lacked statutory authority to direct other agencies to fire employees and that the mass separations required 60-day advance notice and formal RIF procedures that were never followed.
Trump signed EO 14171 reinstating Schedule F, stripping civil service protections from policy-influencing federal employees
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14171, "Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce," immediately reinstating his first-term Schedule F executive order — renamed "Schedule Policy/Career" — which reclassifies career federal employees in policy-adjacent roles into an excepted-service category without civil service protections. The order directed OPM to rescind Biden-era rules that had restored affected employees' appeal rights, and required agencies to recommend positions for reclassification; employees in the new schedule could be removed for "subversion of Presidential directives," making political alignment effectively a condition of employment.
Trump signed EO 14151 eliminating all DEI offices, programs, and equity-related grants across the executive branch
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14151, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," directing all executive agencies to terminate their diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, positions, equity action plans, and related grants and contracts within 60 days. The order required agencies to place DEI staff on administrative leave pending termination, to report programs "misleadingly relabeled" to evade compliance, and designated OMB, OPM, and the Attorney General to coordinate agency-wide enforcement. A Maryland federal court issued a preliminary injunction against key provisions on February 21, 2025, which the Fourth Circuit vacated on February 6, 2026.