Trump Administration Unveils “Unusually Brief” President’s Management Agenda

The Trump Administration released its President’s Management Agenda (PMA), which outlines the administration’s goals for driving change in the federal government in the coming years. The PMA reflects many actions already taken by President Trump through executive orders focusing on shrinking the size of the government, cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. 

“This Agenda articulates key management reform objectives as priority goals, established by the President's Executive Orders and directives, while meeting the requirements set forth in statute,” stated a memo from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Deputy Director for Management Eric Ueland. 

And that was echoed by a senior OMB official who told Federal News Network that the PMA takes President Trump’s promises and work already underway and creates a “framework to institutionalize those objectives.” 

The PMA appeared as a one-page document online. An OMB official blamed the government shutdown for the limited details and said more information will eventually be available, but no timetable was given. 

Three Core Priorities

The PMA is centered around three core priorities: 

• Shrink the government and eliminate waste

• Ensure accountability for Americans

• Deliver results, buy American

Workforce Implications

When it comes to the federal workforce, the PMA calls for eliminating jobs that are “non-essential, non-statutory functions,” as well as removing poor performers. Hiring will be “strategic” and reserved for essential positions.

The recent OPM move creating strategic hiring committees is key to achieving that objective. 

“They’re making very strategic decisions around who they’re hiring and what positions they’re hiring for, so we don’t just inflate the federal government again and overwhelm all the success we’ve had in reductions to date,” said an unnamed OMB official.  

It also calls for eliminating woke, weaponization and waste. That means ending “woke and weaponized programs across government,” defunding DEI, gender ideology, and other related programs, and ending “discrimination” by the government. 

In addition, the ensuring accountability metric will also impact the workforce.

OMB pointed to several actions already taken including implementing a merit-based hiring plan, creating the new Schedule/Policy Career category for federal employees to make it easier to remove underperformers, and more closely scrutinizing federal government contractors. 

Buy American

The final pillar calls for the consolidation of federal procurement and adopting more modern technology into government services. 

It calls for the federal government to build the most agile, effective, and efficient procurement system possible and to prioritize buying American products. 

It also focuses on reducing redundancies and waste throughout the federal government’s digital footprint.

“Instead of having dozens or hundreds of siloed IT systems,” said an OMB official. “We’re going to be able to work off of consolidated IT systems that can operate in an integrated fashion.”

Critics React

Some labor organizations, like the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), responded to the PMA. 

NTEU says the “unusually brief one-page agenda outlines multiple policies that are harmful to frontline federal employees, and their right to bargain collectively and be represented by a union.”