OPM Sends Employee Suitability Final Rule to OMB

 Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs announced that it had received a final rule from the Office of Personnel Management on “Suitability and Fitness”. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published on June 3rd, 2025. 

According to the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking: 

“The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) plans to finalize its rulemaking to amend the Federal Government personnel vetting adjudicative criteria for determining suitability or fitness.  The purpose of the proposed rule is to improve the rigor and timeliness by which OPM and agencies vet individuals for risk to the integrity and efficiency of the service, and to make clear that individuals who engage in serious misconduct while employed in Federal service are subject to the same suitability procedures and actions as applicants for employment.” 

This rulemaking would continue the Administration’s assault on civil service protections for federal employees in their attempt to ‘drain the swamp’. 

OMB Approves OPM Civil Service Decline Final Rule

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved (with change) the final rule submitted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service”. The notice of proposed rulemaking for this final rule was published on March 23^rd, 2025.

According to the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“OPM plans to finalize a rulemaking implementing E.O. 14171 [link added]. The proposed rule would create the procedures for moving policy-influencing positions into Schedule Policy/Career, which would increase career employee accountability. Schedule Policy/Career positions will remain career jobs filled on a nonpartisan basis. Yet they will be at-will positions excepted from adverse action procedures or appeals. This will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives.”

The current civil service program was specifically designed to prevent federal jobs from being part of a political patronage system. While recognizing that above a certain level, management of the federal bureaucracy is political in nature (and thus requiring presidential appointment), most federal jobs require some level of practical expertise and experience to fairly and efficiently operate and oversee federal programs. Those jobs should not be subject to political litmus tests that change with every change in administration.

While I am sure that the folks at the Heritage Foundation have done an admirable job of cloaking their intent to rid the swamp of any liberal employees in language that would appear to be purely focused on efficiency and efficacy, the brief history of this administration makes it clear that ‘performance’ in the 47th Administration means fealty to, and adoration of, the royal executive. That makes this rulemaking suspect at best.

This rulemaking is outside of the typical scope of coverage of this blog, so I will probably not devote any significant coverage to it, but I will certainly mention its publication in the appropriate Short Takes post.

OPM Sends RIF NPRM to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking from the Office of Personnel Management on “Reduction in Force”.

According to the listing for this rulemaking in the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda:

“The Office of Personnel Management is proposing to modify the regulations for reduction in force (RIF) to amend the retention factors to prioritize performance over length of service when determining which employees will be retained in a RIF and streamline the RIF process.”

The current civil service program was specifically designed to prevent federal jobs from being part of a political patronage system. While recognizing that above a certain level, management of the federal bureaucracy is political in nature (and thus requiring presidential appointment), most federal jobs require some level of practical expertise and experience to fairly and efficiently operate and oversee federal programs. Those jobs should not be subject to political litmus tests that change with every change in administration.

While I am sure that the folks at the Heritage Foundation have done an admirable job of cloaking their intent to rid the swamp of any liberal employees in language that would appear to be purely focused on efficiency and efficacy, the brief history of this administration makes it clear that ‘performance’ in the 47^th Administration means fealty to, and adoration of, the royal executive. That makes this rulemaking suspect at best.

This rulemaking is outside of the typical scope of coverage of this blog, so I will probably not devote any significant coverage to it, but I will certainly mention its publication in the appropriate Short Takes post.

OPM Sends Probationary Period Appeal NPRM to OMB

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on: “Streamlining Probationary and Trial Period Appeals”.

This rulemaking was not listed in the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda, but it would appear that it is a new rulemaking is a follow-up to the June 24^th, 2025, OPM direct final rule on “Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service”. It seems that it would be based upon the new §11.6 of the revised Civil Service Rule XI promulgated by President Trump in EO 14284, “Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service”.

This rulemaking is outside of the normal scope of coverage of this blog, but, since it would appear to be part-and-parcel of the new Administration’s attempt at remaking the federal government, I think it may be of some interest to readers. I do not expect to provide any detailed coverage of its provisions, but I will announce its publication in the appropriate ‘Short Takes’ post.

