Trump memo grants government-wide firing power to OPM

President Trump on Thursday issued a presidential memorandum aiming to expand the power of the Office of Personnel Management to fire federal employees, alarming experts and federal employee groups.

The memo, quietly published Thursday night alongside an executive order mandating agencies share data, particularly with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, delegates to OPM the authority to fire federal employees based on “post-appointment conduct.”

A federal employee’s appointment occurs at the conclusion of their one-year probationary period, when their full civil service protections kick in. Prior to that point, the Office of Personnel Management has authority to determine whether a federal job applicant or new hire is “suitable” for federal employment, which generally refers to questions of their “character or conduct.”

But once an employee’s probationary period has ended, the authority to discipline or remove an employee rests solely with agency that employs them. Indeed, even if an employee threatens national security, only his or her employing agency may take action to suspend or remove them.

Trump’s memo expands who may remove employees for “conduct and character” reasons to include OPM, and tasks the HR agency with writing the regulations governing the agency’s ostensibly new power. Agencies may make referrals to OPM for approval, or the OPM director may reach down and order individual agencies to discipline or fire workers.

“In drafting the regulations, the director of OPM shall consider requiring that an employing agency must make a referral to OPM in order for the director of OPM to make a final suitability determination and take a suitability action regarding an employee based on post-appointment conduct,” the memo states. “The regulations shall additionally propose that . . . if the director of OPM issues specific instructions as to separation or other corrective action with regard to an employee, including cancellation of a personnel action, the head of the agency concerned shall comply with the director of OPM’s instructions within five work days of the final decision.”

While it is difficult to discern how narrowly—or sweeping—the ultimate authority will be until OPM issues those regulations, union officials and good government experts both warned that the memo amounts to a power grab by the DOGE-aligned officials atop OPM.

“Once you get your career appointment, it’s your agency’s job to do these assessments of your conduct or your performance,” said Jacque Simon, director of public policy for the American Federation of Government Employees. “This is: ‘No, I’m the king, and I will decide your suitability after you’ve gotten your appointment.’”

Don Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, said the measure could be an effort to create an end-run around recent court decisions blocking the mass firings of probationary workers.

“I would read this as at its core an effort for OPM to get back into the game,” he said. “The administration in general and DOGE in particular has been incredibly clever in their ability to shapeshift as needed to stay in the game, and as the courts have determined there are limits, DOGE and Musk have found ways to get around them.

“This could be read as a way to try to license the kind of role that Musk desired OPM to have at the beginning [of the administration] but was stopped by the courts, and according to this, it would give OPM the authority to be able to do what Musk wanted all along.”