Federal employees can now be fired for misconduct using the same rules as new hires

The US Office of Personnel Management wants to change how it vets federal employees. The goal is to make it faster and tougher to fire people who commit serious misconduct while working for the government.

Before this, it was often harder to fire an existing federal employee for misconduct than to reject a new applicant for the same reason. This meant that once someone was hired, they had a different standard for accountability. The proposed rule aims to close that gap, making it easier to remove employees who pose a risk to government integrity.