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Personnel Management Office

Streamlining Probationary and Trial Period Appeals

Published August 3, 2026. Takes effect September 2, 2026, printed at 91 FR 49072, amending 5 CFR 11, 5 CFR 230, 5 CFR 315, 5 CFR 432. 47,863 words.

In plain English

New federal workers serve a trial period. This limits when they may appeal.

Read it at the Federal Register →

What the Rule Says It Does

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing a final rule to change the circumstances and procedures for adjudicating appeals from employees terminated during their probationary and trial periods and supervisors and managers who fail to complete their probationary periods. Executive order, "Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service," rendered the prior procedures for appealing such actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) inoperative. This final rule establishes a new, limited appeals process adjudicated by OPM. The final rule also makes conforming amendments.

This is the rule's own summary, as the Federal Register prints it.

The Order It Names

The rule names this order itself. What it does about it is a reading, and none is recorded here.

On the Face of the Rule

As filed

[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 147 (Monday, August 3, 2026)] [Rules and Regulations] [Pages 49072-49115] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2026-15654]

Vol. 91

Monday,

No. 147

August 3, 2026

Part IV

Office of Personnel Management

5 CFR Parts 11, 230, 315, et al.

Streamlining Probationary and Trial Period Appeals; Final Rule

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

5 CFR Parts 11, 230, 315, 432, 751, and 752

[Docket ID: OPM-2025-0013] RIN 3206-AO96

Streamlining Probationary and Trial Period Appeals

AGENCY

Office of Personnel Management.

ACTION

Final rule.

DATES

Effective September 2, 2026. Covered actions (i.e., terminations, assignments, noncertifications, or failures to certify/ finalize) effected before the effective date of this rule are not governed by this final rule.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

Aaron Gottesman, Senior Advisor to the Director, by email at [email protected] or by phone at (202) 606-2930.

The fields the Federal Register prints at the head of the rule, quoted as printed. Its summary is quoted above.

Why the Agency Says It Is Doing This

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

OPM is issuing this final rule to establish streamlined appeal procedures for employees terminated during their probationary or trial periods and supervisors and managers who fail to complete their probationary periods.\1\ Under Executive Order (E.O.) 14284, the President rendered the probationary period appeal procedures in 5 CFR part 315, subpart H, “inoperative and without effect” and directed OPM to rescind those regulations and make conforming amendments. OPM published a final rule implementing those directives on June 24, 2025, at 90 FR 26727. Since that rescission, no administrative appeals process has existed for terminations during probationary or trial periods. E.O. 14284 delegated authority to OPM to prescribe circumstances and procedures by regulation by which employees terminated during their probationary or trial periods may appeal such termination.

\1\ In this preamble, OPM sometimes uses the terms “probationary,” “probationer,” or “probationary employee” as shorthand to refer collectively to employees serving probationary periods or trial periods covered by this final rule. This shorthand is not intended to expand the scope of the rule or to eliminate distinctions among competitive service probationary periods, trial periods covered by 5 CFR part 307, supervisory or managerial probationary periods, or other appointment-specific requirements. A relatively small number of employees serving trial periods under 5 CFR part 307 are covered by this final rule and have the limited appeal rights granted herein. However, excepted service employees serving trial periods outside 5 CFR part 307 do not have appeal rights under this rule arising solely from termination during such trial periods, unless another statute, regulation, or other independent legal authority provides such rights.

This final rule establishes OPM procedures for appeals formerly addressed by subpart H of part 315 and for supervisory or managerial probationary period appeals under Sec. 315.908. The rule grants authority to OPM to adjudicate appeals to include appeals filed by employees terminated during their probationary periods (or during their trial periods, for employees covered under 5 CFR part 307), or whose appointments were not finalized during such periods, and by supervisors and managers who fail to complete their probationary periods (akin to the former Sec. 315.806 and the current Sec. 315.908, respectively).

OPM will only adjudicate appeals that allege either discrimination based on partisan political reasons, marital status, or an agency's failure to follow procedures for terminations based upon pre- appointment reasons. Employees will not, however, be able to attach claims of unlawful discrimination under the laws administered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to an appeal as previously permitted before issuance of E.O. 14284. Employees may pursue such claims at the EEOC to the same extent they could do so before issuance of E.O. 14284. This final rule also provides a procedure for an appellant to seek reconsideration of the decision. This rule will not apply to any termination effected prior to the effective date of the rule.

