Russell Vought’s Plan to Rig Federal Performance Reviews Threatens Workforce Integrity

Russell Vought, the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) chief, is doubling down on his campaign to dismantle the federal workforce—not just by slashing jobs but by rigging the system that evaluates employee performance. New proposals from OMB and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) would impose a forced distribution model on performance reviews, restrict employees’ ability to challenge unfair ratings, and tie layoffs directly to these politically manipulated scores.

Currently, federal employees are assessed on meeting clear goals, not forced into a curve that limits how many can earn top marks. Vought’s plan would cap the highest performance ratings, ensuring fewer workers are recognized as outstanding. This “forced distribution” is a controversial tactic even in the private sector, where major companies like Microsoft and General Electric have abandoned it after it failed to improve results.

The changes don’t stop there. Under the new rules, appeals of poor ratings would no longer go to an independent Merit Systems Protection Board but would be handled internally by OPM—an agency led by political appointees loyal to Vought. This shift effectively removes any meaningful check on politically motivated downgrades.

Most alarmingly, layoffs would be dictated first by these manipulated performance scores rather than by tenure or seniority. This gives political appointees sweeping power to purge the workforce of anyone deemed insufficiently loyal or compliant, masked as a merit-based reduction in force.

These proposals align with the broader Heritage Foundation-backed Project 2025 blueprint, which calls for empowering political appointees at the expense of career civil servants. Vought has openly advocated for shrinking and reshaping the federal workforce to fit a political agenda, not to improve government effectiveness.

Federal employees and experts have widely condemned the plan. One Defense Department official bluntly noted that decades of management research discredit forced distribution as a tool for improving performance. The real goal here is clear: to erode federal capacity and morale, making it easier to dismantle agencies and consolidate power.

This overhaul is not about accountability or efficiency. It’s a political weapon designed to punish “satisfactory” workers and reward loyalty to a partisan agenda. If implemented, it will accelerate the hollowing out of the federal government and deepen the crisis of governance in the United States. We must watch closely and push back against these authoritarian moves before the damage becomes irreversible.