The Trump administration is trying to make it easier to name political loyalists as agency human resources chiefs.
Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, said Thursday agencies will be able to hire political appointees for the job, in addition to career staff. Career employees keep working at federal agencies, regardless of who is president.
“HR policy has become intensely politicized in recent years,” Ezell wrote in a memo, adding that agency chief human capital officers should be “democratically accountable.”
The memo is the latest volley in President
A mix of career staff and political appointees already serve as HR chiefs at agencies across government, two former chief human capital officers said.
“There are many things they’re doing that are out of the ordinary,” said Jeffrey Neal, former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, referring to Trump administration officials. “This is not highly unusual.”
Trump nominated Andreessen Horowitz’s Scott Kupor to lead OPM, the chief human resources agency for the federal government. Kupor’s nomination is pending in the Senate.
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