The passage that opens the rule's preamble, where the agency sets out what it is doing and on what authority. Every heading that follows it is listed below.

What the Rule Contains

Every heading the Federal Register prints in this rule, in the order it prints them. 41 headings, 47,863 words in all.

  1. AGENCYOn its face · 5 words
  2. ACTIONOn its face · 3 words
  3. SUMMARYOn its face · 85 words
  4. DATESOn its face · 31 words
  5. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACTOn its face · 22 words
  6. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATIONPreamble · 476 words
  7. I. Digest of Public CommentsPreamble · 477 words
  8. II. Background, Legal Authority, and Need for the Rule 3Preamble · 3,553 words
  9. III. Responses to Major Issues Raised by CommentersPreamble · 8 words
  10. A. OPM's Authority To Hear Probationary AppealsPreamble · 1,452 words
  11. B. OPM's Capacity to Fairly Adjudicate Probationary AppealsPreamble · 2,832 words
  12. C. Due Process, Written Record, Hearings, Discovery, and Burden of ProofPreamble · 3,198 words
  13. D. Scope of Covered Employees and Appeal RightsPreamble · 551 words
  14. E. EEOC, OSC, MSPB, and Other ForumsPreamble · 2,251 words
  15. F. Consistency With Merit System PrinciplesPreamble · 1,016 words
  16. G. Representatives, Unions, and Official TimePreamble · 2,660 words
  17. H. Limitation on Judicial ReviewPreamble · 2,609 words
  18. I. Reliance Interests, Recruitment, Retention, and Workforce ConcernsPreamble · 1,509 words
  19. J. Major Questions DoctrinePreamble · 554 words
  20. K. Length of Comment PeriodPreamble · 780 words
  21. L. Comments From Federal AgenciesPreamble · 468 words
  22. IV. Section-by-Section AnalysisPreamble · 6,696 words
  23. V. Regulatory Analysis and Related CommentsPreamble · 6 words
  24. A. Statement of NeedPreamble · 3,916 words
  25. B. Regulatory AlternativesPreamble · 2,125 words
  26. C. ImpactPreamble · 498 words
  27. D. CostsPreamble · 2,576 words
  28. E. BenefitsPreamble · 958 words
  29. VI. Procedural Issues and Regulatory ReviewPreamble · 6 words
  30. A. Regulatory Flexibility ActPreamble · 90 words
  31. B. Regulatory ReviewPreamble · 191 words
  32. C. SeverabilityPreamble · 79 words
  33. D. FederalismPreamble · 64 words
  34. E. Civil Justice ReformPreamble · 23 words
  35. F. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995Preamble · 106 words
  36. G. Congressional Review ActPreamble · 98 words
  37. H. Paperwork Reduction ActPreamble · 261 words
  38. List of SubjectsRegulatory text · 37 words
  39. Signing StatementRegulatory text · 465 words
  40. Subpart D--Agency Authority To Take Personnel Actions in a National EmergencyRegulatory text · 282 words
  41. Subpart B--The Career-Conditional Employment SystemRegulatory text · 4,761 words

The Rest of the Text

This rule runs to 47,863 words. The rest of it is set out over 3 pages, split at the rule's own headings so that no heading is parted from the words printed under it.

How to cite this
  1. The rule itself

    Personnel Management Office, “Streamlining Probationary and Trial Period Appeals,” 91 FR 49072 (August 3, 2026). Effective September 2, 2026.
    https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/03/2026-15654/streamlining-probationary-and-trial-period-appeals

  2. This page

    “Streamlining Probationary and Trial Period Appeals,” a final rule naming an order indexed here. Read the Mandate, https://readthemandate.org/rules/rule-2026-15654/ (retrieved October 11, 2026).

Cite the document when the claim is about what the document says. Cite this page when the indexing, the wording or the record of what has happened is what is being relied on.

How This Rule Is Set Out

Federal Register documents are United States government works and are not under copyright, so the rule is here whole rather than cut to an excerpt. It is split at the headings the Register itself prints: the line it is filed under, the captioned fields on its face, the preamble where the agency says what it is doing and why, and the amendments to the Code of Federal Regulations. No passage is shortened. This rule is long enough that its text is set out over 3 pages rather than one.

Two things the Register prints are not reproduced: the running head it repeats at every page break, and the tables it sets as pictures rather than as words. Its own marker for one of those tables, [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED], is left standing where the table was, so a reader can see that something is there and follow the link to the page it is on.