A Korean War Rule Made Federal Workers Wait a Year to Be Promoted. Trump's OPM Is Ending It
OPM's final rule, published Oct. 19 and effective Jan. 19, 2027, scraps the Time-in-Grade wait for GS-6 and above while keeping merit procedures and veterans' preference. In our view, it is overdue merit reform — and it will only work if performance ratings finally mean something.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS OPINION | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | October 19, 2026 | 6-min read Imagine a rule that tells your best young employee to wait a full year for a promotion, no matter how good she is, because a Korean War-era law said so. That law expired in 1978. The rule stayed. On Monday, the Office of Personnel Management published a final rule scrapping it [1]. Starting Jan. 19, 2027, federal workers can be considered for promotion based on what they can do, not just how long they have sat in a grade. In our view, it is overdue, and it is exactly the kind of merit-first reform President Trump promised. Key Takeaways OPM's final rule eliminates the Time-in-Grade restriction for competitive-service General Schedule promotions at GS-6 and above, effective Jan. 19, 2027 [1]. Under the old rule, candidates generally needed 52 weeks in a position no more than one grade lower, or two grades lower in certain two-grade-interval jobs [1]. The restriction began with the Whitten Amendment of 1950, enacted during the Korean conflict;