The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will be led by Kiran Ahuja, Biden’s nominee if confirmed by Senate. Also, memo updates agencies of marijuana policy
White House Nominates Former OPM Chief-of-Staff to be Head of Agency
If confirmed by the Senate, Kiran Ahuja is set to become the 10th director of OPM since 2013. Since Katherine Archuleta resigned in 2015 in response to the OPM data breach that compromised federal employees’ private information, the position has not been filled for too long. Beth Corbet led OPM until the Trump Administration removed her to appoint Dr. Jeff Pon, who resigned in seven months after taking the job in March of 2018. Pon’s confirmation took longer than usual, so Kathleen McGettigan took over as acting director until Dr. Pon was finally confirmed. Margaret Weichert then assumed the title of acting director until Dale Cabaniss was nominated by Trump and took over. At the onset of the pandemic, however, she also quit. Michael Rigas then worked as the acting director until Biden became president. Trump’s final nomination for the position, which went to John Gibbs from HUD, never attained approval from Senators. Since January 2021, Kathleen McGettigan has reclaimed the acting director role at the agency.
Kiran Ahuja was the OPM chief of staff under the Obama administration, and also led the transition team for Biden after he won the election. In between those two positions, Ahuja worked for “a network of philanthropic institutions.” Before any of these roles, she worked as an attorney for the Department of Justice. The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) praised the pick, saying Ahuja would provide “steady, professional leadership.”
Memo on Marijuana
OPM published a memo at the end of February that states marijuana use by a prospective federal employee does not “automatically disqualify” the applicant from getting the job. Somewhat counterintuitively, the correspondence also declares that the federal laws pertaining to marijuana, specifically the plant’s designation as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act from 1971, are “still relevant.”
The document expands on a list that was stipulated in a similar 2015 publication where OPM said basically the same thing, that marijuana use should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The list lays out the criteria for hiring managers to evaluate in order to determine what impact the potential hire’s drug use may have on the “integrity and efficiency of government.” Items added to the list include:
- Nature of the position applied for
- Seriousness and circumstances of conduct in question
- How recent the conduct occurred, and what age the applicant was at the time
- The presence of any “contributing societal conditions”
- The presence, if any, of rehabilitation efforts
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Until Next Time,
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