Top career civil service managers will no longer be judged within rules that allow almost everybody to rate highest.
WASHINGTON—Trump administration officials at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) are set to introduce a comprehensive set of reforms to how the performance of top echelon of career executives is appraised.
There are more than 7,000 members of the federal government’s Senior Executive Service (SES), which represents the highest level of career management authority in the civil service. The reforms coming from the Trump administration are the most thorough since the Reagan administration in the 1980s.
“This new governmentwide SES Performance Appraisal System and Performance Plan will deliver enhanced accountability and help restore a ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people,’” a Feb. 25 memo to all department and agency heads from Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell reads.
“It will ensure that senior executives are responsive to the needs, policies, and goals of the Nation and otherwise is of the highest quality. In addition, this memorandum lays out additional next actions for agencies pursuant to SES Accountability,” Ezell wrote.
Ezell worked with OMB officials led by Director Russell Vought in developing the new rules for rating and rewarding the work of the federal civil service’s most senior career managers.
A copy of the document was made available to The Epoch Times.
The new system was mandated by one of the first executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office, titled “Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives.”
The new system is intended to cover all SES executives by no later than Sept. 30, 2026, with implementation beginning on Oct. 1, 2025. Level 1 SES executives received $180,000 annually in salary, with the top level, Level 5, receiving $246,400 annually.
Members of the SES are also eligible for special awards within their agencies worth between 5 and 20 percent of their base salaries, as well as President Rank Awards, including at the Distinguished Level, worth 35 percent of base pay, and Meritorious Level, worth 20 percent of base pay.
