The Office of Personnel Management
Summary
OPM is the federal government's own HR department -- funded at $382.1 million and 2,171.2 people in FY2026, it runs and pays for the merit-based civil service Congress built after a President was assassinated by a job seeker denied a patronage post.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
administers the health, life, and retirement benefits the federal workforce earns: Healthcare and Insurance covers more than eight million⧉ employees, annuitants, and family members across six insurance programs, and Retirement Services adjudicates every Civil Service and Federal Employees Retirement System claim⧉ for active employees and over 2 million annuitants and survivors. In June 2026 it processed 12,751 retirement claims against a 33,851-case backlog⧉, averaging 77 days per claim year to date. also sets hiring policy government-wide: its Merit Hiring Plan targets under-80-day time-to-hire⧉, implementing Executive Order 14170.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Congress enacted $382.1 million in discretionary funding⧉ for 's own FY2026 operations -- $167.5 million in Salaries and Expenses plus a $214.6 million trust-fund transfer limitation -- down from $412.1 million in FY2025⧉, funding 2,171.2 full-time staff⧉ including its Inspector General. Add the Revolving Fund and other reimbursable work and 's total FY2026 operating budget authority reaches $921.0 million. Against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉ as of July 2025, the discretionary appropriation alone is about $1.12 per person.
View data as table
| Revolving Fund (agency fee-for-service) | 392 | HR services agencies pay OPM to provide |
|---|---|---|
| Discretionary appropriation (S&E + trust transfer) | 382.1 | the KPI-row figure |
| Mandatory trust-fund authority | 86.7 | retirement/insurance admin costs, from trust funds |
| OIG discretionary appropriation | 36 | separate appropriation for the Inspector General |
| Advances and reimbursements | 24.2 | other agency-funded work |
Why is it good for society?
Before 1883, federal jobs were handed out as political spoils; the practice ended only after a disappointed office-seeker assassinated President James Garfield⧉, and Congress answered with the Pendleton Act's competitive, merit-based civil service. now custodies that system and the trust funds behind it: it is the single point keeping a retirement annuity or health-benefits claim processed the same way whether the annuitant worked for 1 federal agency or 400, rather than each running its own patronage-prone personnel shop.
- 's FY2026 discretionary appropriation ($382.1M) works out to about $1.12 per U.S. resident, but the agency's full operating budget (all funds, including the Revolving Fund other agencies pay it for HR services) is $921.0M.
- The FY2027 request would cut 's own staffing from 2,171.2 to 2,073.8 , even as its Retirement Services unit carried a 33,851-case pending claim backlog as of June 2026.
Your handles.* If you have a federal retirement claim pending, check status or reach a specialist through OPM Retirement Services' contact page (online inquiry, or 1-888-767-6738). To report fraud, waste, or abuse in 's own retirement and insurance programs, use the OPM Office of Inspector General hotline. To see the merit-based hiring system in action -- or apply for a federal job yourself -- go to USAJOBS, the government's official career portal that runs.
Sources(6) ▾
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, FY 2027 Congressional Budget Justification (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) (2026-04-01) — 's own FY2027 budget submission to Congress, dated April 2026. Its Executive Summary tables give the most current FY2026 ENACTED budget-authority and totals by fund source (the source for this entry's budget and KPIs and the fund-source chart), and its program-office narrative sections give 's own description of what Healthcare & Insurance and Retirement Services do and whom they serve. One Wayback save-page-now probe for this URL returned HTTP 520 (archive.org's documented escalated-outage state); the sealed copy above is the one-click original-document link. opm.gov · original document
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Mission & History (2026-07-16) — 's own official history timeline, confirming the agency's 1978 creation as successor to the Civil Service Commission and the Commission's 1883 origin under the Pendleton Act -- 's own account of its statutory identity. opm.gov · original document
- National Archives and Records Administration, Pendleton Act (1883) -- Milestone Documents (2022-01-01) — The National Archives' own milestone-document page on the Pendleton Act of 1883 -- the source for the counterfactual in 'Why is it good for society': the spoils system, President Garfield's assassination by a denied office-seeker, and Congress's answer of a competitive, merit-based civil service enforced by the ( predecessor) Civil Service Commission. archives.gov · original document
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Retirement Services, CSRS/FERS New Claims Monthly Processing Times (Retirement Processing Status) (2026-07-01) — Retirement Services' own live monthly-updated statistics PDF tracking new retirement claims received/processed, fiscal-year-to-date average processing time, and pending inventory (backlog) -- the source for this entry's June-2026 retirement-claims workload figures. This is a live operational dashboard updates monthly; accessed 2026-07-16, reflecting data through June 2026 (the most recent completed month at access time). opm.gov · original document
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Merit Hiring Plan (CHCOC Transmittal, May 29, 2025) (2025-05-29) — 's own governmentwide Merit Hiring Plan memo to agency Chief Human Capital Officers, implementing Executive Order 14170 -- the source for the 80-day time-to-hire standard this entry cites as 's headline hiring-policy metric. opm.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate release, giving the U.S. resident population as of July 1, 2025 -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI, per better_metrics.md's sourced-denominator discipline. One Wayback save-page-now probe for this URL returned HTTP 520 during this session; the sealed copy above is the one-click original-document link. census.gov · original document
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The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is the federal government's own human-resources department, created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978⧉ as executive-branch successor to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, which the Pendleton Act had established in 1883⧉ after a President was assassinated by a job seeker denied a patronage post. sits under the President as a standalone agency led by a Senate-confirmed director, and it writes the hiring, pay, and benefits rules every other federal agency staffs itself under.