Suitability & Fitness

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to implement part of Executive Order 14,210 and the March 20, 2025 presidential memorandum ("Strengthening the Suitability and Fitness of the Federal Workforce"). The NPRM proposed to add four vague new suitability grounds: (i) failure to comply with generally applicable legal obligations, including timely filing of tax returns; (ii) failure to comply with any provision that would preclude regular Federal service, including citizenship requirements; (iii) refusal to certify compliance with any applicable non disclosure obligations, consistent with 5 U.S.C. 2302(b)(13), and failure to adhere to those compliance obligations in the course of Federal employment; and (iv) theft or misuse of Government resources and equipment, or negligent loss of material Government resources and equipment. Consistent with the presidential memorandum, the NPRM proposed to allow suitability actions terminating current employees for conduct that occurs after the employee has started his or her job. As with adverse action removals, employees can appeal suitability actions to the MSPB but the MSPB can only recommend reversal of a suitability action, which OPM can ignore. Protect Democracy, Democracy Forward, and a coalition filed an extensive comment challenging the NPRM.