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 conduct final suitability determinations against career federal employees based on "post-appointment conduct" — conduct that occurred after an employee's initial hiring. The expansion was legally significant: OPM's existing suitability authority under 5 C.F.R. Part 731 had been limited to screening job applicants before appointment, not removing employees who already held career positions with full civil service protections. The memo required any agency head receiving an OPM suitability decision to remove the named employee within five business days, a timeline that bypassed the normal procedural framework the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 established for adverse actions against career employees. OPM was simultaneously directed to propose new regulations codifying the expanded authority.

The Civil Service Reform Act created a merit-based system designed to insulate career federal employees from politically motivated removal. Under that framework, removing a career employee for conduct requires specified grounds, advance notice, an opportunity to respond, and access to the Merit Systems Protection Board — a process taking weeks or months, not five days. Civil service experts and federal employee unions described the memo as an attempt to give OPM the firing power that DOGE-aligned officials had sought since the administration's first weeks, after federal courts blocked an earlier effort to mass-terminate probationary employees. The director of public policy for the American Federation of Government Employees said the memo amounted to a declaration that the president alone would judge suitability for career service: "This is: I am the king, and I will decide your suitability after you've gotten your appointment."

The memo directed OPM to propose regulatory changes under 5 C.F.R. Part 731, but regulation cannot expand an agency's authority beyond what statute authorizes — extending suitability review to current employees required statutory change, not a presidential memo. By issuing the directive without legislation, the administration asserted that the executive branch could unilaterally rewrite the civil service removal framework Congress established.