in effect
This is a final rule issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on June 24, 2025, carrying out a direct instruction from Executive Order 14284. It removes a set of longstanding federal regulations (Subpart H of 5 CFR Part 315) that governed how probationary periods work for new federal employees in the competitive service, and updates cross-references in six related regulatory sections to point to the new Civil Service Rule 11 established by that executive order.
Under the old rules, a new federal employee automatically became a permanent (tenured) employee once their probationary period expired without action. Under the new framework, that default is reversed: an agency must affirmatively certify in writing that keeping the employee advances the public interest before the appointment is finalized. Agencies must also provide written notice to any probationary employee being terminated. The rule took effect immediately on June 24, 2025, with no notice-and-comment period, because OPM determined the executive order had already rendered the old regulations inoperative. OPM estimates first-year government-wide compliance costs at roughly $560,000, primarily for agencies to update internal policies and train HR staff.
Federal agencies — approximately 90 of them — must revise their internal HR regulations, policies, and procedures to reflect the new certification requirement and train supervisors and HR personnel accordingly. New federal employees in the competitive service who are serving or will serve a probationary period are directly affected, since tenure no longer comes automatically at the end of that period but depends on explicit agency approval.