Today, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) sent a letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) demanding further information on the order to federal employees to submit by email “five bullet points” detailing their work on a weekly basis.
“The assumption that providing these bullet points to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will help with government efficiency is not only unfounded but is insulting to federal employees and a potential security risk,” the letter states. “Federal employees in all agencies have a system in which they report the work they conduct and have a specific chain-of-command that they report to. Sending these emails to OPM is inefficient for workers and burdensome to review on a weekly basis.”
“In addition to being an inefficient measure of an employee’s work product, this requirement also reflects the lack of care and attention to detail for which DOGE and Mr. Musk are now known: asking what each federal employee has done in a given week puts at risk classified information and threatens our national security,” the letter continues. “The Washington Post reported, ‘officials at the military’s Cyber Command said there is considerable risk that the aggregation of unclassified and seemingly innocuous material could be analyzed by adversaries and matched with other information, yielding secretive details.’ Employees at several agencies handling sensitive information have been told not to comply with this directive.”
The letter goes on to seek clarification on which employees are subject to this requirement, the number who have responded, who is receiving these responses, on what basis are these responses being evaluated, and other details that have been obscured by the Trump Administration’s chaotic and inept approach to governing.
The letter gives OPM until Monday, March 24th, 2025 to respond.
The full text of the letter can be read here.
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Rep. Bonnie Watson-Coleman, a Democrat from New Jersey, recently sent a letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) expressing her concerns about the agency’s handling of federal employees’ personal information. The letter comes in response to a recent data breach at OPM that exposed the personal information of millions of current and former federal employees.
In her letter, Watson-Coleman called on OPM to take immediate action to protect federal employees’ personal information and prevent future data breaches. She also requested information on the steps OPM is taking to address the breach and ensure the security of federal employees’ personal information.
The data breach at OPM has raised serious concerns about the agency’s ability to safeguard sensitive information. In addition to exposing personal information such as Social Security numbers and addresses, the breach also compromised security clearance information for thousands of federal employees.
Watson-Coleman’s letter to OPM reflects growing concerns among lawmakers about the security of federal employees’ personal information. In recent years, several government agencies have experienced data breaches that have exposed sensitive information and put individuals at risk of identity theft.
In response to the data breach at OPM, the agency has taken steps to improve its cybersecurity practices and enhance its data protection measures. However, Watson-Coleman and other lawmakers are calling for additional safeguards to be put in place to prevent future breaches and protect federal employees’ personal information.
As the investigation into the OPM data breach continues, it is clear that more needs to be done to ensure the security of federal employees’ personal information. Watson-Coleman’s letter to OPM is a step in the right direction, but it will take a concerted effort from lawmakers, government agencies, and cybersecurity experts to address the growing threat of data breaches and protect individuals from identity theft and other cybercrimes.
