Linda M. Springer has been sworn in as the new Office of
Personnel Management Director after being unanimously
confirmed by the Senate.
For about two years prior, Springer served as the
Controller and head of the Office of Federal Financial
Management at the Office of Management and Budget, and
before that as Counselor to the Deputy Director for
Management.
Springer joins OPM during a major expansion — shortly
after it received 1,800 investigators from the Department
of Defense and added thousands more in order to begin
handling 90 percent of all federal clearance
investigations — and also at a time when the civil
service system could be overhauled in the image of new
personnel systems set for implementation at the
Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
A recently leaked draft proposal for administration
plans to extend civil service reform would increase OPM’s
stewardship and oversight responsibilities – transforming
it from a regulator of personnel processes to the
strategic manager of federal human capital, one charged
with coordinating individual agency missions with the
civil service system as a whole.
Before entering the federal government Springer served
over 25 years in the financial services industry. “Ms.
Springer appears to have the executive management and
leadership skills necessary to do the job well. I look
forward to continuing working with her on the challenges
that lie ahead,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine,
chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee, which approved Springer’s nomination.