[21] Between 2018 and 2019, as part of a larger initiative to restructure the executive branch, President Donald Trump 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.
Representative Gerry Connolly, chair of the Subcommittee on Government Operations under the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, fiercely criticized the proposal.
Political pressure against the proposal peaked when a provision barring the president from transferring any function, responsibility, authority, service, system, or program until six months after the completion of an "independent report" by the federally chartered National Academy of Public Administration was added to the 1,120 page bill S-1790, a.k.a.
[27] Charles Ezell, OPM's acting director, has been issuing guidance and memos to implement Trump's executive orders,[27][28] including his January 27 memorandum regarding Schedule F. This aligns closely with DOGE's objectives and workforce restructuring plans.
[27] Other efforts in line with DOGE's goals include revising telework policies, considering the termination of recently hired federal employees,[29][30] and instructing agencies to bypass certain regulations.
The program was announced in an email headed "Fork in the Road", framed as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reduce the federal workforce.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) warned workers not to accept the offer, citing concerns over potential benefit disputes and unclear legal protections.
This included access to the Enterprise Human Resources Integration, a comprehensive database storing sensitive information such as government employees' dates of birth, Social Security numbers, performance appraisals, and home addresses.
[35] Wired reported that a group of six engineers aged between 18 and 24 who previously worked for Musk were overseeing significant U.S. government roles, particularly the OPM and DOGE.
[37][38] Simultaneously, OPM faced scrutiny over a newly deployed email system designed to send mass communications to federal employees.
A lawsuit filed by two anonymous federal workers alleged that OPM failed to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) before launching the system, potentially exposing sensitive government communications.
Some federal IT departments reportedly advised employees to flag all messages from the new system as potential phishing attempts due to authentication concerns.
At an underground limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania, the retirement of federal employees is processed on paper by hand, and the information is stored in file cabinets.