WASHINGTON — The Office of Personnel Management has proposed new regulations that would increase oversight of federal agency staffing plans while removing references to workforce diversity from federal hiring rules.
The proposed rule, scheduled for publication today in the Federal Register, would give OPM and agencies’ chief human resources officers a larger role in workforce planning. Under the proposal, OPM and the Office of Management and Budget would review annual staffing plans submitted by each federal agency at the beginning of every fiscal year, as well as oversee the creation of new strategic hiring committees, Bloomberg Law reported.
NCUA would be among those federal agencies. As the CU Daily reported here, the Trump administration won a Supreme Court case earlier this week that gives it more authority over independent agencies.
According to the proposal, agencies would be required to include metrics for assessing staffing needs in their annual plans and provide quarterly progress reports to OPM and OMB.
Bloomberg Law reported the proposal is part of a broader Trump administration effort to increase oversight of the federal workforce.
Other Proposals Released
The publication noted that separate proposals released Wednesday by OPM and the Merit Systems Protection Board would make it easier for federal agencies to defend decisions involving employee discipline and terminations. Earlier this week, OPM also finalized a rule allowing agency leaders to more easily dismiss employees who violate nondisclosure agreements, fail to meet citizenship requirements or do not file their taxes on time.
The proposed staffing rule would also eliminate several references to workforce diversity in federal hiring regulations.
‘Unnecessary and Potentially Harmful’
According to Bloomberg Law, the proposal states that existing references to a “diverse” workforce are “unnecessary and potentially harmful.”
“The current regulatory references to a ‘diverse’ workforce may be read to suggest that agencies either are required or permitted to take race or other protected characteristics into account in hiring, evaluation and promotion decisions,” the proposed rule states, according to Bloomberg Law.
One Response
Regarding dismissing employees who do not file their taxes on time (or accurately), perhaps the OPM should start with the tenant living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.