Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service

Federal RegisterFeb 6, 2026

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OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

5 CFR Parts 210, 212, 213, 302, 432, 451, 537, 575, and 752

[Docket ID: OPM-2025-0004]

RIN 3206-AO80

Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service

AGENCY:

Office of Personnel Management.

ACTION:

Final rule.

SUMMARY:

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing a rule to increase career employee accountability. Agency supervisors report great difficulty removing employees for poor performance or misconduct. The final rule authorizes agencies to move policy-influencing positions into Schedule Policy/Career. These 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 rule requires agencies to establish internal policies protecting employees from prohibited personnel practices.

DATES:

Effective March 9, 2026.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Noah Peters, Senior Advisor to the Director, by email at

employeeaccountability@opm.gov

or by phone at (202) 606-293.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Executive Summary

OPM is issuing final regulations to strengthen employee accountability and the democratic responsiveness of American Government, while addressing longstanding performance management challenges in the Federal workforce. The final rule amends OPM's regulations in 5 CFR chapter I, subchapter B, as follows:

1. Amending 5 CFR part 213 (Excepted Service) to include Schedule Policy/Career as an excepted service schedule for career positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character (policy-influencing

positions), while clarifying that Schedule C appointments are exclusively for noncareer (

i.e.,

political) appointments with confidential or policy responsibilities. The amended regulations further clarify that employees filling excepted service positions are in the excepted service, regardless of whether they retain competitive status, and specifies increasing accountability to the President as grounds for excepting positions from the competitive service.

Throughout this rulemaking OPM uses the term “policy-influencing” as a shorthand descriptor of the broader statutory language “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating.”

See

5 U.S.C. 7511(b)(2).

2. Amending 5 CFR part 212 (Competitive Service and Competitive Status) to provide that employees with competitive status whose positions are subsequently listed in the excepted service or who are moved into an excepted service position retain competitive status but do not remain in the competitive service while in the excepted position.

3. Amending 5 CFR part 752 (Adverse Actions) to remove the amendments made by the April 2024 final rule and provide that individuals whose positions are reclassified into or who are otherwise transferred into Schedule Policy/Career are not covered by chapter 75 procedural requirements or adverse action appeals. Additionally, OPM amends 5 CFR part 752 to remove language pertaining to 10 U.S.C. 1599e, which provided for a 2-year probationary period in the Department of Defense. This language has become obsolete as section 1599e was repealed, effective December 31, 2022, by Public Law 117-81, Sec. 1106(a)(1). The rule further amends 5 CFR part 432 (Performance Based Reduction in Grade and Removal Actions) to remove the amendments made by the April 2024 final rule and to exclude all policy-influencing positions in the excepted service from chapter 43 procedural requirements for performance-based removals.

4. Amending 5 CFR part 210 (Basic Concepts and Definitions (General)) to remove the amendments made by the April 2024 final rule stating that policy-influencing positions are exclusively associated with noncareer political appointments. The final rule also amends 5 CFR 213.3301, 302.101, and 451.302 to conform to the rescission of these definitions.

5. Amending 5 CFR part 302 to remove the amendments made by the April 2024 final rule imposing procedural requirements on movements of positions or employees into policy-influencing excepted service positions (including subsequent Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) appeals). The final rule also provides that moving or transferring positions into Schedule Policy/Career will not change how appointments to those positions are made. Positions moved from the competitive service will be filled using competitive hiring procedures and employees so appointed may acquire competitive status. Positions moved from the excepted service will continue to be filled using the procedures that applied to their prior excepted service schedule.

6. Amending 5 CFR part 537 to allow employees reassigned to positions in Schedule Policy/Career to continue to receive student loan repayment benefits under the terms of the applicable service agreement unless eligibility is lost as described in 5 CFR 537.108.

7. Amending 5 CFR part 575 at subparts A, B, and C to allow agencies to continue paying any outstanding recruitment, relocation, or retention incentive under the terms of existing agreements for positions moved into Schedule Policy/Career provided the employees are otherwise fulfilling the terms of their service agreements. This final rule also permits agencies to continue paying a retention incentive to an employee who is not under a service agreement at the time when their position is moved into Schedule Policy/Career.

As further detailed below, this rulemaking will promote Federal employee accountability and strengthen American democracy while addressing performance management challenges and issues with misconduct within the Federal workforce. It will give agencies the practical ability to separate employees who insert partisanship into their official duties, engage in corruption, or otherwise fail to uphold merit principles. OPM may set forth policies, procedures, standards, and supplementary guidance for the implementation of this final rule.

II. Digest of Public Comments

In response to the proposed rule, OPM received 40,500 comments during the 45-day public comment period from a variety of individuals (including current and former civil servants, scientists, Nobel laureates, and members of Congress) and organizations such as those representing science and technology, national and local unions, and Federal agencies. Of the 40,500 comments received, 35,551 were posted, 2 were withdrawn, and 7 were not posted because they contained threats to the President and members of the Administration or contained sensitive personally identifiable information from commenters. The remaining 4,940 comments are attributed to individual commenters who indicated on their

comment submission that their comment represented a specific number of submissions. For example, one commenter stated that he and 7 other people were part of a group of former Environmental Protection Agency employees submitting a comment on behalf of all 8 people. In another example, a commenter indicated that they are part of 2 organizations, the Union League Club of Chicago and the League of Women Voters of Chicago, and their comment represents 3,200 submissions. At the conclusion of the public comment period, OPM reviewed and analyzed the comments. In general, the comments ranged from ardent support of the proposed regulation to categorical rejection of it. Approximately 5 percent of the overall comments were supportive, 1 percent neutral or mixed, and 94 percent opposed the proposed regulation.

In the proposed rule, OPM invited comments on whether it is appropriate to retain certain amendments to parts 302 and 752, as well as input on the costs and benefits of this rule. OPM received a wide variety of comments in response to the proposed rule and incorporated them into the relevant sections that follow. OPM found the comments helpful when explaining the purpose, scope, and impact on the Federal workforce in drafting this final rule.

In the next section, we address the background for these regulatory amendments and related comments. In subsequent sections, we address the specific amendments, provide a regulatory analysis, and provide the amended regulatory text. Note that OPM received several comments that are not addressed below because they were beyond the scope of the proposed regulatory changes or else were vague or incomplete.

III. Background and Related Comments

A. History of the Civil Service and Removal Restrictions

Critical to the success of any presidency is the ability to implement an agenda endorsed by the American people free from antidemocratic, unaccountable bureaucratic resistance. “The Constitution requires that a President chosen by the entire Nation oversee the execution of the laws.”

In order to execute his Article II duty to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed, the vast expansion in the scope and complexity of Federal law has required the President to delegate such authority to thousands of career civil servants involved in policy formulation. Because in practice such delegation involves hundreds of thousands of distinct statutory provisions, it is extraordinarily difficult for the President—or agency heads appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate—to ensure that all such delegations are being executed consistent with the priorities of the President. It is therefore critical to create an incentive architecture that will encourage and reward accurate translation of such priorities.

Free Enter. Fund

Pub. Co. Acct. Oversight Bd.,

561 U.S. 477, 499 (2010).

See id.

at 498 (“the Framers sought to ensure that `those who are employed in the execution of the law will be in their proper situation, and the chain of dependence be preserved; the lowest officers, the middle grade, and the highest, will depend, as they ought, on the President, and the President on the community.' ”) (quoting 1 Annals of Cong., at 499 (J. Madison)).

As explained in greater detail in the proposed rule, however, the Federal service has matured to a point where the status quo removal restrictions for policy-influencing positions have become harmful overcorrections to fears of a return to the spoils system of the past. Instead of protecting merit, these removal restrictions too often undermine democratic accountability, entrench bureaucratic policy-resistance, and frustrate the President's constitutional ability to faithfully execute the law. As James Madison observed during the First Congress, “if any power whatsoever is in its nature Executive, it is the power of appointing, overseeing, and controlling those who execute the laws.”

Id.

at 492 (quoting 1 Annals of Cong. 463 (1789)).

