The memo is the latest in a series pushing to make the SES ranks more political in nature. Image: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com
OPM has told agencies to review whether they have limited their chief human capital officer position—an agency’s top HR official—to career officials and to send OPM a request to open the position to appointees, as well.
A memo on chcoc.gov mirrors one OPM sent earlier setting the same policy regarding agency chief information officers, saying that while many CHCO positions “require a baseline of specialized knowledge necessary to understand broader issues and make decisions for the agency,” a CHCO’s authority “goes beyond mere technical matters.”
“Instead, the modern CHCO makes, implements, and advocates for some of the most controversial policies in modern American politics on behalf of their agency head and the administration,” it said, citing the difference between the Biden and Trump administrations regarding DEI policies as an example of how “HR policy has become intensely politicized in recent years.”
“Agency CHCOs determine policy when they choose which policies, including DEI policies, their departments should prioritize and fund—and which should be deemphasized or defunded. These policies determine who gets to serve the country as an agency employee, and who might not even get an interview,” it said.
“The same policies may dictate who will be promoted within the agency, and who will be passed over. HR policies and priorities can siphon funds and manpower that would otherwise be dedicated to different policy objectives, with tangible effects on everyday Americans. The public rightly expects that government officials who make these policy choices should be democratically accountable,” it said.
The memo is the latest in a series pushing to make the SES ranks more political in nature. In addition to the review specifically of CIO positions, it has told agencies to review the numbers of their SES positions that have been reserved for career employees with an eye to giving themselves “maximum flexibility in opting for non-career officials to carry out presidential priorities.”
Traditionally, about half of SES positions are designated as career-reserved; government-wide only 10 percent of positions may be filled by appointees, and no more than 25 percent in any one agency.
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