The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is authorized by statute to perform various duties and functions that are related to human resources management and personnel policies for the federal government. The antecedent of OPM may be traced to the enactment of the Civil Service Act of 1883, known as the Pendleton Act, which statutorily established some underlying aspects of today’s federal personnel system. The act also established the Civil Service Commission (CSC), which was originally intended to insulate the hiring and management of federal employees from partisan political influence. The CSC continued with much the same role until 1978, when Congress passed the Civil Service Reform Act and replaced the CSC with OPM. OPM currently identifies several areas central to its work that are referred to as “key functions,” including human capital management, administration of federal employee benefit programs, and the vetting of job candidates. OPM’s funding is included in the annual Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act. For FY2026, OPM’s operating budget—including discretionary appropriations, mandatory administrative authorities, revolving fund activities, advance and reimbursements, and Office of the Inspector General (OIG) discretionary appropriations—was $920,950,825, and the agency had 2,171.2 full-time-equivalent employees. This report discusses OPM’s establishment, statutory authority, mission, key functions, organization, budget, and performance. In practice, OPM’s role in federal workforce management spans a spectrum, from functions in which it exercises substantial government-wide authority and oversight to those in which it establishes broad requirements and delegates more discretion to individual executive branch agencies. This report discusses three examples of workforce activities—hiring, performance, and reductions in force—where this balance between centralization within OPM and delegation to agencies can be analyzed. Finally, this report raises several issues for congressional consideration regarding OPM’s role in implementing federal workforce reforms, OPM’s capacity to deliver on its mission, and potential trade-offs associated with the varying degrees to which workforce management is centralized within OPM.
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