From the beginning of the earliest days of the American republic, the appointment and removal of Federal officers flowed from the authority vested in the President under Article II of the Constitution. However, over the course of the Nineteenth Century, presidents began to lose control of the appointment and removal process due to the rise of the patronage system. By the 1880s, appointments to positions in the executive branch were predominantly made based on political connections, typically as a reward for loyal supporters of the party in power. Members of Congress and local party machines would use their influence with the President to get their preferred candidates Federal appointments. The patronage system began showing strain as the Federal Government expanded rapidly after the Civil War. The Federal civilian workforce nearly doubled in size between 1871 and 1881, from 51,000 to 100,000 employees.

Ronald N. Johnson & Gary D. Libecap, The Federal Civil Service and the Problem of Bureaucracy: The Economics and Politics of Institutional Change, 17 (University of Chicago Press, 1994),

https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c8633/c8633.pdf

(Johnson & Libecap).

Congress responded when it passed the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 (Pendleton Act) to begin the shift to a merit system by requiring competitive examinations for covered positions and insulating those jobs from purely political patronage. The Pendleton Act also established the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to help implement and enforce its requirements. While the Pendleton Act professionalized hiring, early statutes and practice still left wide managerial latitude over removals. The Pendleton Act also prohibited executive branch officials from dismissing classified employees because they declined to render political services, but otherwise such officials served at the pleasure of the President. Classified employees' status under the Pendleton Act was similar to most private sector workers today. Businesses today cannot fire workers for certain discriminatory reasons, such as race or religion, but employees otherwise serve at the pleasure of their employer. Civil service employees also had no right to appeal or otherwise contest removals. Instead, the Pendleton Act was enforced through penalties on officials who violated its requirements. The reformers who created the Pendleton Act made a conscious decision to keep the civil service at-will. They saw little risk of patronage-based dismissals as long as civil service hiring forbade rewarding campaign supporters with new appointments.

See

P.P. Van Riper, History of the United States Civil Service, 101-03 (Row, Peterson & Co. 1958) (Van Riper).

In 1912, Congress passed the Lloyd-La Follette Act of 1912.

Among its provisions, the Lloyd-La Follette Act provided that employees in the classified service (now known as the competitive service) could only be removed “for such cause as will promote the efficiency of [the] service”, and must be given written notice of the reasons for their proposed dismissal and an opportunity to respond.

Among its provisions, the Lloyd-La Follette Act further mandated that “no examination of witnesses nor any trial or hearing shall be required except in the discretion of the officer making the removal.”

The next year the CSC explained its policy governing civil service dismissals, delimiting the ability of agencies to remove employees as freely as possible with only the limits

necessary to ensure the proper exercise of this authority.

The Lloyd-La Follette Act's policy, according to the CSC, was intended to “prevent removals upon secret charges and to stop political pressure for removals.”

The Lloyd-La Follette Act and its predecessor executive orders did not give classified civil service employees tenure or the ability to appeal removals. They instead imposed procedural requirements to ensure dismissals were not pretextual and to prevent political or religiously motivated removals. Agencies remained the sole judge of employee conduct and performance.

37 Stat. 555 (1912).

Id.

U.S. Civil Service Commission, Twenty-Ninth Annual Report, 21-22 (1913).

Id.

at 22.

For the first six decades of the merit service, employees could not appeal removals. That only began to change during the Second World War. The Veterans Preference Act (VPA) of 1944 gave veterans significant hiring preferences for Federal jobs.

It also provided that veterans—including those in the excepted service—could be dismissed only to promote the efficiency of the service, and it allowed veterans to appeal adverse actions to the CSC.

In 1948, Congress amended the law to make the outcomes of CSC appeals binding on agencies.

These amendments gave preference-eligible veterans the ability to appeal removals outside their agency.

Public Law 78-359, 58 Stat. 387 (1944).

Id.

at 390.

Public Law 80-741, 62 Stat. 575 (1948).

Until the 1950s, courts would entertain procedural challenges to civil service removals, overturning them where agencies did not follow Lloyd-La Follette procedures. But courts generally avoided examining the substance of removal actions.

A significant precedent was established in 1954 when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decided

Roth

Brownell.

As noted in the decision, the Lloyd-La Follette Act provided that “[n]o person in the classified civil service of the United States shall be removed or suspended without pay therefrom except for such cause as will promote the efficiency of such service and for reasons given in writing.”

The D.C. Circuit construed this language to require agencies to follow Lloyd-La Follette procedures to take employees out of the competitive service—whether through a discharge or through moving the position into the excepted service.

The D.C. Circuit subsequently clarified that agencies could dismiss employees from confidential or policy-making positions based purely on loss of confidence. In

Leonard

Douglas,

the D.C. Circuit concluded that removing an employee from a policy-making position because his superiors did not find him suitable to advance their policies promoted “the efficiency of the service” and was therefore lawful.

Consequently, while the Lloyd-La Follette Act and VPA imposed procedural requirements on removals, agencies generally retained broad authority to dismiss employees for non-discriminatory reasons. Those reasons included removing employees from policy-influencing positions based purely on the belief they would not effectively advance the President's policies.

See

Gerald E. Frug, “Does the Constitution Prevent the Discharge of Civil Service Employees,” 124 U. Pa. L. Rev. 942, 970, n.134, (1976) (

Frug

https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4997&context=penn_law_review.

215 F.2d 500 (D.C. Cir. 1954) (

Roth

cert. denied,

348 U.S. 863 (1954).

Id.

at 501 (quoting 37 Stat. 555 (1912), as amended, 62 Stat. 354 (1948)).

Id.

at 502.

321 F.2d 749, 751-53 (D.C. Cir. 1963).

In the years leading up to the establishment of the current civil service system, the Supreme Court ruled in

Arnett

Kennedy

that a Federal employee has a constitutional due process interest in continued Federal employment.

Arnett

made constitutional due process challenges generally applicable to civil service removals, not just when employees were fired for exercising constitutional rights.

416 U.S. 134, 163 (1974).

Congress legislated against this backdrop when it passed the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA).

The CSRA replaced the Lloyd-La Follette Act, VPA, executive orders, and private rights of action in Federal court with a new unified framework governing adverse actions and subsequent appeals.

The CSRA maintained prohibitions on patronage and restricted agencies' ability to take adverse actions in some respects. For example, the CSRA gave non-preference eligible employees in the competitive service the same right to appeal long-term suspensions and demotions that preference eligible employees possessed.

The CSRA also expanded preference-eligible employees' ability to appeal suspensions by authorizing appeals of suspensions of more than 14 days, rather than those exceeding 30 days.

Public Law 95-454, 92 Stat. 1111 (1978).

Id.

Compare

5 U.S.C. 7511 (1978)

with

80 Stat. 528, Public Law 89-554 (1966).

Compare

5 U.S.C. 7512

with

80 Stat. 528, Public Law 89-544 (1966).

In other ways, the CSRA made taking adverse actions easier. It prevented Federal employees from directly challenging removals in Federal district court. The CSRA instead channeled adverse action appeals to the MSPB

and subsequent legislation vested judicial review in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

The CSRA also repealed Lloyd-La Follette provisions governing removal from the competitive service, replacing it with a new unified framework of adverse action appeals for both competitive service employees and excepted service preference-eligibles. Notably, the CSRA thus removed from Federal law the language the D.C. Circuit interpreted in

Roth.

The CSRA also categorically excluded excepted service employees in policy-influencing positions from adverse action procedures.

See

5 U.S.C. 7701; Public Law 95-454, 92 Stat. 1111 (1978).

See

5 U.S.C. 7703(b)(1)(A); Public Law 97-164, 96 Stat. 25 (1982).

5 U.S.C. 7511(b)(2).

In an important decision after the enactment of the CSRA, the Supreme Court held in

United States

Fausto

that employees statutorily excluded from chapter 75 could not contest removals in Federal district court.

The Court explained that the CSRA created a comprehensive review system for adverse actions; exclusion from CSRA coverage meant employees could not appeal adverse actions elsewhere.

Shortly thereafter, Congress passed the Civil Service Due Process Amendments Act of 1990 (DPAA).

