Trump Proposes Overhaul of Federal Employee Job Rating Rules (1)

The federal government would impose a tougher new performance appraisal process on both senior-level professionals and its general workforce under two proposed rules released by the Office of Personnel Management.

The OPM issued the proposed regulations (RIN 3206-AP06), titled Performance Management Systems for General Schedule, Prevailing Rate, and Certain Other Employees, and (RIN 3206-AO88) titled Managing Senior Professional Performance on Monday.

The proposals join a series of regulatory moves by the Trump administration that would make it easier for the White House and federal agencies to terminate employees and reduce the size of government.

The proposed rule for general schedule employees would eliminate their ability to grieve poor performance ratings and end mandatory review of the Level 1 “unacceptable” ratings. It also would require federal agencies to get certification of their appraisal process from the OPM.

The professional regulation, which includes scientists and other senior-level employees, would create a performance rating process that’s more in line with the appraisals used for senior executive service employees. The proposed changes include eliminating a ban on forced distribution ratings, or rating employees on a bell curve.

Administration officials have said the changes are needed to promote a more merit-based, high-performance culture within the federal workforce. But critics including federal worker unions have said the workforce revamp enables Trump to fire civil servants who don’t support him politically and replace them with loyalists.

Trump recently renewed his attacks on these public-sector unions, demanding federal agencies begin formally terminating collective bargaining agreements that affect over 1 million employees. That effort has been tied up in litigation since the president’s initial executive orders targeting the CBAs in early 2025.

The OPM released a final rule Feb. 5 that calls for reclassifying thousands of federal workers under a new “schedule policy/career” category that takes away job protections such as appeal rights if they’re terminated. The rule gave Trump broad authority to decide how many and which positions will be reclassified.