OPM details sweeping HR modernization plan and aims to centralize federal personnel systems
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Summary
OPM Director Scott Cooper told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that the agency is consolidating federal HR systems into a single 'core HCM,' launching TechForce to recruit ~1,000 early-career technologists, and pursuing a 10‑year contract model for the unified system while promising fiscal transparency to appropriators.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government heard testimony Wednesday from Scott Cooper, director of the Office of Personnel Management, who outlined a multi-pronged modernization effort to consolidate the federal government’s human resources systems and speed retirement processing.
Cooper told the panel that OPM has replaced the outdated FedScope tool with a monthly federal workforce data portal and is building what he called a single-instance 'core HCM' (human capital management) system intended to serve roughly 2,000,000 civilian employees across government. Cooper said the program’s procurement remains under way and that OPM is aiming for broad transitions within about 18 months for initial agencies, with a contract term designed to last 10 years.
Why it matters: OPM said the consolidation could eliminate duplicate systems, reduce costs and give agencies reliable, centralized personnel records — changes Cooper described as necessary to reduce retirement-processing delays, improve hiring and enable agency leaders to manage staffing in real time.
Details and timeline - Cooper said OPM’s 'TechForce' initiative is a two‑year, public‑private program intended to bring roughly 1,000 early-career technologists into government teams to accelerate modernization projects. - He described the 'core HCM' as a single HR technology instance that will simplify recordkeeping across agencies and reduce hundreds of disparate HR systems; OPM plans phased deployments starting with 'phase 1' agencies while data migration and normalization proceed. - On contracting, Cooper said OPM is seeking fixed pricing on a per-user basis, that a single award will run up to 10 years, and that OPM will run another competitive procurement at the end of that period. - Cooper acknowledged a procurement protest has delayed an initial award but said teams of OPM staff are using the time to prepare deployments and data work.
Costs and oversight Representative Glusenkamp Perez pressed Cooper about cost overruns, citing the Department of Defense’s failed HR consolidation as an example. Cooper said OMB has worked with agencies to appropriate funds to cover limited overlap costs while agencies decommission legacy systems, and he offered to provide the committee additional fiscal transparency and reporting on costs.
Contracting risks and mitigation Cooper told members OPM has asked for fixed per-user pricing and is designing the procurement to limit post-award price escalation; he said that if pricing concerns arise at the end of a term, OPM will re-run a competitive process. Cooper acknowledged there will be a brief period of overlapping costs while old systems are decommissioned and new systems onboard.
What’s next OPM committed to produce datasets and additional details to the committee about deployment sequencing, expected savings and the contractual approach. Cooper said the program aims to reduce long-term costs substantially and to free HR professionals to focus on higher-value work.