This law, which remains in effect, amended the CSRA by extending chapter 75 to generally cover excepted service employees—preference eligible or not—after an initial trial period.

At the same time, Congress retained the exclusion from chapter 75 procedures for excepted service employees in policy-influencing positions.

484 U.S. 439, 454-55 (1988) (

Fausto

). Commenter 34947 asserts the proposed rule misreads

Fausto

as applying to constitutional claims when it only addresses statutory claims. However, the proposed rule did no such thing.

See

90 FR 17186 & 17217 (citing to

Fausto

for the proposition that Federal employees cannot contest removals in district court because the CSRA is the exclusive remedial statutory framework for adverse action appeals and judicial review).

Fausto,

484 U.S. at 455.

Public Law 101-376, 104 Stat. 461 (1990).

Id.

5 U.S.C. 7511(b)(2).

A large number of commenters argued that classifying career positions as policy-influencing and exempt from adverse action procedures violates the Pendleton Act, the Lloyd-La Follette Act and/or the CSRA. These arguments misunderstand the law.

The Pendleton Act did not provide tenure protection for Federal employees. The proponents of the Act were primarily concerned with establishing merit as the basis for civil service appointments. The most significant aspect of the Pendleton Act was to provide for examinations (

i.e.,

tests) for Federal employment. The idea was that people who did very well on these tests would likely make the most competent employees.

Tenure protection for Federal employees, especially for non-veterans, is a relatively recent phenomenon that had no place under the Pendleton Act. As discussed above, the Lloyd-La Follette Act did not require external review of adverse actions, and it expressly provided that trial-like proceedings were not required to effectuate dismissals.

It was not until 1944 that the VPA provided any type of third-party review of adverse actions, and only for veterans. Although the Congressional record on this provision is sparse, it appears to have been motivated by concerns that agencies would formally honor veteran preference in hiring only to pretextually dismiss veterans after the fact.

It was not until the 1970s that full third-party review by the CSC was afforded to non-veteran employees facing adverse actions. Until then employees without veteran preference had no right to appeal their removal outside their agency. A number of commenters have mischaracterized the Pendleton Act as standing for something it never addressed—due process. The Pendleton Act, as innovative as it was, was concerned

only

with merit-based hiring,

i.e.,

examining potential candidates for Federal employment on the basis of objective examinations instead of patronage appointments. Attempts to characterize the Pendleton Act as encompassing notions of procedural rights introduced only in the late 20th century thus are historically inaccurate. Instead, the current system with multiple avenues of appeal for employees seeking to challenge adverse actions involving substandard or lackluster performance as well as overt misconduct only arose in the 1970s.

See

Frug, 124 U. Pa. L. Rev. at 959-60;

see also

Merit Sys. Prot. Bd.,

Remedying Unacceptable Employee Performance in the Federal Civil Service

at 15 (June 18, 2019) (Remedying Unacceptable Employee Performance),

https://www.mspb.gov/studies/researchbriefs/Remedying_Unacceptable_Employee_Performance_in_the_Federal_Civil_Service_1627610.pdf.

E.O. 14171, 90 FR at 8625.

C. Reasons for New Rulemaking

1. Change in Administration Policy and Operative Legal Standards

Through this rulemaking, OPM is now finalizing regulations to rescind the changes made by the April 2024 final rule, implement E.O. 14171, and establish Schedule Policy/Career for policy-influencing career positions. Schedule Policy/Career positions will generally be filled using merit-based competitive hiring procedures, with exceptions only for those positions currently filled using excepted hiring procedures. Individuals appointed or reassigned to Schedule Policy/Career positions will be excepted from chapter 43 and 75 procedures for performance-based and adverse actions. They will be exempt from statutory PPP coverage under 5 U.S.C. 2302(b) as policy-influencing positions are not covered positions under 5 U.S.C. 2032(a). However, E.O. 13957 is explicit that agencies must establish and enforce internal policies barring PPPs including whistleblower reprisal. Consequently, Schedule Policy/Career employees will remain career employees, while subject to elevated levels of accountability for their performance and conduct. For the reasons explained in greater detail in the proposed rule, OPM is proceeding with these changes to ensure accountability of the Federal career workforce charged by the President to deliver on the bold policy agenda endorsed by the American voters, as well as to bring the civil service regulations into conformity with operative legal requirements.

2. Needed To Address Factors Inadequately Considered in Prior Rulemaking

OPM also now realizes that it gave inadequate consideration to several factors when issuing the April 2024 final rule. Upon further consideration, OPM has concluded that these factors call for issuing this final rule.

i. Adverse Action Procedures Make Addressing Poor Performance, Misconduct, and Corruption Challenging

Chapter 75 requires that most agencies follow specific procedures to take adverse actions against employees for misconduct or poor performance. Chapter 43 sets out procedures for actions based on unacceptable performance (

i.e.,

performance-based actions). However, decades of experience have demonstrated that the procedures described in chapters 43 and 75 are inadequate to allow agencies to hold employees accountable for poor performance, misconduct, or corruption.

The substantial evidence documented in the proposed rule and this final rule demonstrate the extent to which existing authorities leave agencies unable to effectively address poor performance, misconduct, and corruption. Moreover, the April 2024 final rule imposed additional procedural hurdles that would delay or prevent agencies from effectively addressing these issues.

The proposed rule cited a wide range of data demonstrating the need for these reforms. Nevertheless, several commenters have argued against OPM's reliance upon this data. Commenters such as 1443, 2869, 14463, 16846, 26624, 27012, 28185, 28202, 28619, 32647, 34522, 35520, and others, claim that the proposed rule's citation to research published by the MSPB in 2016 and 2019 do not support the establishment of Schedule Policy/Career. Commenter 14463 asserts that the MSPB research is not based on objective facts nor suggests that political resistance is a problem. Commenters 19698, 30984, 35478, and 35520 criticize the research as not relevant to the class of employees who will be reassigned or hired into Schedule Policy/Career.

OPM notes, however, that these Commenters do not dispute the MSPB's findings that establish that supervisors believe they lack the ability to effectively address poor performance and misconduct, or that few employees believe their agencies address poor performers effectively. Although the research does not discuss establishing Schedule Policy/Career to address these issues amongst senior career professionals, conversely the research does not recommend against doing so. Additionally, FEVS data published after this research and cited in the proposed and final rules indicate that these problems of employee accountability continue. In fact, Commenters 8029's and 14463's highlighting of other factors further supports this final rule as the removal of statutory adverse action procedures lessens the reliance on human resources processes and reduces leadership adversity to litigation, both driven by performance-based and adverse action procedures. OPM relies on the MSPB research to support the proposition that agencies continue to face substantive problems with poor performance and misconduct. This final rule establishes reforms consistent with the problems identified in MSPB's research and FEVS data that shows agencies face a lingering problem with addressing poor performance and misconduct.

Commenter 30426 claims that OPM failed to demonstrate that FEVS data shows that only a minority of employees believe that agencies appropriately deal with poor performers. This claim is puzzling. OPM cited to FEVS data in the proposed rulemaking showing a historical range of between 25 and 42 percent of Federal employees believe steps are taken to deal with a poor performer in their work unit who cannot or will not improve.

This is supported by the historical FEVS data available to the public on OPM's website.

OPM explained that employees are able to directly observe whether their agencies remove poorly performing employees or if they stay in their work unit and continue to underperform. This is a logical basis to reject the conclusion that employees do not know what steps their agencies are taking to address poor performance. They may not see intermediate steps, but they see the end result.

90 FR 17182, 17189 (Apr. 23, 2025). We note, as Commenter 27647 pointed out, that the reference for the FEVS data was missing from the proposed rule. To remedy this, we provide the citation here, which was also provided in a subsequent footnote in the proposed rule.

See

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt.,

2020 FEVS

at 24,

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwidemanagement-report/2020/2020-governmentwidemanagement-report.pdf.

