Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Office of Personnel Management will now be reclassifying federal HR roles. Instead of being held by “career” senior executives, HR roles will be extended to more “general” executives.
- This would allow the position “to be filled by either a career or non-career official,” per an OPM memo sent March 6.
- Charles Ezell, acting director of OPM, said that the reclassification is to help bring consistency to the government. Major political analysts posit that the goal is to turn HR roles into political appointments instead.
Dive Insight:
Although many federal HR roles “are filled by career officials, there is inconsistent classification of these positions across the federal government,” Ezell said in the memo.
“Thus, to ensure accurate and consistent classification of [chief human capital officers] positions, OPM recommends that each agency with a CHCO role designated career-reserved [senior executive service] send a request that OPM convert the role to SES general no later than March 24, 2025,” the directive reads.
Business and politics experts at Bloomberg, Government Executive, and Politico have noted that this change from the typical nonpartisan staffing for federal HR roles leaves the Trump administration free to appoint rather than recruit for HR needs.
The lack of stability in the federal workforce has been pinned on HR.
Keith Sonderling, nominee for the Department of Labor deputy secretary role, deferred to HR regarding the federal worker layoffs in the department in late February. This became a point of contention during the hearing. Sonderling, so-far unconfirmed as DOL deputy secretary, said that he had no authority over the DOL’s HR function.
Still, Democrats argued, Sonderling was a member of Trump’s “landing team,” and therefore was given high-level access and decision-making powers as a function of that.
During Sonderling’s hearing, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., had an ax to grind regarding federal layoffs as a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.
Kaine’s main concern were layoffs affecting veterans. Co-signed by 11 other senators, Kaine released a letter last Tuesday “demanding answers” regarding how OPM has affected the veteran talent population.
More generally, Rep. Gerald Connolly and 141 other House Democrats, sent a letter on Thursday demanding that OPM reinstate all federal workers fired that held probationary status.
If what analysts believe is true comes to pass, federal workers may have a long battle ahead.
