Trump White House just made a crucial move to ensure it's FINALLY in control of the executive branch

The White House is taking a critical step to ensure that obstructionist deep-staters spread throughout the federal government at senior levels cannot choke essential information flows and altogether hinder agencies' execution of the president's agenda.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management sent a memo Tuesday to the heads and acting heads of all federal departments and agencies, recommending that every agency revoke the "career reserved" status for their chief information officers. By doing so and by also opening the roles to "general" employees, the establishmentarians presently occupying the increasingly politicized roles can be easily canned and replaced by individuals actually willing to carry out the president's agenda.

The stated purpose of this move is to satisfy the Trump administration's desire to "improve the government's digital policy to make government more responsive, transparent, efficient, and accessible to the public, and to make using and understanding government programs easier."

'No longer the station of impartial and apolitical technocrats, the modern agency CIO role demands policy-making and policy-determining capabilities.'

Christopher Bedford, senior editor for politics and Washington correspondent for Blaze Media, noted, "This is a major move for OMB. The chief information officer holds the keys to the kingdom: He controls the flow of information to the secretary or director and his deputies."

"When you're trying to make the executive branch work for you, that is absolutely crucial," added Bedford.

The U.S. Chief Information Officers Council noted in its rundown of federal CIOs' responsibilities that the senior bureaucrats have significant pull and influence within their agencies.

They are, for instance, responsible for:

• "providing advice and other assistance to the head of the executive agency and other senior management personnel of the executive agency to ensure that information technology is acquired and information resources are managed for the executive agency in a manner that implements the priorities established by the head of the executive agency";
• "developing, maintaining, and facilitating the implementation of a sound, secure, and integrated information technology architecture for the executive agency"; and
• "promoting the effective and efficient design and operation of all major information resources management processes for the executive agency, including improvements to work processes of the executive agency."

A former OPM official who asked not to be named told NBC News, "The CIOs have a lot of latitude and a lot of budgetary control, because the largest spend is generally on IT and on cybersecurity."

Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell noted in the memo Tuesday that the omnipresence of the digital, especially in American's interactions with their government, means that an agency CIO "now plays a critical role in developing policies (particularly in the digital realm) that have pervasive and significant effects on the American public."

With the expectation that they will be "on the front lines of articulating and implementing" controversial and impactful policies based on the administration's priorities, the White House figures that CIOs should face accountability and forgo any pretense of the supposed impartiality that previously excused the career reserved designation for the position.

"The role of agency CIOs has changed dramatically in recent years. No longer the station of impartial and apolitical technocrats, the modern agency CIO role demands policy-making and policy-determining capabilities across a range of controversial political topics," wrote Ezell.

"In light of this new reality, OPM recommends that each agency with a CIO role classified as [senior executive service] and designated as career reserved, send a request that OPM redesignate the position to 'general' no later than Friday, February 14, 2025," continued the acting director.

The OPM notes on its website that whereas a career reserved position can be filled only by career appointees, general positions in the federal government may alternatively be filled by any type of senior executive service appointee, including career, noncareer, limited term, or limited emergency appointees.

Speculating in December, Mark Forman, the administrator of the White House Office of E-Government and IT under former President George W. Bush, told Fedscoop that the second Trump administration, like the first, would likely push a federal data strategy in order to assess the quality of government operations and its efficiency.

"The jury-rigged flow of data from how we're accounting for expenditures and what we're actually spending on creates all kinds of inaccuracies that makes it hard to do simple things," said Forman. "I think that the DOGE is trying to ... find out where there's efficiencies that can be cut without much pain. So there's a data quality issue."

With cooperative tech leaders onboard, the Trump administration could potentially make good on his desire to improve government efficiency and transparency.

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