See, e.g.,

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt.,

FEVS Results: Employees Influencing Change

at 29 (2015),

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-management-report/2015/2015-governmentwide-management-report;

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt.,

FEVS: Empowering Employees. Inspiring Change

at 24 (2020),

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-management-report/2020/2020-governmentwide-management-report.pdf;

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt.,

FEVS: Empowering Employees. Inspiring Change

at 15 (2021),

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-management-report/2021/2021-governmentwide-management-report.pdf.

Commenters 29987 and 30426 also argue that OPM's data does not show whether poor performance is actually widespread, or if it merely represents a large number of employees reporting the same few individuals. Commenter 30426 also criticizes the fact that OPM cites some sources dating to the mid-2000s and mid-2010s. Commenters 0085, 3728, 6205, 7795, 14463, 29987, 35520, and others, take issue with OPM's reliance upon existing data, describing it, variously, as “incomplete,” lacking “context,” as not actually documenting widespread lack of accountability or poor performance, or as a “gotcha” designed to stifle opposition to the proposed rule. Commenters 0210, 3326, 2764, 16846, 18811, 27647, 29923, 30317, 31210, 34881, and 35446 assert—without evidence—that the instances cited in the proposed rule do not substantiate widespread claims of poor performance. The proposed rule provided numerous examples, case studies, surveys, and academic articles discussing poor performance in the Federal Government.

OPM notes that the FEVS ask employees about what happens to poor performers “in [their] work unit”

—generally smaller groupings of employees—which makes it unlikely the widespread negative responses represent just a few individuals across the entire agency. At a minimum, employees in a significant number of work units are reporting the presence of at least one poor performer. Furthermore, these commenters fail to provide evidence that poor performance is not widespread or that the number of poor performers is limited to a few individuals. OPM also takes note of Commenter 29987's concession that, in the experience of the former EPA officials who volunteer for Commenter's organization, performance-based actions are not easily proven or quickly effectuated, and are not infrequently challenged successfully.

OPM takes this admission against interest as evidence that even many Federal officials who oppose this rule recognize that performance-based actions are difficult to undertake.

90 FR at 17189-91.

See, e.g.,

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt.,

FEVS Results: Employees Influencing Change

at 29 (2015),

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-management-report/2015/2015-governmentwide-management-report;

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt.,

FEVS: Empowering Employees. Inspiring Change

at 24 (2020),

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-management-report/2020/2020-governmentwide-management-report.pdf;

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt.,

FEVS: Empowering Employees. Inspiring Change

at 15 (2021),

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-management-report/2021/2021-governmentwide-management-report.pdf.

Comment 29987 at 11, 18 (“In the decades of experience of EPN volunteers, many of whom were managers at EPA, disciplinary actions for misconduct,

unlike performance-based disciplinary actions,

are easily proven, quickly effectuated, and seldom challenged successfully.”) (emphasis added).

Additionally, many agencies during the comment period reported to OPM that adverse action procedures make it very difficult for them to remove poor performers, and this is a significant problem.

OPM credits these comments. Agencies know what is occurring in their workforces and are often best positioned to evaluate challenges impacting them. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for example, reported that it terminated 5, 4, and 7 career tenured employees for poor performance out of an employee population of 90,000 in fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively.

This happened despite the 2024 FEVS survey showing less than a quarter of HHS employees believe there are no

poor performers in their work unit, while 30 percent reported poor performers exist in their unit, and typically remain on the job and continue to underperform, rather than being removed.

This is strong, contemporaneous evidence that the Government has a serious performance management problem. It is not credible to anyone—including HHS employees—that just one in 10,000 HHS employees is a poor performer. Nonetheless, HHS performance-based dismissals still number in the single digits.

See, e.g.,

Comments 29917 and 31998 (HHS), 35535 (Department of Labor), and 35549 (Department of Veterans Affairs).

Comments 29917, 31998.

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt.,

2024 Office of Personnel Management FEVS: Report by Agency

(2024), at Tables Q16_2 & Q16_5,

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/data-reports/data-reports/report-by-agency/2024/2024-agency-report-excel.xlsx.

Finally, Commenters 27467, 30055, and 30426's criticism of OPM citing data from 2003 and 2014 is without merit. Specifically, the proposed rule noted that the National Commission on Public Service concluded that: “[f]ederal employees themselves are unhappy with the conditions they face. . . . They resent the protections provided to those poor performers among them who impede their own work and drag down the reputation of all government workers.”

Employee accountability procedures have not fundamentally changed in the interim—employees operate under the same adverse action procedures as one and two decades ago. This data, together with the FEVS data, supports the conclusion that accountability of the workforce is a longstanding problem, as stated in the proposed rulemaking.

90 FR at 17189 (quoting The Nat'l Comm'n on Pub. Serv.,

Urgent Business for America: Revitalizing the Federal Government for the 21st Century

at 12 (Jan. 2003),

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/01governance.pdf

Commenters 14463, 27647, and 30426 also object to OPM citing news reports and academic research discussing surveys of Federal employees and managers without providing the actual data used by the news sources or researchers supporting their publications. In the proposed rule, OPM cited to a news article appearing in Government Executive from the mid-2010s, discussing a poll the outlet's research arm had commissioned. OPM also cited and linked to an academic survey of Senior Executive Service (SES) members conducted by researchers affiliated with Vanderbilt and Princeton Universities, that provided the precise survey questions, sample size, and margin of error data. Notwithstanding these Commenters' arguments, OPM is not required to obtain the raw microdata underlying academic studies or publicly reported polls to take note of them in a rulemaking. Commenter 27647 complained of inability to access the source cited in footnote 103 despite it being readily available through online retailers such as Amazon.

Commenters 8029, 14463, 19791, 28481, 30426, and 35478 argue that none of the sources OPM cites provide logical support for the changes under the proposed rule. Commenter 8029 takes issue with OPM's interpretation of the research, suggesting that there are other problems such as lack of management support and poor human resources staffing that contribute to the problems of poor performance and misconduct. Commenter 14463 points out that a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report from June 17, 2019, points to DHS' failure to properly resource, design, and oversee the Department's disciplinary program. Commenters 19698, 30984, 35478, and 35520 criticize the research as not relevant to the class of employees who will be reassigned or hired into Schedule Policy/Career.

Instead, these Commenters argue that better processes, more flexible personnel systems, more leadership support, and more training for managers on how to use the existing performance management system would better address poor performance and misconduct. Similarly, referring to the documented instances of sexual harassment at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Commenters 29374 and 32793 argue that it would be more effective to change the culture of the organization using existing accountability tools, rather than promulgating a new rule to implement Schedule Policy/Career.

Despite the commenters' beliefs, evidence showing the Federal performance management system is dysfunctional and prevents agencies from effectively addressing poor performance is legion. Federal employees have, for decades, responded to Federal surveys that their agencies do not effectively address poor performers. During the proposed rule's comment period, OPM received comments from Federal employees complaining that agencies rarely address poor performance. For example, OPM received comments from Federal employees and others complaining about other Federal employees “retiring in place” and continuing to draw a paycheck despite doing little work, noting that agencies do not remove these employees and that this inaction is demoralizing to employees who want to do well.

This phenomenon is supported by OPM's FEVS survey data, which reflects that many supervisors report they do not believe they could remove poor performers. Agencies, too, told OPM that performance management is a serious problem and provided data to support their concerns.

See, e.g.,

Comments 1734 and 5335.

Numerous reports spanning many decades

have recommended other options like “better training managers on how to use performance management systems,” but all such initiatives have had little impact—predictably so, given the burden and complexity of the current chapter 75 and 43 removal procedures, which often involve multiple layers of appeals.

Commenter 30165 states that the cited cases are “primarily of issues other than policy execution or of serious misconduct,” and “not of employees failing to execute agency priorities.” The cited problems,

however, have been longstanding and consistent. OPM believes Schedule Policy/Career would be more effective in addressing these performance management challenges in policy-influencing positions than doubling down on prior practices that have not succeeded. Further, agencies have told OPM they believe the rulemaking would be beneficial and help them manage affected employees more effectively, including holding them accountable for poor performance. OPM credits agency experience and expertise, as well as the fact that this reform addresses a major driver of the difficulty in removing poor performers.

