United States Office of Personnel Management

United States Office of Personnel Management
Official seal
Official wordmark
Agency overview
Formed January 1, 1979
Preceding agency
Jurisdiction U.S. federal government
Headquarters Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building
1900 E Street, NW
Washington, D.C., US
Employees 2,448 (2021)
Annual budget $329,755,000 (2021)
Agency executive
Website opm.gov

The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is an independent agency of the United States government that manages the United States federal civil service. The agency provides federal human resources policy, oversight, and support, and tends to healthcare (FEHB), life insurance (FEGLI), and retirement benefits (CSRS and FERS, but not TSP) for federal government employees, retirees, and their dependents.

OPM is headed by a director, who is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The current director, Kiran Ahuja, was sworn in June 24, 2021.

History

The United States Civil Service Commission was created by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. The commission was renamed as the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and most of commission's former functions—with the exception of the federal employees appellate function—were assigned to new agencies, with most being assigned to the newly created U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on January 1, 1979, and Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1978.

On January 1, 1979, the Office of Personnel Management was established with the dissolution of the U.S. Civil Service Commission following the passage and signing of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 into law by then President Jimmy Carter(43 FR 36037, 92 Stat. 3783).

The United States Office of Government Ethics, responsible for directing executive branch policies relating to the prevention of conflicts of interest on the part of Federal executive branch officers and employees, was formerly a part of OPM, until being spun off as an independent agency in 1989.

In 1996 the investigation branch of the OPM was privatized, and USIS was formed. In 2014, after several scandals, OPM declined to renew its contract with USIS and brought background investigations back in house under the short-lived National Background Investigations Bureau. In 2019, the responsibility for conducting federal background checks changed hands again when NBIB was dissolved and its functions given to the Defense Security Service, part of the Department of Defense, which was reorganized into the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency for the purpose.

2015 data breach

Main article: Office of Personnel Management data breach

In April 2015, hackers working on behalf of the Jiangsu State Security Department, a provincial branch of the Chinese Ministry of State Security spy agency obtained access to 22.1 million SF-86 records of US federal employees, contractors, and their friends and family. Representing one of the largest breaches of government data in U.S. history, information that was obtained and exfiltrated in the breach included personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers, as well as names, dates and places of birth, and addresses.

New updates regarding this security breach came to light on September 24, 2015. The agency then indicated that additional evidence showed that 5.6 million people's fingerprints were stolen as part of the hacks, more than five times the 1.1 million originally estimated. The total number of individuals whose records were disclosed in whole or part, including Social Security numbers and addresses, remained at 21.5 million.

Attempts at Reform

In July 2013, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) introduced the Office of Personnel Management Inspector General Act. The bill would increase oversight of OPM's revolving fund. Farenthold introduced the bill as a response to accusations of fraud and concerns about security clearance background investigations. The bill would fund the expenses for investigations, oversight activities and audits from the revolving fund. The bill was in response to a find that between 2002 and 2012, OPM's revolving fund had tripled, totaling over $2 billion, or 90% of OPM's budget. In February 2014, President Obama signed the bill into law. The fund's history goes back to the early 1980s, where it was used for two main activities: training and background investigations for government personnel.

Between 2018 and 2019, as part of a larger initiative to restructure the executive branch, President Donald Trump (R) submitted a proposal to congress to merge OPM into the General Services Administration (GSA) while returning the federal personnel policy-making components under the direct authority of the Executive Office of the President of the United States to the Office of Management and Budget in the White House. House Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations under the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, was the fiercest critic of the proposal. During a congressional hearing, Connolly claimed: "The administration wants to take over the merit policy-making functions and put them into the highly politicized environment of the White House itself, away from direct congressional oversight and inspector general review." Political pressure against the proposal peaked when a provision barring the President from transferring any function, responsibility, authority, service, system or program that is assigned in law until 6 months after the completion of an "independent report" issued by the federally-chartered National Academy of Public Administration was added to the 1,120 page bill S-1790, a.k.a. the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.

Function

According to its website, the mission of the OPM is "recruiting, retaining and honoring a world-class force to serve the American people." The OPM is partially responsible for maintaining the appearance of independence and neutrality in the Administrative Law System. While technically employees of the agencies they work for, Administrative Law Judges (or ALJs) are hired exclusively by the OPM, effectively removing any discretionary employment procedures from the other agencies. The OPM uses a rigorous selection process which ranks the top three candidates for each ALJ vacancy, and then makes a selection from those candidates, generally giving preference to veterans.

OPM is also responsible for federal employee retirement applications for FERS and CSRS employees. OPM makes decisions on federal employee regular and disability retirement cases. OPM also oversees FEHB and FEGLI, the health insurance and life insurance programs for Federal employees. However, it does not oversee TSP, which is handled by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB), a separate independent agency.

Components

  • Retirement Services - Oversees the Civil Service Retirement Service (CSRS) and the Federal Employee Retirement Service (FERS).
  • Healthcare & Insurance - Oversees the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) and Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) programs.
  • Employee Services Branch
  • Human Resources Branch

Directors of OPM

Source: OPM's Agency Leadership Through Time

  • Alan K. Campbell (January 2, 1979 – January 20, 1981)
  • Donald J. Devine (March 23, 1981 – March 25, 1985)
  • Loretta Cornelius (acting; 1985)
  • Constance Horner (August 22, 1985 – May 10, 1989)
  • Constance Berry Newman (June 8, 1989 – June 30, 1992)
  • James B. King (April 7, 1993 – September 1, 1997)
  • Janice R. Lachance (November 12, 1997 – January 20, 2001)
  • Steven R. Cohen (acting; January 20, 2001 – July 11, 2001)
  • Kay Coles James (July 11, 2001 – January 31, 2005)
  • Dan Gregory Blair (acting; February 1, 2005 – June 27, 2005)
  • Linda M. Springer (June 28, 2005 – August 13, 2008)
  • Michael Hager (acting; August 13, 2008 – January 20, 2009)
  • Kathie Ann Whipple (acting; January 20, 2009 - April 13, 2009)
  • John Berry (April 13, 2009 – April 13, 2013)
  • Elaine Kaplan (acting; April 13, 2013 – November 4, 2013)
  • Katherine Archuleta (November 4, 2013 – July 10, 2015)
  • Beth Cobert (acting; July 10, 2015 to January 19, 2017)
  • Kathleen McGettigan (acting; January 19, 2017 – March 9, 2018)
  • Jeff Tien Han Pon (March 9, 2018 – October 5, 2018)
  • Margaret Weichert (acting; October 5, 2018 – September 16, 2019)
  • Dale Cabaniss (September 16, 2019 – March 17, 2020)
  • Michael Rigas (acting; March 18, 2020 – January 20, 2021)
  • Kathleen McGettigan (acting; January 20, 2021 – June 24, 2021)
  • Kiran Ahuja (June 24, 2021 – Present)

See also