The Trump administration on Friday ordered federal agencies to erase all records tied to employees’ COVID-19 vaccination status and compliance with pandemic-era mandates, a sweeping rollback of Biden-era health policies that once governed the federal workforce.
Under new guidance issued by the Office of Personnel Management, agencies must delete any documentation of a federal employee’s vaccination history, refusal to comply with vaccine requirements, or requests for medical or religious exemptions. The directive also prohibits agencies from considering that information in any future employment decisions, including hiring and promotions.
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Unless employees explicitly opt out within 90 days, all vaccine-related records, physical and digital, must be permanently purged. Agencies have until Sept. 8 to certify compliance.
“Things got out of hand during the pandemic, and federal workers were fired, punished, or sidelined for simply making a personal medical decision,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement. “That should never have happened. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we’re making sure the excesses of that era do not have lingering effects on federal workers.”
The original vaccine mandates affected millions of federal employees across agencies, including defense, health, and administrative sectors. The rollback effectively removes COVID-19 vaccination status as a factor in federal employment decisions, reshaping workplace policies and potentially affecting agency health protocols.
This move comes in response to recent litigation and is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to reverse what it has called “harmful pandemic-era policies” imposed under the Biden administration.
One of the most prominent legal challenges, Feds for Medical Freedom v. Biden, contested the federal employee vaccine mandate introduced in 2021. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction blocking the policy, allowing employees to challenge the mandate in court without going through internal federal employment channels.
Although the Supreme Court dismissed the case as moot after the mandate was rescinded, the case highlighted legal and political debates surrounding the scope of executive power during the pandemic.
NEW OPM DIRECTOR TAKES GENTLER APPROACH TO STREAMLINING THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
The OPM directive is the latest in a series of steps by President Donald Trump to roll back COVID-19-related mandates and protocols put in place during his predecessor’s administration. Since returning to office, Trump has eliminated federal vaccine mandates, scrapped testing requirements for onsite work, and rescinded mask policies across all executive agencies. His administration has characterized these policies as “government overreach” that infringed on personal freedoms and disrupted federal operations.
Since his confirmation on July 14, Kupor has pursued a more tempered approach to agency restructuring. His plan calls for reducing the agency’s workforce from nearly 3,000 to approximately 2,000 by year-end, with most cuts achieved through voluntary measures such as early retirements and buyouts. Direct reductions in force will affect fewer than 200 positions.