Trump II Administration Rolls Out New 'Merit-Based Hiring Plan' Directive to Agencies

This week the Office of Personnel Management released a memo describing its new "[Merit-Based Hiring Plan](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/latest-memos/merit-hiring-plan/)," which instructs federal agencies in the administration's updated hiring processes. Key changes include ending DEI in the hiring process, easing academic degree requirements and replacing with "skills-based" assessments, re-focusing recruitment targets to include trade schools, affinity groups, homeschoolers and more, and requiring applicants for higher-level positions (GS-5 and above) to write essays demonstrating their commitment to carrying out executive orders and supporting presidential policy perspectives. Find more context on the evolution of the current merit-based federal hiring system, and the significance of the changes described in the memo [in this analysis](https://substack.com/home/post/p-164919317) from Adam Bonica, Stanford University associate professor of political science.