Meeting with House panel, OPM officials cut short after clash between top lawmakers

A closed-door meeting between members of a House subcommittee and officials from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was cut short on Tuesday after the top two lawmakers on the panel clashed over the terms of the gathering.

The disagreement was confirmed to The Hill by the two lawmakers involved, Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), as well as two other sources familiar with the matter.

The huddle, according to an invitation obtained by The Hill, was organized as a roundtable discussion where OPM officials could brief members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) on “updates and recent activity” by the agency.

OPM has been closely aligned with the priorities of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is the brainchild of Elon Musk. In recent weeks, OPM has rolled out buyout offers for government workers, instructed agencies to fire their probationary employees and initiated emails asking federal workers to recap their work week with five bullet notes.

The meeting, however, never fully got underway after Joyce, the chair of the subcommittee, and Hoyer, the top Democrat on the panel, got into a disagreement over the conditions of the gathering. The invitation said the meeting was an “off-the-record briefing,” but Hoyer said he told Joyce at the beginning of the event that he would not abide by those terms because he believed it was important for his constituents and others to be aware of what OPM has been doing.

At that point, “s--- devolved and Joyce gaveled out,” according to one source. Another source described the huddle as “contentious.”

“What I said at the opening was that we would plan to participate in the hearing, but we would not consider anything that was said secret,” Hoyer said after the meeting. “That we would want to talk about it because in my case I've got 75,000 federal employees, they're very interested about what OPM is or is not doing.”

“Unfortunately, I think the chairman believed that was a political ploy. It was not, it was, I had members, including myself, and I said that, who want to talk about what OPM says,” he added. “Does not seem to me unreasonable.”

Hoyer said Joyce told the group “under those circumstances we’re not gonna have the meeting,” ending the gathering before lawmakers could ask the OPM officials any questions.

Joyce confirmed the episode in a statement to The Hill, accusing Democrats of attempting “political posturing instead of fact finding” when they rejected the off-the-record terms.

“Today, I organized a roundtable with the Office of Personnel Management, inviting both Democrat and Republican members of my committee to attend. To facilitate an open and honest discussion, my team and I communicated well in advance that this was to be an off-the-record conversation to all,” Joyce said. 

“Instead, the Democrats on this Committee chose to use the opportunity for political posturing instead of fact finding. Once it became clear that their only intent was to use this roundtable for their own political side show, I immediately terminated the meeting.”

One source also said Joyce took issue with Hoyer sending a letter requesting a public hearing for DOGE and Musk so close to Tuesday’s meeting.

The Maryland Democrat — who has been pushing for public hearings — sent Joyce a letter on Tuesday requesting an oversight hearing on DOGE, featuring an appearance by Musk. Hoyer also asked that DOGE acting Administrator Amy Gleason and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought testify.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Hoyer said hearings could be on the horizon.

“The indication I got from staff was that they were in fact going to have hearings,” Hoyer said.

The contentious — and curtailed — meeting on Tuesday underscores the controversy that has been sparked by the Trump administration's attempt to reduce the size and scope of the federal government.

The FSGG subcommittee has jurisdiction over the Executive Office of the President, the judiciary and other agencies in the federal government.

Six OPM officials were slated to brief the lawmakers, according to the invitation: Veronica Hinton, associate director of workforce policy and innovation; Margaret Pearson, associate director of retirement services; Holly Schumann, acting associate director of health care and insurance; Andrew Kloster, general counsel; Christina Bonarrigo, deputy chief of staff; and Anthony Rameriez from the Office of Legislative Affairs.

After the meeting, Hoyer said he should have informed Joyce of his gripes with the terms of the meeting ahead of the gathering. He noted that he tried to have a conversation with the chair earlier this month, before the House broke for a one-week recess, but the pair did not connect.

“I probably should have done that. I looked for him on Friday, Thursday, whenever the last day we were in,” Hoyer said. “But, you know, the chairman and I have a good relationship, I want to maintain a good relationship. But I'm not gonna maintain a good relationship with the other side of the aisle and don't protect my people.”