OPM Sends Federal Executive Management Final Rule to OMB

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a final rule from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on “Assuring Responsive and Accountable Federal Executive Management”. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this rulemaking was published on May 2^nd, 2025.

The rulemaking is expected to modify the performance management regulations governing the Senior Executive Service (SES) by:

Amending 5 CFR 430.305(a)(5) by removing the prohibition on the use of a forced distribution of ratings, and

Amending 5 CFR 430.308(d) to eliminate the non-statutory performance factor of “promoting diversity, inclusion, and engagement.”

I am reporting this here because it is an integral part of the Administration’s attempt to radically reform the executive branch. I do not expect to cover this final rule in any detail in this blog beyond noting its publication in the federal register in the appropriate ‘Short Takes’ post.

OMB Approves EO 14284 Final rule from OPM

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a direct final rule from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on “Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service”.

The rulemaking was sent to OIRA on May 19^th, 2025. While this rulemaking was not published in the Spring 2024 Unified Agenda, I think that we can safely assume that it implements the requirements of EO 4284 of the same name. As I noted in an earlier post, that rulemaking directly changed 5 CFR Part 2, Appointment Through the Competitive Service.

I will not be covering this regulation change in any detail, but I will announce its publication in the appropriate ‘Short Takes’ post.

OMB Approves OPM Civil Service Accountability NPRM

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service”.  This draft rule was submitted to OIRA on February 10^th, 2025.

This rulemaking was not published in the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda. It looks like, however, that it fulfilling the requirements of § 4, Conforming Regulatory Changes, of EO 14171, “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce”. That EO amends and reinstates Trump’s EO 13957, Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service, and revokes President Biden’s EO 14003, Protecting the Federal Workforce.

Section 4 of EO 14171 required OPM to “promptly amend the Civil Service Regulations to rescind all changes made by the final rule of April 9, 2024, “Upholding Civil Service Protections and Merit System Principles,” 89 Fed. Reg. 24982 [link added], that impede the purposes of or would otherwise affect the implementation of Executive Order 13957.”

I will not be covering this rulemaking in any depth in this blog, but I will announce it’s publication in the appropriate ‘Short Takes’ post.

OPM Sends Suitability and Fitness NPRM to OMB

On Friday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on “Suitability and Fitness “. There was no listing for this rulemaking in the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda, but it appears that this rulemaking is in support of a March 20, 2025 presidential memorandum on “Strengthening the Suitability and Fitness of the Federal Workforce”.

That memorandum provides that:

“The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is delegated the authority to make final suitability determinations and take suitability actions regarding employees in the executive branch based on post-appointment conduct, consistent with applicable law.  In this context, a suitability action can include a directive by OPM to the head of an executive department or agency (agency) to remove an employee who does not meet the suitability criteria defined in OPM’s regulations.”

The speed with which OPM was able to submit this rulemaking to OIRA suggests that the action was well coordinated in advance of the memorandum’s publication. I suspect that we will see similar speed with OIRA’s approval and subsequent publication in the Federal Register of this rulemaking.

OMB Approves OPM Board Elimination Final Rule

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a final rule from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on “Elimination of Federal Executive Boards”. That direct final rule was sent to OIRA on March 10^th, 2025. As I reported last week, the Final rule is in response to Trump’s EO 14217, Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy. It would eliminate:

• The Presidio Trust,

• The Inter-American Foundation,

• The United States African Development Foundation, and

• The United States Institute of Peace.

It will be interesting to see how quickly this gets printed in the Federal Register. There is no reason that it could not be published this week as this is obviously a priority for President Trump. Any delay past that would be an indication of bureaucratic inefficiencies in the Administration that would not be unexpected at this point in the new organization.

I may publish a short post on the publication of this rule to address that issue, but at the very least I will include a note in the appropriate Short Takes post on the day it is published.

OPM Sends New Civil Service Rule to OMB

Yesterday OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service”. This rulemaking was not listed in the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda.

While there are any number of reasons that an NPRM would not have been listed in the latest Unified Agenda, I suspect that this is a de novo rule from the Trump administration directed at their concerns about the ‘deep state’. I do not expect to cover this rulemaking in any depth, but I will be watching this to see how fast this rule makes it through the regulatory process.