1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

I am writing as your constituent and as a federal employee to express my deep concern and disappointment over the Office of Personnel Management’s new performance appraisal rule championed by Russell Vought and supported by this administration. This rule fundamentally changes how federal employees are evaluated by allowing agencies to force performance ratings into predetermined distributions, eliminating a longstanding prohibition against rating quotas. It also removes employees’ ability to challenge performance ratings through negotiated grievance procedures and reduces important safeguards that have helped ensure evaluations are based on actual performance rather than arbitrary comparisons. The federal workforce should be judged on objective performance standards, not on an artificial curve where outstanding employees may be denied the ratings they have earned simply because a quota has already been met. When employees compete against one another for a limited number of top ratings instead of striving toward clearly defined performance goals, collaboration suffers, morale declines, and public service is weakened. For employees like those of us at the Social Security Administration, these changes are especially troubling. We are already serving a growing number of beneficiaries while working under tremendous staffing shortages and increasing workloads. Instead of investing in the workforce and providing the resources necessary to improve service to the American people, this administration continues to implement policies that erode trust, reduce due process, and make it more difficult for dedicated public servants to succeed. The elimination of grievance rights for performance ratings is equally disturbing. Employees deserve a fair and impartial process to challenge evaluations they believe are inaccurate or unjust. Removing that safeguard diminishes accountability for management while leaving employees with fewer protections against arbitrary or inconsistent decisions. This latest rule does not stand alone. It is part of a broader pattern of efforts led by Russell Vought and this administration to weaken the professional, nonpartisan civil service, reduce employee protections, and make it easier to remove experienced career employees. These actions threaten the merit based principles that have protected the integrity of the federal workforce for generations. I urge you to publicly oppose these changes, conduct strong congressional oversight of OPM’s implementation of this rule, and support legislation that restores objective, merit based performance evaluations and the due process rights of federal employees. Congress must defend the independence and professionalism of the civil service and reject policies that undermine those who faithfully serve the American people every day. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. I appreciate your service and respectfully ask that you stand with federal employees and the constituents who rely on an effective, experienced, and nonpartisan federal workforce.