3. Central Personnel Agencies · Minor
Have political executives supervise career staff appraisals directly
Printed page 74 3. Central Personnel Agencies
“Political executives should take an active role in supervising performance appraisals of career staff, not unduly delegate this responsibility to senior career managers, and be willing to reward and support good performers.”
What has happened
- Partially done
The directive acquired teeth that political leadership has to hold. OPM's rule lets an agency's leadership impose a distribution on senior executive ratings, and OPM's implementing memorandum then imposed one government-wide: no more than 30% of an agency's career executives at Levels 4 and 5. A ceiling of that kind cannot be delegated to career managers — someone in charge has to decide who is above the line — and OPM's December 2025 guidance pushes the same way by telling agency heads to use their reassignment authority directly. Partial because no rule requires political executives to supervise appraisals, and no allowlisted source records how appraisals are in fact being run agency by agency.
- OPM final rule: Assuring Responsive and Accountable Federal Executive Management
- OPM memorandum: Issuance of Regulations on Assuring Responsive and Accountable Federal Executive Management and FY 2026 SES Rating Level Distribution Cap
- OPM memorandum: Guidance on Senior Executive Service Reassignments
- Attempted
The President told agency heads that managing career senior executives is one of their core functions, that they should use all available authorities to reinvigorate the system and prioritize accountability, that they should reconstitute their Performance Review Boards with people committed to full enforcement of SES performance evaluations, and that on learning of an executive whose performance falls short they shall act immediately, up to removal. A directive to political leadership, with nothing yet changed on the ground.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Researched 2026-08-27.
The Presidential memorandum of 2025-01-20 is the instrument, and it is addressed to exactly the people the Quote names:
“(b) Agency heads, who along with their senior staff manage career SES officials as one of their core functions, shall use all available authorities to reinvigorate the SES system and prioritize accountability; … (e) Each agency head should terminate its existing Performance Review Board membership and re-constitute membership with individuals committed to full enforcement of SES performance evaluations …; (f) Any agency head who becomes aware of an SES official whose performance … is inconsistent with either the principles reaffirmed in this Order or their duties … shall immediately take all appropriate actions, up to and including removal.”
Follow-through: OPM’s 2025-09-15 rule and its 2025-09-16 memorandum put a hard 30% ceiling on Levels 4 and 5 for career executives, which agency leadership has to enforce and cannot delegate away; the 2026-07-07 appraisal rule extends forced distribution and biennial certification to the rest of the workforce; OPM’s 2025-12-01 reassignment guidance tells agency heads to use their reassignment powers directly.
Distinct from #124: that item is about who sits on the boards; this one is about political executives supervising appraisals rather than leaving them to senior career managers.
- Action
- other
- Object
- supervision of career staff performance appraisals
- ID
- 113