Trump admin seeks to reclassify federal CIOs, opening door to political appointees

Fall in line with executive policy or you're gone, acting OPM chief insists

Chief Information Officers across the US federal government face increased job uncertainty as the Trump administration recommends agencies reclassify these positions, potentially making them political appointees.

In a memo issued yesterday, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Charles Ezell, said that these CIOs are no longer seen as purely "impartial and apolitical technocrats"; instead, their role now involves policy-making on politically charged issues.

"It is a focus of President Trump's administration to improve the government's digital policy to make government more responsive, transparent, efficient, and accessible to the public," Ezell wrote.

"The administration rightly expects that agency CIOs will be on the front lines of articulating and implementing such policies, both within government and before the general public."

The memo echoes much of what President Trump wrote in an executive order issued on the first day of his presidency that aimed to "restore accountability" to make sure the federal workforce aligns with the President's directives, making resistance a potential cause for dismissal.

"In recent years … there have been numerous and well-documented cases of career Federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership," the executive order claimed. "Principles of good administration, therefore, necessitate action to restore accountability to the career civil service, beginning with positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character." 

Federal agency CIOs, per Ezell's memo, are involved in "policy-making and policy-determining capabilities across a range of controversial political topics." In other words, career tech experts may find themselves sidelined if they don't align with the administration's agenda.

"[A CIO] does not spend his days writing complex lines of code, setting up secure networks, or performing other 'highly technical' tasks," Ezell continued. "Instead, he crafts and effectuates policy, and sets and deploys his budget, based on his administration's priorities." 

As such, Ezell is recommending that agencies with CIOs classified as senior executive service (SES) and designated as "career reserved" submit a request to OPM to have these positions redesignated as "general" by February 14, opening the roles to political appointees as well as career officials.

The OPM memo argues that the pool of career SES candidates is too limited and suggests that redesignating CIO positions as "general" will expand the talent pool beyond longtime federal employees. Maybe that could explain why Trump's pick for federal CIO - Greg Barbaccia - has never held a CIO role in his largely private-sector career? 

The timing of the memo also neatly coincides with the chaos being caused in Washington DC by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which has taken over computer systems at various government agencies, though has been facing some level of pushback from leaders over his demands for access. 

By redesignating CIOs as general SES positions, the administration could make it easier to replace those who resist policy directives, potentially reducing resistance. ®