Trump administration opens the door to politicize government tech executives

Trump administration opens the door to politicize government tech executives
The Trump administration is asking agencies to convert the government’s top tech positions from titles reserved for career feds to roles that political appointees can occupy.

The Office of Personnel Management sent out a memo on Tuesday recommending that agencies redesignate any chief information officer positions reserved for career senior executive service employees to SES roles that can also be filled with appointees that don't go through the merit staffing process required for career feds.



“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,” the memo reads. 



Currently, most agency CIOs are career federal employees. They serve as the business executives in charge of the government’s technology, overseeing their agencies’ tech portfolios on which the government runs, ensuring the management of sensitive government data and making sure technology is secure.



“Historically, CIOs have always been regarded as the necessary operational glue that makes government operate,” one former government tech executive told Nextgov/FCW, saying that the change politicizes CIOs. They requested their name be withheld for fear of reprisal. 



“This sounds like another method of censorship and control of the federal career workforce,” they added. “A president can choose which data to share with the public and which not. They can hold career people hostage by turning off their network access, or spy on career personnel’s data and actions.”



At minimum, dozens of CIOs across large and small agencies and their subcomponents are “career reserved employees” as of 2023, including those at the Education Department, National Science Foundation, IRS, U.S. Agency for International Development and Small Business Administration, according to OPM ..

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