Trump to make agency tech leaders political appointees who can be fired at will

Source: NBC News

Trump to make agency tech leaders political appointees who can be fired at will

The change could smooth Elon Musk’s efforts to access the technology systems of various federal agencies through his Department of Government Efficiency. One former personnel management official called it a “tech coup.”

Feb. 4, 2025, 9:23 PM EST
By Kevin Collier

The Trump administration is moving to exert more control over the federal government’s technology, turning the people who oversee that infrastructure into political appointees it can hire and fire at will.

Currently, each agency’s chief information officer is a civil servant in a nonpartisan job, known in the Office of Personnel Management as “career reserved,” which provides some protections against firings. The change, which OPM announced in a memo Tuesday, will make the roles “general,” opening them up to a wide variety of appointees. The shift is set to happen no later than Feb. 14.

Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell said in the memo that the move will better align those employees with the Trump administration’s agenda.

“No longer the station of impartial and apolitical technocrats, the modern agency CIO role demands policy-making and policy-determining capabilities across a range of controversial political topics,” Ezell wrote.

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Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/trump-admin-moves-make-tech-officials-appointees-doge-clashes-rcna190718