On May 29, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published a memo regarding its “merit hiring plan,” which will see new job applicants forced to support Trump policies.
“How would you help advance the president’s executive orders and policy priorities in this role?” asks one of four essay questions that job seekers must answer if they are seeking any federal position GS-5 or above. “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.”
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The memo combines a requirement to support Trump’s policies with bipartisan reforms introduced by both Trump and former President Joe Biden to expedite and improve the hiring process. The OPM has also called for an end to the use of “racial quotas and preferences,” as well as the utilization and collection of demographic statistics.
However, the Trump administration still wants diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) – just in a manner more politically palatable to its allies and supporters.
As part of the plan, OPM said it will expand its recruiting efforts particularly at religious colleges and universities, homeschooling and other faith-based groups, an apparently conservative spin on the Biden administration’s efforts to step up recruitment at historically black colleges and universities.
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Vague questions assessing the “patriotism” of new hires, among others, will also be introduced. A federal official noted that such subjective questioning will make hiring harder, even with the aforementioned bipartisan reforms. Skill, a key component of merit, risks taking a backseat due to the ideological nature of the new questionnaires.
The University of Maryland’s professor emeritus, Don Kettl, also warned that, in the administration’s relentless push against DEI, it has forgotten to connect hiring with the mission of the federal jobs being applied for.
