Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service

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 \1\ 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.

\1\ 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 This language has become obsolete as section 1599e was repealed, effective December 31, 2022, by Public Law 117-81, Sec. 1106(a)(1).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.