Politics
Senate confirms new OPM director to take the reins on federal workforce overhauls
The Senate on Wednesday evening confirmed Scott Kupor to be the next director of the Office of Personnel Management, bringing in a new face to lead the Trump administration’s major overhauls of the federal workforce.
The Senate voted 49-46 mostly along party lines to confirm Kupor. One Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), voted alongside Democrats against Kupor’s confirmation.
Kupor’s confirmation comes as the Trump administration continues efforts to significantly scale down the size of the federal workforce. Agencies have proceeded with a combination of plans to conduct reductions in force, as well as offer various voluntary separation options to federal employees.
As the permanent director of OPM, Kupor will serve in a key position managing those major overhauls to the federal workforce, while the reduction efforts also face a multitude of legal battles. A Supreme Court ruling this week green-lit agencies’ broad reorganization and staff reduction plans, at least for the time being.
While much of the larger reduction plans remain pending, the administration’s staff decreases earlier this year have led to about a 1% decline in the overall size of the civilian federal workforce. OPM said it expects hundreds of thousands more federal employees to be moved off the government’s rolls by this fall.
As OPM’s permanent director, Kupor will also be tasked with moving forward a number of the more long-term changes the Trump administration plans to make to the federal workforce, many of which attempt to remove civil service protections and make it easier for agencies to fire employees.
Some of the changes OPM has already jumpstarted include revising the rules around federal probationary periods, changing suitability and fitness regulations, updating performance management standards, adding a new Schedule Policy/Career employment classification and attempting to reform the federal hiring process.
Scott Kupor, President Donald Trump’s pick for director of the Office of Personnel Management, listens during nomination hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Kupor’s confirmation in the Senate comes about three months after the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced his nomination along party lines on April 9. At the time, the committee was also considering President Donald Trump’s nomination of Eric Ueland as deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget. The Senate confirmed Ueland on May 14.
During his April 3 nomination hearing, Kupor outlined his goals to streamline the federal hiring process. He also criticized the government’s performance management system, which he said rates too many federal employees as high performers, and too few as underperformers.
At the time, Democratic committee members also questioned Kupor on the Trump administration’s mass firings of probationary employees, as well as Trump’s order to end collective bargaining at most federal agencies.
Kupor avoided answering lawmakers’ specific questions on the Trump administration’s earlier actions, instead saying only generally that the federal firing process “requires transparency and communication.”
“We need to recognize and respect the humanity of the workforce,” Kupor said in April. “If we’re going to fire somebody or eliminate a service, and it’s a critical service that needs to be provided, we should make sure that there is a way to deliver those services.”
Kupor comes from a career in the private sector, most recently working as a managing partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Trump first announced his plans to nominate Kupor as OPM director in December, saying that Kupor “will bring much needed reform to our federal workforce.”
Kupor will take over the top role at OPM from current acting director Charles Ezell.
“Thank you to [Donald Trump] for the opportunity to serve this great country,” Kupor wrote Wednesday evening in a social media post on X. “Our future as a nation is incredibly bright, and I am humbled to be able to play a small part in helping ensure this path to further greatness!”
The post Senate confirms new OPM director to take the reins on federal workforce overhauls first appeared on Federal News Network.