Remedying Unacceptable Employee Performance,

https://www.mspb.gov/studies/researchbriefs/Remedying_Unacceptable_Employee_Performance_in_the_Federal_Civil_Service_1627610.pdf.;

MSPB, Addressing Misconduct in the Federal Civil Service: Management Perspectives (Dec. 2016),

https://mspbpublic.azurewebsites.net/studies/researchbriefs/Addressing_Misconduct_in_the_Federal_Civil_Service_Management_Perspectives_1363799.pdf;

MSPB, Addressing Poor Performers and the Law (Sept. 2009),

https://mspbpublic.azurewebsites.net/studies/studies/Addressing_Poor_Performers_and_the_Law_445841.pdf;

MSPB, Removing Poor Performers in the Federal Service (Sept. 1995),

https://mspbpublic.azurewebsites.net/studies/studies/Removing_Poor_Performers_in_the_Federal_Service_Issue_Paper_September_1995_253662.pdf;

MSPB, The Changing Federal Workplace: Employee Perspectives (1996),

https://mspbpublic.azurewebsites.net/studies/studies/The_Changing_Federal_Workplace_Employee_Perspectives_253655.pdf;

MSPB, The Federal Workforce for the 21st Century: Results of the Merit Principles Survey at ix (Sept. 2003),

https://mspbpublic.azurewebsites.net/studies/studies/The_Federal_Workforce_for_the_21st_Century_Results_of_the_Merit_Principles_Survey_2000_253631.pdf

(“While 45 percent of respondents said their supervisor retains employees based on their job performance, just 35 percent claimed that their supervisor deals effectively with misconduct on the job, and just 22 percent said their supervisor deals effectively with poor performers.”); MSPB, The Other Side of the Coin: Removals for Incompetence in the Federal Service (Feb. 1982),

https://mspbpublic.azurewebsites.net/studies/studies/The_Other_Side_of_the_Merit_Coin_Removals_for_Incompetence_in_the_Federal_Service_254732.pdf.

OPM acknowledges the need for training supervisors and is simultaneously introducing a new government-wide training program for supervisors on performance management. OPM, “Performance Management for Federal Employees,” June 17, 2025,

https://www.opm.gov/chcoc/transmittals/2025/Performance%20Management%20for%20Federal%20Employees%207-17-2025.pdf.

However, it understands based on long experience that enhanced training is unlikely to be enough to meaningfully change an entrenched culture, especially as this culture arose in large part due to the cumbersome nature of adverse action procedures required to remove employees.

Commenters 2222, 27432, and 30426 also take issue with the examples cited in the proposed rule to support OPM's argument that the adverse action process is protracted with an uncertain outcome. OPM presented a handful of cases as an illustration of the impediments MSPB cases impose. Commenter 30426 asserts that average case processing time in FY 2024 was 130 days. This is only for initial decisions before an administrative judge and does not include time to adjudicate a petition for review (

i.e.,

appeal) to the full MSPB. Full MSPB review adds much more time, especially if the MSPB loses its quorum as it often has. An employee's subsequent appeal to the Federal Circuit takes even more time. Citing one stage of the MSPB appeal process for the proposition that the process is “hardly protracted” is misleading. OPM rightly takes note of the effect of the MSPB's loss of quorum on the appeals timetable. Relatedly, Commenters 17360, 24390, 30426, and 32556 point out that President Trump left MSPB without a quorum during the entirety of his first term. President Trump nominated numerous individuals to the MSPB, but the Senate did not act on those nominations. During his second Administration, the President nominated and the Senate confirmed James Woodruff to serve as a Member, creating a period of approximately eight months in which the MSPB operated without a quorum. Neither the President nor OPM can control the pace at which the Senate considers MSPB nominees, even if they leave the agency without a quorum. However, OPM must be cognizant of the fact that the pace at which the Senate considers nominees affects the resolution of MSPB appeals, creating real effects on agency operations.

Commenter 30426 argues that the best available evidence suggests poor performance is not widespread in the Federal workforce, citing FEVS data that “well over 80% of employees believe employees in their work unit “meet the needs of our customers,” “contribute positively” to agencies' performance, and “produce high-quality work.” Commenter 34522 criticizes OPM's citation to research and FEVS data because the data only demonstrates a perception problem. Commenter 22688 describes low performers in the workplace as “just a fact of life,” common in all large entities. Despite the commenters' interpretation, the actual FEVS data paints a more worrisome picture:

• 83.4 percent of employees believe employees in their work unit “always” or “most of the time” “produce high-quality work.” 13.4 percent believe they do so “sometimes”, while 3.2 percent believe they do so “rarely” or “never.”

U.S. Off. of Pers. Mgmt., “Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey: 2024 Governmentwide All Levels-All Index-All Items Reports,” at Q22,

https://www.opm.gov/fevs/reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-reports/governmentwide-all-levels-all-index-all-items-reports/2024/2024-governmentwide-all-levels-all-index-all-items-report.xlsx.

• 87.7 percent of employees believe employees in their work unit “always” or “most of the time” “meet the needs of our customers.” 10.3 percent believe they do so “sometimes”, while 2 percent believe they do so “rarely” or “never.”

Id.

at Q20.

• 85.9 percent of employees believe employees in their work unit “always” or “most of the time” “contribute positively to their agency's performance.” 11.2 percent believe they do so “sometimes”, while 3 percent believe they do so “rarely” or “never.”

Id.

at Q21.

The fact that more than one-in-ten Federal employees answers “sometimes” to these questions is concerning. Agencies should not “sometimes” meet the needs of the American people. The fact that 2-3 percent answered “rarely” or “never” is even more concerning. OPM interprets the FEVS data as showing that most Federal employees believe their colleagues do high-quality work, but a meaningful number do not, and the Federal workforce has substantial performance management challenges that are not being effectively addressed. This rulemaking is not predicated on the notion that most Federal employees are poor performers. Rather, there is a cognizable amount of poor performance which, when it occurs, impairs agency performance. There is no inconsistency between saying most Federal employees do good work and that a minority do not, and that the minority's underperformance needs to be addressed. This is particularly true for key policy-influencing positions that can affect the performance of an entire agency or even presidential administration.

Commenters 26624 and 28202 take issue with the assertion that poor performers remain in policy-influencing positions and criticize the lack of supporting evidence to justify the wholesale changes proposed by OPM. The Commenters point to OPM's citation of just two instances involving the Chief of the U.S. Park Police and, separately, the Executive Director of the National Council on Disability, as specifically inadequate. Respectfully these Commenters misunderstand this portion of the proposed rule and the reasons for citing to these two examples. OPM argued that the Government suffers from a long-standing problem of holding subordinates accountable for misconduct and poor performance. OPM then cited two examples of senior career officials with serious misconduct and performance issues who remained in their positions despite agency efforts to remove them from their positions. OPM cited these two examples to support our argument that failing to address misconduct and poor performance directly undermines the Merit System Principles. OPM later cited to the misconduct and corruption at other agencies such as the FDIC where a fear of litigation contributed to the tolerance of rampant sexual misconduct committed by senior officials. These examples together with the 2016 Merit Principles Survey cited in the proposed rule sufficiently detail the problem of agencies' inability to address misconduct and poor performance and how this failure undermines the Merit System Principles.

Commenter 30426 also raises concerns with OPM's statistical analysis of the number of employees terminated. Specifically, Commenter 30426 questions why OPM's analysis excluded all employees fired after less than two years of service and asserts that the exclusion of this data is arbitrary and capricious and OPM's analysis was thus insufficient. On the contrary, OPM's analysis was straightforwardly focused on the firing rates of employees covered by subchapter II of chapter 75 to evaluate whether that process makes removals more difficult. Probationary employees and employees on trial periods do not have access to adverse action appeals, so dismissal rates among such employees do not necessarily reflect the effect of chapter 75

procedures.

OPM focused on permanent (

i.e.,

excluding term and political appointees) employees with more than 2 years of tenure because these are the employees that subchapter II covers.

Evaluating the effect of subchapter II by examining agency experiences with employees who are covered by it is hardly arbitrary or capricious.

