Yellow Jacket InitiativeBy E. Lawrence Anderson, Yellow Jacket Initiative
On Thursday, October 29, 2026, the Office of Personnel Management published a final rule rewriting 5 CFR part 250, which governs how agencies plan their workforces and survey their employees (FR Doc 2026-22093, 91 FR 68013, RIN 3206-AO77, docket OPM-2026-0368). It takes effect Monday, November 30, 2026. OPM proposed it on July 2 (91 FR 40435) and received nine comments. Every quotation below was checked against the published rule, the proposed rule and the executive order on October 29, 2026.
OPM's case, first. OPM says the rule mostly writes down what an executive order already requires. Executive Order 14356 (90 FR 48387, October 2025) created Strategic Hiring Committees, and OPM says the rule folds them into part 250. OPM says the committees get no examining, rating, or certification authority; rating, ranking and certification still run under 5 U.S.C. 3317 and 3318 and 5 CFR part 332; and members "remain subject to 5 U.S.C. 2301 and 2302," the merit system principles and prohibited personnel practices. On the survey, OPM says the statute requires only a common core of questions and public availability of results. OPM estimates first-year costs at about $1,250,400 governmentwide.
What the text does.
The committee. New section 250.204(f): "The Strategic Hiring Committee must include the agency's Deputy Secretary, or equivalent, the chief of staff to the agency head, and the agency's Chief Human Capital Officer." The proposed text listed only the Deputy Secretary, or equivalent, and the Chief Human Capital Officer. OPM added the chief of staff at the final stage and, citing 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), found further notice and comment "unnecessary," because the executive order already says: "The Strategic Hiring Committee shall include the deputy agency head and the chief of staff to the agency head."
One point of text: the preamble says members remain subject to sections 2301 and 2302 and cites 250.204(f). The printed text of 250.204(f) does not itself contain that sentence. The statutes apply either way; the regulation does not restate them.
Planning. The Human Capital Operating Plan, Human Capital Reviews and HRStat reviews are replaced by Annual Staffing Plans tied to the budget cycle, quarterly updates to OPM and OMB, and OPM-OMB Annual Staffing Reviews. Agency heads must certify the Chief Human Capital Officer's "visibility, oversight, and control." Staffing Plans must consider "elimination of duplicative or nonessential functions and positions" and "reduction of unnecessary or low-value contractor positions."
The survey. The required core questions drop from 16 to 10. New items include "My supervisor holds my team accountable for achieving results," and two items on how poor performers are handled. Kept: "I can disclose a suspected violation of any law, rule or regulation without fear of reprisal." No longer required: "My workload is reasonable," "I recommend my organization as a good place to work," and the satisfaction items, including satisfaction with involvement in decisions and with recognition. OPM says agencies "remain free, and are encouraged," to ask them.
What the public sees. The current rule (eCFR, as of October 26) lists what posted survey results must include: the agency's evaluation of its results, how the survey was conducted, the sample, the questions and response choices, the number surveyed and the number who completed it, and the number of respondents for each question and response choice. The final rule replaces that list with one sentence: "Each agency may determine the specific content of its public disclosure of its annual survey results." Agencies must now send their survey results to OPM and OMB no later than 90 days after the survey closes. OPM says it will address the content of public releases in guidance; that guidance has not been issued.
The rule also removes the word "diverse" from 250.203(b) and (c), as proposed.
What is not established.
- The executive order directs each committee "to approve the creation or filling, as applicable, of each vacancy." Whether and how the committees do that in practice is not shown by this rule.
- OPM's statements about what the committees cannot do are OPM's account in the preamble; the regulatory text of 250.204(f) says the committee must "oversee hiring" and "ensure that agency hiring is consistent with the agency's mission needs and the agency's Annual Staffing Plan."
- Not every comment response in the preamble was read line by line. No press coverage was used.
Why we are following it. It is the latest in a sequence of OPM rules we have read one at a time: the rating caps, the end of the one-year promotion wait, the rating curve for senior scientists and experts, and the leave rule. This one places a hiring-oversight body that includes the agency head's chief of staff in regulation, and it lowers the regulatory floor on what the public sees from the one governmentwide employee survey.
Primary source: OPM, Personnel Management in Agencies: Strategic Human Capital Management, final rule, 91 FR 68013 (Oct. 29, 2026). Also read: the proposed rule, 91 FR 40435 (July 2, 2026), and Executive Order 14356, 90 FR 48387.
Read the text.
Independent Research. All Documents Freely Reproducible.