Require an "outstanding" rating for SES bonuses

Partially done

Printed page 72 3. Central Personnel Agencies

“An "outstanding" rating should be required for Senior Executive Service (SES) chiefs to win big bonuses”

What has happened

Sep 15, 2025 Partially done
Top ratings are now rationed; bonuses are not. OPM's final rule removed the bar on forced distribution of Senior Executive Service rating levels and allowed OPM to impose one, and the implementing memorandum issued the next day caps agencies with five or more career executives at 30% rated Level 4 or 5 from the FY 2026 cycle, unless the President waives the cap by certifying outstanding performance — against a baseline in which 64.3% of executives were rated "Outstanding". That squeezes the pool that can win the largest awards, which is the practical effect the Quote is after. It is only partial because OPM was asked to do exactly what the Mandate asks and declined: a commenter proposed restricting bonuses to Levels 4 and 5, and OPM replied that awards are authorized by statute for anyone at Level 3 or above and that its February 2025 appraisal plan lets agencies pay a 5% award at Level 3. No rule requires an "outstanding" rating to win a bonus.
- OPM final rule: Assuring Responsive and Accountable Federal Executive Management
  Primary Executive branch Sep 15, 2025
- OPM memorandum: Issuance of Regulations on Assuring Responsive and Accountable Federal Executive Management and FY 2026 SES Rating Level Distribution Cap
  Primary Executive branch Sep 16, 2025
Jan 20, 2025 Attempted
The President ordered the machinery rebuilt. The memorandum Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives directed OPM, within 30 days, to issue SES Performance Plans that agencies must adopt, told agency heads to reinvigorate the SES system and prioritize accountability, and told them to reconstitute their Performance Review Boards with people committed to full enforcement of SES performance evaluations. Nothing yet touched what an executive must earn to win a bonus.
- Presidential Memorandum, Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives
  Primary Executive branch Jan 20, 2025

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Researched 2026-08-27.

Read the whole of the 2025-09-15 final rule on govinfo.gov. It moves in the Mandate’s direction on ratings and expressly against it on awards:

For the ask: it removes the prohibition on forced distribution of SES rating levels and lets OPM require and enforce a pre-established distribution. OPM’s implementing memorandum of 2025-09-16 sets the cap — from the close of the FY 2026 appraisal cycle, an agency with five or more career SES “may not rate more than 30% of their career SES members at Levels 4 and 5, unless the President waives the cap by certifying outstanding SES performance.” Noncareer SES are excluded from the cap. The preamble’s own figures: 64.3% of SES were rated “Outstanding” at Level 5 in the baseline year.
Against the ask: a commenter proposed exactly the Mandate’s rule — that a senior executive must reach Level 4 or 5 to receive a bonus. OPM disagreed. “SES performance awards are authorized under 5 U.S.C. 5384 for senior executives whose performance is determined to be at least Level 3 (‘Fully Successful’)… These regulations do not address SES awards programs. OPM’s February 25, 2025, memorandum on the new SES performance appraisal system and plan allows agencies to grant a 5% performance award to senior executives rated Level 3.”

So the pool of executives who can earn the top ratings is now capped, but no rule conditions a bonus on an “outstanding” rating, and OPM has affirmatively blessed awards at the level below.

Action: restrict
Object: Senior Executive Service performance bonuses
ID: 107