Competitive service employees and preference-eligible employees in the excepted service complete their probationary and trial periods, respectively, after one year of continuous service, while non-preference eligible employees generally take two years of continuous service to complete their trial period. Thus, the appropriate comparison is employees with more than two years of tenure, as they have almost universally completed their probationary and trial periods and are covered by subchapter II. See 5 U.S.C. 7511(a)(1).

We note, as Commenter 27647 pointed out, that the citation for the number of covered employees was missing in the proposed rule. This data is from the same source as the 2024 Rule, 89 FR 25039.

See

Off. of Pers. Mgmt., FedScope, Separations Trend FY 2020-FY 2024,

https://www.fedscope.opm.gov/.

Commenter 14463 asserts that OPM “ignores the fact that existing procedures have resulted in the firings of tens of thousands of poor performing career employees.” In support of this assertion, the Commenter cites to a 2015 MSPB report, “Adverse Actions: The Rules and the Reality.”

According to the Commenter, the fact that only 10% of deciding and proposing officials felt employees had too many rights in the context of adverse actions, means that employees have the appropriate amount of rights. OPM disagrees, and in fact, believes the cited source further supports the need for Schedule Policy/Career. The question presented was whether deciding and proposing officials agreed with the statement: “Federal employees have too many rights.” 42% of the respondents answered “neutral,” while 35% answered “agree or strongly agree.”

The fact that only 23% of deciding and proposing officials

disagree

with the statement that employees have too many rights demonstrates the need of reform to the Federal performance management system.

U.S. Merit Sys. Prot. Bd., Adverse Actions: The Rules and the Reality, (Aug. 2015),

https://www.mspb.gov/studies/researchbriefs/Adverse_Actions_The_Rules_and_the_Reality_1205509.pdf.

Id.

at 6.

Several commenters, including Commenters 2241, 7611, 13583, 20991, 30426, and 31096, argued that the proposed rulemaking failed to cite evidence supporting its conclusion of widespread corruption in the career civil service. Commenter 30426, for example, critiques the proposed rulemaking's citation to corruption at the FDIC because the administration is closing offices that were meant to provide the training the report recommended to prevent future abuses. Commenter 30426 ignored the serious and well documented example of corruption in the civil service. The proposed rule cited examples such as the FDIC where an independent investigation documented widespread and longstanding abuses, including widespread sexual misconduct involving senior executives pressing junior female employees for sexual favors, at times providing career assistance in return.

The report cited in the rulemaking specifically identified adverse action procedures as creating litigation risk that made the agency extremely reluctant to take action, even when leadership was aware of misconduct.

Because removals created such litigation risk, the agency would move the offending employees around rather than dismiss them.

See

90 FR at 17190 (citing Joon H. Kim, Jennifer K. Park, and Abena Mainoo, “Report for the Special Review Committee of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,” April 2024,

https://www.fdic.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/cleary-report-to-fdic-src.pdf

(FDIC Report)).

See id.

See

FDIC Report at 134, A-15, A-33, and A-37.

Corruption is not limited to the FDIC. Since publication of the proposed rule, a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan officer pleaded guilty to making false statements to SBA in connection with loan applications for more than $550,000.

100

The employee in question abused her position by approving several fraudulent COVID-19 pandemic loans she and her relatives submitted but that SBA initially declined.

101

At the Department of the Army, the former deputy director of the U.S. Army Signal Network Enterprise Center used his position to steer business toward a specific, corrupt vendor.

102

The former official accessed contract bid and proposal information used by a vendor to assist in winning a contract for upgrading the Army's communications infrastructure at Fort Gordon.

103

The existence of such a scheme uncovered within the U.S. Army demonstrates the ease and feasibility of such misconduct occurring at other agencies throughout the Federal Government.

104

The creation of Schedule Policy/Career offers a comprehensive solution to the government-wide problems created by the lengthy and litigious nature of the current removal procedures, at least with respect to policy-influencing positions.

100

News Release, U.S. Small Bus. Admin.,

Former Federal Employee and Two Other Women Plead Guilty in Pandemic Fraud Cases

(Aug. 12, 2025)

https://www.sba.gov/article/2025/08/12/former-federal-employee-two-other-women-plead-guilty-pandemic-fraud-cases.

101

Id.

102

Press Release, U.S. Dep't of Justice,

Former deputy director of Signal Network Enterprise Center at Fort Gordon sentenced to federal prison

(July 21, 2020),

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdga/pr/former-deputy-director-signal-network-enterprise-center-fort-gordon-sentenced-federal.

103

Id.

104

Id.

OPM recognizes that chapter 75 provides a pathway for agencies to address misconduct, including removing employees from the Federal service in circumstances such as those at the FDIC and the Army. In many cases, Federal agencies have been successful in doing so. However, these processes alone have proven insufficient. They foster a sense of futility and powerlessness at agencies which understandably seek to avoid spending their limited time and resources on litigation to remove employees who perform poorly or engage in misconduct. This sense of futility and powerlessness is evidenced, as noted above and in the proposed rule, in the lack of faith in the ability of agencies to hold employees accountable for poor performance and the relatively small number of adverse actions taken by agencies across Government. OPM finds it highly disturbing that only a minority of agency supervisors are confident they could remove subordinates for serious misconduct. This survey data shows that incidents like those at the FDIC illustrate systemic problems across the Government. What is needed to address this corruption and restore integrity to the Federal service is to break this cycle of poor performance and misbehavior that undermines the faith that the American people place in Government. It is, therefore, perfectly reasonable that the President reform how the executive branch manages career officials who are most responsible for the success of his policy agenda.

Commenters 0563, 12281, and 14010 argue that the cited instances of agencies' hesitancy to take appropriate action when faced with evidence of poor performance or misconduct are insufficient to justify a rule allowing for prompt agency action. These commenters miss a critical point. Any misconduct in the Federal service is a blot on its integrity. The FDIC report concerning sexual harassment found that the agency had “generally taken a risk-averse approach to the imposition of discipline.” It found that “the FDIC, like other federal agencies, risks having complaints and lawsuits” when taking adverse action against employees. Because removals created such litigation

risk, the agency would move employees around rather than dismissing them.

105

Commenter 35478 takes issue with the proposed rule's citation to specific pages in the FDIC report for not supporting the proposition that adverse actions and appeals were a major reason for the lack of accountability, pointing out that the auditors identified 10 “root cause[s]” of the misconduct. However, OPM did not contend adverse action procedures were the sole reason for the problems at the FDIC and still finds sufficient evidence in the FDIC report to support its position. The FDIC report identified risk aversion to the disciplinary process perpetuating a lack of accountability in the agency as one of the root causes of its culture of corruption.

106

The report specifically quoted a senior supervisor as noting “we are so risk averse we can't do anything, scared that the employees will sue us, and the ramifications are what you are seeing.”

107

The factual record clearly demonstrates that current regulations, exacerbated by the April 2024 final rule, place unwarranted burdens upon agencies, which often prevents them from taking timely adverse action when faced with poor performance, misconduct, or corruption.

108

105

Some agencies reported during the comment period that their experience in dealing with poor performers or misconduct is to simply reassign employees to other positions rather than taking performance-based or adverse actions out of fear of litigation or protracted statutory procedures. Commenters 2985 (Department of Transportation), 29882 (Department of Education), and 29909 (Office of Special Counsel). OPM credits their accounts of how subchapter II affects agency decision-making.

106

See

FDIC Report at 154-55.

107

Id.

at 155.

108

Commenter 35478 argues the fact the audit did not recommend changes to disciplinary procedures indicates they were not a major factor contributing to the FDIC's problems. Commenter's objection misses that FDIC has no authority to change those disciplinary procedures, which are set forth in statute, so such recommendations would be futile. OPM finds it unsurprising that an audit commissioned by the FDIC would not recommend changes the FDIC could not effectuate.

It is no surprise, then, that the President made the same determination. E.O. 13957, as amended, explained that “[a]gencies need the flexibility to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from [Schedule Policy/Career] positions without facing extensive delays or litigation.”

