On July 9 the Senate confirmed Scott Kupor as Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The chamber voted 49-46 to confirm him on a largely party-line vote. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted no on his nomination. Kupor will take the reins at OPM from Acting Director Charles Ezell.

Kupor previously worked as a management partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. At his confirmation hearing in April, he testified that federal government layoffs and other “tough choices” are necessary, but said, “I think the process is one that requires transparency and communication, and we need to recognize and respect the humanity of the workforce.”

“One of the first things that I will do is do a full business review, not just of all of our functions, but certainly data privacy and data protection,” Kupor said at his confirmation hearing. “So, that will be one of the first orders of business when I hopefully have the opportunity to serve.”

Kupor was critical of the current performance management system in the federal workforce in his testimony during the confirmation process, advocating for changes in that system. We expect Kupor to strongly support the administration’s efforts announced on June 17 regarding changes to performance management, discussed in greater depth in this newsletter