Federal Hiring Office Walks Back Essay Questions for New Hires

The Office of Personnel Management sought to soften the importance of essay prompts for federal job applicants after critics warned the test would screen applicants based on how they’d help President Donald Trump’s agenda.

OPM notified federal agency heads last week in a written notice that the essay questions outlined in a May 29 memo “must not be used as a means of determining whether the candidate fulfills the qualifications of a position.” The memo had outlined four short-answer prompts, including one on how applicants for nonpartisan roles would advance the president’s policies and executive orders.

The notice represents a rare reversal on the Trump administration’s push to root out those disloyal to Trump and to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the federal workforce. The new memo was made public by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a worker advocacy group that filed a complaint with the US Office of Special Counsel alleging that the new essay questions amounted to a loyalty test for nonpartisan civil servants.

OPM’s response “signals its realization that its original plan was illegal,” the group said in a statement.

Former agency officials have said that federal staff should be hired solely on merit, not based on their views of the president’s policies.

The questions “were never meant to serve as any sort of litmus test,” an OPM spokeswoman said in an email. “Rather, OPM provided common-sense guidance for agencies regarding how to use these questions in the application process consistent with the Merit Hiring Plan.”

The office had instructed applicants for roles ranked GS-05 and above to answer the following question: “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”

The new memo doesn’t eliminate the question altogether, but tells managers that answers are “not scored or rated” and should be treated as a cover letter.

“The questions give candidates an opportunity to provide additional information about themselves, their background, and dedication to public service, but must not be used as a means of determining whether the candidate fulfills the qualifications of a position,” the unsigned memo says. “The questions also must not be used to impose an ideological litmus test on candidates. If an applicant does not answer the questions along with their application, they will not be disqualified or screened out.”

The change comes as Trump’s federal hiring freeze is set to expire this month. The president spent the first months of his second term trying to drastically reduce agency headcounts through buyouts, layoffs, and other incentives. In April, he extended the freeze through July 15.

Trump has chipped away at the protections for career civil servants, firing US Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger in February. The nonpartisan office investigates reports of political coercion in the federal government. As a replacement, Trump has nominated Paul Ingrassia, a MAGA loyalist who has expressed a deep skepticism toward the federal workforce.