109

It cited evidence that less than a quarter of Federal employees believed their agencies appropriately addressed poor performance, and less than half believe they could remove employees who committed serious misconduct.

110

President Trump ultimately found that the conditions of good administration still exist today warranting immediate action through executive action. As such, OPM concludes that even if the evidence discussed in this final rule were not independently persuasive and sufficient to support this final rule—and to be clear, OPM believes that it is—it would nonetheless credit the President's judgment within his core Article II authority to address the problems of poor performance, misconduct, and corruption in the civil service.

109

85 FR 67631, 67632.

110

Id.

at 67631.

ii. Proposed Regulations Are Necessary To Strengthen Democracy and Promote a Nonpartisan Civil Service

Commenters 1544, 9407, and 23384, and others characterize this rule as undermining democracy in favor of an authoritarian form of Government. Commenter 23384, specifically, suggests that the “independence of bureaucracy” is necessary to prevent authoritarianism. On the contrary, this rule ensures that Federal employees in policy-influencing positions are able to be appropriately disciplined for failing to faithfully implement the elected President's agenda. The U.S. Constitution provides “[t]he executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”

111

As such, the President is also the only official in the executive branch whose position is vested with executive power who is democratically accountable to the American people. Employees exercising executive power are doing so in place of—and, crucially, on behalf of—the President of the United States. Employees themselves are only properly vested with executive policy-influencing authority in so far as they exercise it faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution, existing law, and the President's policy agenda. The “independence of the bureaucracy,” to impose policy, or to scuttle, slow-walk, or otherwise undermine the President's policy agenda would bring about the very thing with which these commenters are concerned: the erosion of democracy. An unelected bureaucracy operating autonomously and at variance with the policy priorities of the elected President undermines democratic values.

111

U.S. Const. art. II, § 1, cl. 1.

OPM notes that, because of the enormous scope and intricacy of many Federal statutes, Federal policymaking work frequently requires high levels of specialization. Further, Federal agencies are bureaucratic, characterized by division of labor, hierarchy of authority, and career orientation. Because career employees often play the principal and sometimes exclusive role in determining who is promoted through the hierarchy and on what schedule, career advancement in Federal service often has little do with effective execution of the President's priorities. This is particularly true over longer periods of time, where the professional relationships between agency personnel outlast individual Presidential administrations and the procedural rules of the agency and informal norms coalesce to form an agency culture or shared bureaucratic interests.

In some instances, the priorities of the President may conflict with an agency's culture or bureaucratic interests. This can occur, for example, when agency personnel have acclimated to executing their statutory mission in a manner that conflicts with the procedural or substantive values of the President. As the late William Niskanen (a longtime Government official) noted in his classic study,

Bureaucracy and Representative Government

(Chicago: Aldine, Atherton, 1971), the “budget-maximizing bureaucrat” will typically seek to maximize the total budget of their bureau, regardless of the public interest, in order to maximize the bureau's power and prestige. Given the incentives of a career bureaucracy, where the interests of an agency are at variance with the priorities of the President, a rational civil servant will often prioritize the institutional interests of the agency ahead of implementing the priorities of the democratically elected President. Where career employees involved in policymaking prioritize “loyalty to their building” over faithful execution of the President's priorities and the public interest, democratic accountability is undermined.

Commenters 1994, 7378, 34746, and others argue that this rule would undermine the nonpartisan nature of the civil service by making it easier to fire employees in policy-influencing positions for political reasons, including failing to adhere to political loyalty tests.

Commenters' supposition that this rule requires, or provides for, the dismissal of employees for political reasons is wholly incorrect. OPM proposed and adopts in this final rule a prohibition against personal or political loyalty tests as a condition of employment in Schedule Policy/Career. 5 CFR 213.3601(e). E.O. 13957 also requires agencies to establish and enforce internal policies protecting employees from PPPs including prohibiting discrimination based on political affiliation and political coercion. Further, this rule provides that in instances in which an employee in a policy-influencing position engages in

misconduct, performs poorly, or obstructs the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential policy directives, such employees may be quickly removed from the service.

OPM also views this rule as strengthening the nonpartisan nature of the civil service by ensuring employees in policy-influencing positions do not inject personal politics into their professional responsibilities related to implementing the President's agenda.

Bureaucratic Resistance Is Evident

Commenters, including 0210, 3326, 3764, 16846, 18811, 27647, 29923, 30317, 31210, 32573, 34881, 35446, and 35478, assert that the proposed rule failed to provide evidence of widespread policy resistance. Despite these criticisms, considerable evidence supports the proposition that employees routinely inject their personal, partisan beliefs into their professional duties. Recent news reports detailed how career Federal employees resisted the changes pursued by the President during his current administration. One report detailed Federal employees engaged in “malicious compliance” with the President's directives.

112

In a much more brazen act of defiance, a report detailed how staff of the U.S. African Development Foundation refused to allow employees of the Department of Government Efficiency to enter its building as part of the President's promise to eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic spending.

113

Relatedly, Commenter 23567 also witnessed acts of resistance by describing career employees leak, “slow walk,” or deliberately perform poorly to resist changes to policies. In fact, in coordinating this final rule during the interagency comment period, a copy of the draft rule was leaked to the news media the same day that OPM briefed Federal agencies on the rule.

114

And most recently, OPM's proposed rule to modify its performance management regulations leaked within 24 hours after sharing the rule with federal agencies for interagency comments.

115

This was a clear breach of trust placed in the Federal workforce.

112

Juliana Kaplan and Ayelet Sheffey, “Random acts of protest: How federal workers are quietly pushing back on DOGE,” Business Insider, Mar. 8, 2025,

available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/federal-workers-resist-trump-musk-doge-dei-emails-pronouns-2025-3.

113

Robert Tait and Lauren Gambino, “ `Little agency that could' cheered for act of resistance against Trump and Musk,” The Guardian, Mar. 6, 2025,

available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/federal-workers-block-musks-doge-africa-development-agency.

114

Eric Katz and Erich Wagner, “Final Schedule F regulations to describe civil service protections as `unconstitutional overcorrections,' ” Government Executive, Nov. 18, 2025,

available at: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/11/final-schedule-f-regulations-describe-civil-service-protections-unconstitutional-overcorrections/409616/;

Courtney Rozen and Sarah N. Lynch, “US federal workers would lose whistleblower safeguards under Trump rule,” Reuters, Nov. 18, 2025,

available at: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-federal-employees-would-lose-whistleblower-safeguards-under-trump-rule-2025-11-18/.

115

Eric Katz, “Trump to limit top ratings for all feds and consolidate scoring in forthcoming rule,” Government Executive, Dec. 17, 2025,

available at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2025/12/trump-limit-top-ratings-all-feds-and-consolidate-scoring-forthcoming-rule/410246/.

Another example comes from Commenter 34007 who obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act request that uncovered career employee resistance expressed to the General Counsel of the National Labor Relation Board under the first Trump administration. In one of these emails, a former longtime NLRB employee bragged about “the brave resistance” of career NLRB employees to the presidentially appointed General Counsel's priorities.

116

Comment 34007, at 4.

There are also widespread reports of Federal employees “pushing back,” engaging in “malicious compliance,” or being “subtle” about opposing administration policymaking.

117

Researchers documented that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) career staff moved policy in the opposite direction from the Reagan Administration's goals, concluding that “the influence of elected institutions is limited when an agency has substantial bureaucratic resources and a zeal for their use.”

118

Commenter 32573 claims that the proposed rule mischaracterized the findings of researchers, noting that the EPA did not have a Senate-confirmed administrator when EPA career staff moved policy in the opposite direction, and that the Reagan administration drastically changed its policy later during the President's terms. However, we note that the EPA had an acting administrator during the time in question and EPA staff were surely informed of the Reagan administration's policy.

119

The researcher found that even after the Senate confirmation of an Administrator “[t]he proclivity of EPA regulators to regulate seems to have been a factor negating the administration's ability to keep clean air enforcements to a minimum.”

