Think about where your character is on parade, showing whether you are “suitable” to work for the President. Image: GarySang/Shutterstock.com
By: Dan Meyer, Tully Rinckey PLLCOn June 3. 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published a proposed rule to amend the Code of Federal Regulations provisions for vetting Federal workers for employment suitability. The comment period ended on July 18, 2025. Washington—‘inside the Beltway’—now awaits the final rule.
“Public service is a privilege, not a right.” —Then-Acting Director of OPM, Chuck Ezell
Federal jobs were once perceived as the gold standard of security and stability. Now they are anything but stable. January 2025 was a historic pivot. The second Trump Administration reversed trends long established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 with its move to empower the Office of Personnel Management. Such a configuration of OPM has not been seen since the Eisenhower Administration. OPM’s proposed suitability changes are yet another nail in the Great Society’s coffin.
The prudent Federal employee will assume these changes are coming. How can those intent on remaining federal employees prepare for a return to older governing precepts? How do you plan ahead when the winds are inconsistent, and the tides unpredictable?
These particular seas are not entirely uncharted—at least, not for some. Federal employees seeking to keep their position can learn a great deal from their peers in the cleared workspace about proactive career protection in the world of Trusted Workforce 2.0.
What Is Trusted Workforce 2.0?
Trusted Workforce 2.0 is a bipartisan federal initiative to both update and consolidate personnel vetting, including security clearances, public trust, and suitability. In some respects, the gap between these designations has been tightening already. This is not only because suitability standards will become stricter: Continuous Vetting (CV) has been expanding to more and more personnel.
In security’s case, Continuous Vetting (CV) has already supplanted periodic evaluations with automated, rolling database checks. Non-sensitive public trust employees are also being enrolled. Eventually, all Federal employees—including low-risk positions—will be tracked via CV to some extent. And that tracking will become more and more intrusive as Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides the tools to examine each and every individual in greater and greater detail.
Once OPM’s proposed rule change goes into effect, CV will doubtlessly play a big role in how frequently OPM takes suitability actions. When CV’s automated systems flag a potential suitability violation, investigation ensues. Should this result in an unfavorable suitability determination, suitability actions may follow. After the changes go into effect, potential suitability actions for post-probationary employees will include removal within just five days.
Suitability vs. Security Clearance
Suitability is not the same thing as security clearance, and success with one does not guarantee success with the other. They are handily related, nonetheless. It is best to regard suitability in the context of a Federal ‘access pyramid’. Credentialing is the base of the pyramid. All persons accessing Federal facilities must be reviewed for credentialling, even if that credential is only for a single visit. The midsection of the pyramid is our employment suitability.
All those working at Federal facilities require suitability review, including contractors. The apex of the pyramid is eligibility for access to classified information, which is required for a security clearance. But even clearance holders are reviewed for suitability. That review is just embedded in the overall security review. For many years, employees and contractors could park themselves in a suitability-determined billet without triggering the higher expectations of a clearance. That dodge is coming to an end.
Agencies looking to fill a position requiring security clearance sometimes save time and expense by prescreening applicants via suitability determinations. A prospective hire who cannot clear the suitability hurdle will not pass muster with the more rigorous security clearance vetting process. This strategy works because both designations look for similar characteristics: trustworthiness, integrity, candor, and stability. While the relative security adjudicative guidelines are not identical to the suitability, they do overlap. And, given that the suitability factors really have no equivalent of the mitigating conditions for security concerns, the security guidelines can, and do, provide a road map for mitigating suitability concerns.
What are the Suitability Factors for Federal Employment?
There are nine factors considered in suitability and fitness assessments presently on the books, and they are:
- Misconduct or negligence in employment;
- criminal conduct;
- material, intentional false statement, or deception, or fraud, in examination or appointment;
- dishonest conduct;
- excessive alcohol consumption;
- illegal use of narcotics, drugs, or other controlled substances;
- knowing, willful engagement in activity designed to overthrow the U.S. government;
- statutory or regulatory bar that prevents the individual’s lawful employment;
- violent conduct.
