in effect
This is a final rule issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that permanently eliminates the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program by removing the federal regulations that created and governed it. The rule was issued August 11, 2025, and took effect the same day, carrying out a direct order from Executive Order 14217 signed February 19, 2025.
The PMF Program — a competitive hiring program established in 1977 that recruited people with advanced degrees into federal service through a structured two-year fellowship — no longer exists as a legal framework. The regulations in 5 CFR Part 362, Subpart D, which defined the program’s rules, are removed and reserved. References to the PMF Program are also stripped from related rules covering excepted service appointments (Part 213), career employment conversions (Part 315), and student loan repayment eligibility (Part 537). Fewer than 650 employees were still serving as Fellows when the rule took effect; OPM is issuing separate transition guidance to move them out of the program. OPM estimates the closure saves the federal government at least $3.67 million per year, primarily by eliminating the roughly $2–$2.5 million in annual agency fees and the coordinator and review-board staff time the program required.
Federal agencies that participated in the PMF Program — about 30 each year — no longer pay the per-hire fee (most recently $8,000 per Fellow) or maintain a dedicated PMF Coordinator position for program functions. Graduate and advanced-degree students who would have applied to the PMF Program no longer have that pathway into federal employment, though OPM states existing internship, recent-graduate, and other hiring programs remain available. The roughly 650 current Fellows remain employed but must transition to other appointment authorities under guidance OPM is publishing separately.