Disciplinary actions against federal employees on charges of misconduct or poor performance have been about flat in recent years, the OPM has said while suggesting that the numbers should be higher.

“The data shows that despite President Trump’s significant changes to how Federal agencies address poor performance and misconduct, the Federal Government has not seen significant increases in performance-based and adverse actions in Fiscal Year 2026. Namely, the number and types of actions taken in Fiscal Year 2026 appear to be consistent with Fiscal Year 2025 levels,” OPM said in a September 15 Federal Register notice.

The notice shows that apart from intelligence agencies, the Postal Service and various small or quasi-corporate entities, 3,105 employees had been terminated on performance or conduct grounds through June of the current fiscal year. That compares with 3,492 in fiscal 2025, and 2,732, 2,586, 2,517, 2,098, 2,189 and 2,451 going back to fiscal 2019.

“OPM views this data as support for making structural changes necessary to appropriately incentivize supervisors to take necessary action to address poor performance and misconduct,” it said in reopening for public comment rules it proposed in July. Those rules would limit employees’ rights to the minimum required by law for both conduct- and performance-based discipline and stress management’s discretion over taking actions.

OPM said it was posting the information and reopening comments in light of a report by We the Doers, which terms itself a nonpartisan organization of former career civil servants who “have the necessary insight about why the federal government is broken–and how to fix it.”

It said that report “highlights some of the flaws in holding Federal employees accountable for poor performance and misconduct. For one, the report finds that supervisors and managers are incentivized to leave poor performers on the job. As OPM explained in the proposed rule, this is the type of flaw it is seeking to correct by reducing the burdens placed on supervisors in holding employees accountable.”

It said that it had not cited those figures while originally proposing the rules and that they may be pertinent to those wishing to comment; comments are to be limited to how the figures affect views on the proposal. Otherwise, the comment period expired last month.

The original notice was made in tandem with since-finalized rules from the MSPB ending its use of a set of long-standing standards for weighing the penalty imposed on charges of misconduct.

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