Once OPM’s proposed changes go into effect, this list will expand. Failing to file and pay your taxes on time, refusing to comply with NDAs, and wasting government resources will become potential cause for removal. This will lead to the greatest purge of the Federal Merit System since the end of the spoils system in 1883; it will be an immense tool for the use of incumbent and incoming Presidents seeking to use the Federal workplace for its “true believers.”
What Can Fed Employees Learn from Security Clearance Holders?
Defense, Defense, Defense…
Practicable appeal options for employees facing disciplinary action have been dwindling. OPM’s planned suitability changes will only add to this deteriorating due process. In circumstances like these, the preemptive approach is always preferable. That is not to say it is easy. But if you are serious about investing in your federal service career, you must be proactive.
Shore up your defenses before anyone forces you into a defensive position. Be unassailable. Best practice is to avoid triggering any suitability violation alerts. Second best is proactively mitigating anything derogatory before the government comes knocking for an explanation.
Take a page from the savvy security clearance holder’s playbook: if you are scrambling to defend yourself against derogatory information, you have already lost. By the time the government is aware you have accrued thousands in credit card debt, you should already be enrolled in credit counseling and working out a plan to resolve that debt.
Self-Reporting
Trusted Workforce 2.0 is here. The federal government is not keen to risk hiring and retaining liabilities. In the security world, we talk about Guideline E: Personal Conduct as it is promulgated in SEAD-4. It is twinned analytically to the new Suitability Factor #4, Dishonest Conduct.
Guideline E security concerns are some of the hardest to mitigate. Smoking Marijuana and lying about it is a Guideline H and Guideline E violation. The drug use itself is easier to mitigate than lying about the drug use. A drug assessment and proof of rehabilitation can be offered, but how do you prove your birth, upbringing, and cultural orientation have not made you a liar? How do you prove a change in character? Had the individual self-reported, there would be no Guideline E violation. It is very hard to argue you can be trusted after violating Guideline E. The new review will not necessarily permit the second chance your parents told you would always be available; the new Federal workspace may not have trophies for every applicant.
Think about where your character is on parade, showing whether you are “suitable” to work for the President. Did you fail to pay your taxes on time? Did you fail to file even if the IRS owes you? File bankruptcy? Do not let the government be the ones to bring it up. If you bring it to their attention, you will at least demonstrate your candor, if not your financial stability. Remember: with CV routinely combing credit reports, the matter will come up. Be the one to bring it up.
Invest in a War Chest: Find a Federal Employment Attorney Before You Think You Need One
No one in Federal government is chiefly concerned with educating you on changing suitability guidelines, or protecting your career. Some Federal applicants are fortunate to have a Jedi master advising them, but those close professional circles are breaking up as Washington changes. The wrong question posed to the wrong person can be cause for suspicion. Competitors for your position may then be alerted, and the knives unsheathed to push you out, and another in. Even ‘true believers’ have competitors; the new Washington ethos is one of endless competition, even within members of the same faction. If you have questions or concerns and you are invested in protecting your career in public service, find an attorney versed in federal employment law. That way your questions and concerns are privileged information.
Just as with security clearance, the appropriately qualified attorney can make the difference between losing your eligibility and keeping it. A federal employment or security clearance attorney worth their salt is not just there to appeal. They are there to build proactive strategies that make appeals unnecessary in the first place.
Finding and retaining an attorney worth your money takes more time than you might think. Do not let the day you receive notice be the day you start looking for one.
Dan Meyer, Esq. is a Partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC’s Washington, D.C. office and has dedicated more than 25 years of service to the field of Federal Employment and National Security law as both a practicing attorney and federal investigator and senior executive. He is a lead in advocating for service members, Federal civilian employees, and contractors as they fight to retain their credentialing, suitability and security clearances.
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