Washington, DC — The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) today released new guidance to federal agencies on how to implement President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14356, Ensuring Continued Accountability in Federal Hiring. In his first year in office, President Trump met and exceeded the ratio of four employee departures for each new hire, this guidance directs agencies on how to ensure federal hiring remains cost-effective, mission-focused, and aligned with administration priorities.

“This is about ensuring government works better for the American people,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said. “We’re bringing accountability and discipline to every hiring decision, making sure agencies are staffing for mission need, not bureaucratic habit.”

“No administration in history has achieved the historic workforce reductions President Trump achieved this year,” OMB Deputy Director for Management Eric Ueland said. “The President’s EO ensures those reductions will endure and that the government can effectively implement the president’s agenda for the American people.”

Executive Order 14356 contains several key elements:

• Agencies must establish Strategic Hiring Committees to ensure agency hiring is consistent with the national interest, agency needs, and administration priorities, as well as the Merit Hiring Plan.
• Agencies must submit Annual Staffing Plans and quarterly updates to ensure new career appointments in the upcoming fiscal year are in the highest-need areas.

• Until they do so, agencies must adhere to the policies set forth in the July 7, 2025 presidential memorandum Ensuring Accountability and Prioritizing Public Safety in Federal Hiring, along with the president’s direction in Executive Order 14210 that agencies “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.”
• Democratically accountable agency leadership will be at the table to make hiring decisions to maintain President Trump’s historic workforce reductions.
• The memo provides exceptions for the military and positions related to national security, immigration enforcement, and public safety.

Read the memo here and Director Kupor’s blog on this here.