Republican Lawmakers Call on Obama to Fire OPM Director

A group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter to President Obama today requesting that he remove OPM Director Katherine Archuleta and her Chief Information Officer, Donna Seymour, from their jobs because of how they handled the recent data breaches reported at the agency.

A group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter to President Obama today requesting that he remove Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta and her Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour from their positions.

The requests were made because of the recent data breaches reported at OPM and the response to them (or lack thereof in the opinion of the letter’s authors) by Archuleta and her staff.

“Director Archuleta and her leadership team failed to correct serious vulnerabilities to OPM’s network and cybersecurity posture despite repeated and urgent warnings from OPM’s Inspector General that date back to 2007, at least,” wrote the lawmakers in their letter.

The letter added, “Ms. Seymour acknowledged in the hearing the risks inherent in operating systems without valid authorizations, yet continued to defend her decision to ignore the Inspector General and operate important systems without authorizations in place. That decision alone is, in our opinion, disqualifying.”

The letter summed up the lawmakers’ positions by saying:

Simply put, the recent breach was entirely foreseeable, and Director Archuleta and CIO Donna Seymour failed to take steps to prevent it from happening despite repeated warnings.

We listened closely to both Director Archuleta’s and Ms. Seymour’s testimony before the committee. We have lost confidence in Director Archuleta’s ability to secure OPM’s networks and protect the data of millions of Americans. We have also lost confidence in OPM CIO Donna Seymour’s ability to do the same. This country’s hardworking federal employees deserve better, and these systems are too important to leave unsecured.

Therefore, we respectfully request that you address this serious issue by removing Director Archuleta and Ms. Seymour from their positions.

A copy of the full letter is included below.

Letter to Obama Requesting OPM Director’s Termination

About the Author

Ian Smith is one of the co-founders of FedSmith.com. He has over 20 years of combined experience in media and government services, having worked at two government contracting firms and an online news and web development company prior to his current role at FedSmith.