Fact Sheet: OPM Issues Proposed Rulemaking To Implement Forced Distribution of SES Ratings

Summary of the Trump Administration's proposed rule to limit the percentage of career SES who can receive top ratings.

On May 2, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a proposed rule entitled “Assuring Responsive and Accountable Federal Executive Management.” This proposed rule builds on an earlier-issued Presidential Memorandum and OPM guidance and is the latest in the Trump Administration’s efforts to weaken the career Senior Executive Service.

The Senior Executive Service & Performance Management
The Senior Executive Service (SES) is a corps of high-level Federal executives, both career and noncareer (i.e. political appointee), who share a broad set of responsibilities to help lead the work of the Federal government. The SES was established in 1978 by the Civil Service Reform Act, with the purpose of ensuring “that the executive management of the Government of the United States is responsive to the needs, policies, and goals of the Nation and otherwise of the highest quality.”

In establishing the SES, Congress determined that SES members would be assessed through a structured performance appraisal system. The statute requires agencies, among other things, to develop an appraisal system—consistent with standards established by OPM—that enables the accurate evaluation of an executive’s performance based on criteria related to the position, identifies the critical elements of that position, provides for systematic assessments of an executive’s performance, and provides a basis for making determinations regarding an SES’s pay and retention. See 5 U.S.C. 4312. The statute also provides OPM with rulemaking authority. See 5 U.S.C. 4315.

Consistent with that authority, OPM regulations lay out a range of details and standards for agencies’ SES performance appraisal systems, including a requirement that agencies establish five performance levels for annual ratings of SES members. OPM suggests the following five ratings:

5 for “Outstanding”
4 for “Exceeds Fully Successful”
3 for “Fully Successful”
2 for “Minimally Satisfactory”
1 for “Unsatisfactory”

For career members of the SES, both their pay, including pay increases and performance awards, and retention is tied to their annual ratings. With respect to retention, any career SES who receives less than “Fully Successful” in two out of three years must be removed from the SES, and any executive who receives an “Unsatisfactory” rating in any year must be reassigned or transferred within the SES or removed from the SES.

Current regulations prohibit agencies from imposing a forced distribution of ratings, meaning that agencies cannot, under current regulations, dictate that only a certain percentage of SES members can receive an “Outstanding” or “Exceeds Fully Successful Rating.”

President Trump’s Presidential Memorandum and OPM’s Performance Plans
On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum entitled “Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives.” That Presidential Memo, among other things, directed OPM, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, to issue new SES performance plans that agencies must adopt.

On February 25, 2025, OPM issued guidance and a new SES performance plan to agencies, as directed by the Presidential Memo (“OPM Guidance”). The OPM Guidance makes a number of changes to the SES performance appraisal system, including, significantly, establishing a limit on the percentage of SES who can receive a rating of Level 5 (“Outstanding”) or Level 4 (“Exceeds Fully Successful”). Specifically, the OPM Guidance states that “no more than 30% of total ratings shall be Levels 4 and 5, unless the President waives the provision by certifying that the performance of the agency’s executives was outstanding during the relevant time period.” Further, the OPM Guidance states that “[o]nly executives rated Level 4 or Level 5 should receive a performance award or performance-based pay adjustment exceeding 5% of their rate of basic pay.” Given that current OPM regulations prohibit a forced distribution of ratings, the OPM Guidance acknowledges that “OPM will revise and finalize the necessary rulemaking before issuing final guidance for implementation.”

OPM’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
OPM’s May 2, 2025 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Assuring Responsive and Accountable Federal Executive Management,” proposes the regulatory change needed for the forced distribution of ratings to go into effect. Specifically, it proposes to amend 5 CFR 430.305(a)(6) by deleting the phrase “while prohibiting a forced distribution of rating levels for senior executives” from the following:

“Each agency performance management system must incorporate the following system standards . . . (5) Derive an annual summary rating through a mathematical method that ensures executives’ performance aligns with level descriptors contained in performance standards that clearly differentiate levels above fully successful, while prohibiting a forced distribution of rating levels for senior executives.”

In the preamble to the NPRM, OPM states that it “anticipates that agencies would implement a forced distribution limiting the highest rating levels (i.e., levels 4 and 5) only, and would not impose any requirements with respect to the number of executives rated at levels 1 through 3.” But if OPM finalizes this rule as proposed, there is presumably nothing that would prevent an agency from also imposing a forced distribution of 1 through 3 ratings, which could have significant consequences with respect to executives’ ability to retain their SES status.

In addition to this primary purpose of eliminating the prohibition on forced distributions, OPM’s NPRM proposes two additional regulatory changes. First, consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order and broader actions related to eliminating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal government, OPM’s NPRM proposes to remove regulatory language stating that SES performance appraisals should take into account “leadership effectiveness in promoting diversity, inclusion, and engagement.”

Second, the NPRM proposes to remove regulatory language indicating that membership in an agency’s Performance Review Board—which reviews and proposes ratings for an agency’s SES—should consider “diversity and inclusion,” and instead replaces it with language stating that Performance Review Board members should be selected based on their commitment to the full enforcement of SES performance evaluations.

Public Comments on OPM’s NPRM
OPM’s NPRM is open for public comment until June 2, 2025. OPM is required by law to consider your comments. That means that you have the opportunity to make your voice heard, and it’s critical that you do so. OPM’s NPRM claims that a forced distribution for SES ratings is necessary to enhance accountability and performance. But the NPRM fails to explain why such a blunt tool is needed or how it will lead to improved individual or organizational performance. And there is no question that the change will cause harm to the deeply committed members of the career SES—by allowing for no more than 30 percent of the SES to receive a rating above “Fully Successful,” this rule would mean that at least 70 percent of the SES would not receive a meaningful performance award or pay increase. Indeed, this NPRM is simply the latest in a clear attempt to attack the dedicated career civil servants who, each and every day, serve the American people.

If you would like to comment, our friends at Protect Democracy have helpful guides for commenting: