A total of eight cyber personnel have served in a program begun in 2022 to rotate workers between federal agencies, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday — despite 13 agencies offering positions and a pool of 634 applicants.
Participation numbers: eight rotators, 13 agencies, 634 applicants
The Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce program, led by the Office of Personnel Management and established by bipartisan legislation, showed sharply limited use over its life, the GAO found. In total, 13 agencies offered 106 positions and the program received 634 applications. Of those applications, eight workers ultimately won approval to participate.
The GAO summarized the program’s legislative goal this way: participating employees should “develop knowledge and skills that they can bring back to their home agencies.” The agency-level activity and the applicant totals, however, diverged dramatically from that objective in practice.
Advertised positions fell to zero in 2025 and 2026
The GAO attributed the program’s collapse in part to a steep fall in advertised slots. The number of advertised positions fell from 75 in 2023 to 31 in 2024, and there were none advertised in 2025 or 2026, the report says.
As of December of last year, OPM had said it planned to advertise positions on Connect.gov, but this year the agency “didn’t do so and wouldn’t be advertising positions due to ‘budgetary constraints,’” according to the GAO. OPM officials told the GAO that they do not anticipate any agencies offering positions in 2026 and “do not intend to invest resources in advertising and managing the program going forward.” The GAO quotes OPM’s conclusion: “As a result, OPM officials stated that the agency does not intend to post advertised positions in 2026.”
Applicant problems and a preference for in-agency rotations
The GAO report also identified applicant-side issues that contributed to the low number of actual rotations. Although 634 people applied, OPM said many applicants were underqualified, failed to obtain necessary approval before applying, or were contractors who were not eligible for the program.
OPM also reported a structural incentive that reduced participation: “It was often easier for agencies to allow employees to serve cyber rotations within their own agency,” rather than send staff to other agencies under the rotational program. That ease of internal rotation undercut the cross-agency exchange that lawmakers and OPM had envisioned.
OPM reviewed shortcomings in 2024 but did not follow up; program set to end
OPM evaluated possible shortcomings in implementing the program in late 2024 and developed plans for improving it, the GAO found — but the agency “never followed up on them.” With no advertised positions planned and no follow-through on improvement plans, OPM told the GAO that “as of next summer the program will officially end.”
The GAO’s findings framed the program as part of a broader pattern: it is “not the only one that feds have tried to implement to address the persistent gap in cybersecurity skills and experience,” and it is not alone among programs that faltered in President Donald Trump’s second term, during which the administration “slashed budgets at agencies and forced out cyber personnel,” the GAO report observed.
What this means for technologists, policymakers, and agency managers
- Technologists and security teams: Candidates who applied but were deemed underqualified or ineligible should expect tighter screening if similar programs are relaunched. They may also face continued reliance on in-agency rotations rather than cross-agency exchanges.
- Policymakers and regulators: The program’s decline highlights the effect of resource decisions — OPM cited “budgetary constraints” — and the importance of follow-up when agencies develop remediation plans, since OPM developed improvement plans in late 2024 but “never followed up on them.”
- Agency managers: Many agencies found it “easier” to host rotations internally, which reduced demand for a centrally managed cross-agency program. Managers weighing workforce-development options will have to decide whether to invest in internal rotations or push for renewed federal funding and coordination.
The GAO’s tally — 106 positions offered, 634 applicants, and eight approved rotations — offers a precise, if stark, picture: a program designed to circulate cyber expertise across the federal government produced only a handful of exchanges and will officially end next summer, according to OPM. The details the GAO recorded leave policymakers and agency leaders with a clear question anchored in the report’s facts: will the workforce gap that the program aimed to close be addressed through internal agency measures, revived centralized coordination, or neither?