120

Further, it is immaterial whether the Reagan administration changed its policy later in the president's terms. This does not rebut the proposition for which the research was cited in the proposed rule. Commenter 8209 also criticizes the proposed rule's citation to a source that reported policy resistance during President Trump's first term.

121

OPM notes that Commenter 8209 does not allege that the claims are fabricated or false but instead argues it should not be used to justify a change because of an alleged bias. OPM believes that this source—one of several—demonstrates that the first Trump administration faced policy resistance.

117

Kaplan & Sheffey,

supra

note 112.

118

B. Dan Wood,

Principals, Bureaucrats, and Responsiveness in Clean Air Enforcements,

82 Am. Pol. Sci. Rev. 213, 213 (1988).

119

See

Env't Prot. Agency,

Chronology of EPA Administrators

(last updated Jan. 31, 2025),

https://www.epa.gov/history/chronology-epa-administrators.

120

B. Dan Wood,

Principals, Bureaucrats, and Responsiveness in Clean Air Enforcements,

at 228.

121

See

Comment 8209 (citing to Mark Moyar, Masters of Corruption: How the Federal Bureaucracy Sabotaged the Trump Presidency 83-84 (2024)).

Commenters 30055 and 34522 also allege that the proposed rule mischaracterizes one of the cited sources on page 17191. However, Commenter 30055 failed to recognize that the proposed rule cited two different articles from the same author. While part of the second article discusses reciprocal hierarchy, much of the article discusses several instances of civil servant disobedience during the President's first administration. Further, the other article cited discusses disobedience in the context of the President's administration. Based on the content from both articles, we disagree with both commenters that the proposed rule mischaracterized those sources. Similarly, Commenter 34522 also claims the proposed rule fails to discuss all the relevant conclusions of another two sources.

122

We disagree. While the first source discusses other behavioral patterns and disclaims the empirical accuracy of its studies, the Commenter does not dispute that it discusses the claims made by the proposed rule. Lastly, Commenter 34522 does not dispute that the second source also discusses the claims made by the proposed rule. While we recognize that the second source comes to additional conclusions OPM does not share, we do not agree that OPM's statements regarding the source are inaccurate.

122

Comment 34522, n. 15 at p.9.

The proposed rule cited several examples of career employees stating plans to resist policies they disliked. The Washington Post reported on an EPA career employee explaining that “she and her co-workers are focused on how to make sure the new administration does not walk back environmental regulations achieved

under Biden.”

123

An undercover journalist documented an employee in the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy explaining that career employees “slow-walk” initiatives they dislike or “pretend to work really hard on something when they're not.”

124

Others, like an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) employee, opt not to hide their opposition, but broadcast resistance plans. Soon after President Trump took office a second time, an EEOC administrative judge

125

addressed an email to then-acting EEOC Chairwoman Andrea Lucas and sent it to all EEOC employees. The administrative judge stated, in relevant part: “I will not participate in attempts to target private citizens and colleagues through the recent illegal executive orders.”

126

This employee openly professed her intention to refuse Presidential directives based purely on her personal views.

127

Commenters 13308, 34947, 34522, 35446, and 35478 claim that this is a mischaracterization of the employee`s actions. In this regard, they claim that the employee viewed the “presidential directives were illegal and unconstitutional.” OPM disagrees and believes the characterization is correct. The email was a general and broad statement—broadcast to the entire agency—that this employee would not follow the administration's policy directives. The email did not mention any conflicting legal precedent or discuss the policy directives in the context of any pending agency action. Line Federal employees are not statutorily authorized to unilaterally decide the constitutionality of agency policies for themselves. That authority rests with other officials, such as the Attorney General.

128

Further, none of the commenters provide any authority demonstrating that the policy directives were illegal. Therefore, the argument is faulty. OPM notes that nothing in this rule precludes an employee from discussing concerns about a presidential or agency policy with a supervisor or management.

123

Emily Davies, et al.,

Federal Workers Prepare for Cuts, Forced Relocations in Trump's Second Term,

Wash. Post (Nov. 7, 2024),

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/11/07/trump-dc-federal-workforce-cuts/.

124

`The Deep State Is Real:' White House Advisor Reveals How Bureaucracy Protects “Its Own Interests,” Predicts Bureaucracy Will `Crush' RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary; “If I Was Given an Order . . . I Would Either Try to Block It or Resign

”, O'Keefe Media Gp. (Jan. 23, 2025),

https://okeefemediagroup.com/the-deep-state-is-real-white-house-advisor-reveals-how-bureaucracy-protects-its-own-interests-predicts-bureaucracy-will-crush-rfk-jr-as-hhs-sec/.

Several commenters, including Commenter 4772 and 35478, assert that the tweet and the proposed rule mischaracterize the actual video footage attached to the tweet by claiming that the individual, if given an order he disagreed with, “would either try to block it or resign.” But regardless whether this particular employee would engage in policy resistance, there are plenty of other examples and additional information provided in the proposed rule that demonstrates widespread policy resistance.

125

Commenter 34947 questioned this example of an EEOC administrative judge, asserting an “administrative law judge [is] a category of employee who . . . would notably not be subject to Schedule Policy/Career.” Commenter is correct that

administrative law judges

are Schedule E; however, this example is an

administrative judge,

who is not Schedule E and would potentially be eligible for Schedule Policy/Career.

See

5 CFR 6.2.

126

Abby Vesoulis (abbyvesoulis.bsky), Bluesky (Feb. 3, 2025, 10:12 a.m.),

https://bsky.app/profile/abbyvesoulis.bsky.social/post/3lhbtdoudfs25.

OPM contacted the EEOC and obtained verification both that the email was accurate and that it was sent by an administrative judge.

127

See id.

128

See, e.g.,

28 U.S.C. 530D.

During the previous Trump administration, multiple Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) decisions publicly chastised a career regional director for “willful noncompliance” with an earlier Authority order.

129

This raises the obvious question—are chapter 75 procedures sufficient deterrent to ensure such employees are putting their partisanship aside and faithfully implementing the President's agenda?

129

See U.S. Dep't of Justice, Exec. Off. for Immigration Rev.,

72 FLRA 622, 626-28 (Jan. 21, 2022);

U.S. Dep't of Justice, Exec. Off. for Immigration Rev.,

72 FLRA 733 (Apr. 12, 2022).

Finally, agencies also commented on the rule and indicated that they had experienced policy resistance, it impeded their operations, and they believed the proposed rule would be helpful in addressing such misconduct. The Department of Education, for example, commented that during the First Trump Administration, career employees would not constructively assist in drafting important regulations, such as the department's Title IX regulations.

130

As a result, those regulations had to be primarily drafted by political appointees.

131

OPM credits these comments; agencies are better positioned than external parties to observe whether policy resistance occurs.

130

Comment 29882, at 4.

131

The proposed rule cited a report that the Education Department's Title IX rule was primarily drafted by political appointees during the President's first term because key career employees would not constructively assist with drafting it. See 90 FR 17193. Some commenters questioned the accuracy of this report.

See, e.g.,

Comment 35478 at 72. OPM credits the Education Department's statement as resolving this factual dispute and demonstrating the accuracy of the initial report.

Commenter 29987 asserts that academic research

132

refutes OPM's assertion of widespread policy resistance. Specifically, the Commenter asserts “career civil servants generally do follow the president's agenda.” OPM agrees with this sentiment as expressed in the proposed rule. However, this does not refute the point that

some

career employees intentionally subvert policy directives with which they disagree. In fact, the source cited by Commenter 29987 provides additional evidence of such behavior, describing instances of career employees leaking information to the press because they did not like the administration's policy directives.

133

Commenters 32573, 35478, and 35520 argue the proposed rule ignored evidence that detailed Federal workers' commitment to carrying out lawful administration policies. Again, OPM does not disagree that the majority of Federal employees faithfully perform their job duties. However, this does not refute the evidence of widespread policy resistance detailed in the proposed and this final rule. It can be both true that most Federal employees fulfill their job duties faithfully, and that a significant minority do not.

132

Marissa Martino Golden, What Motivates Bureaucrats?: Politics and Administration During the Reagan Years, Columbia University Press (2000).

133

Id.

at pp. 134-135;