Updated Monday afternoon to include comments from OPM.
House Democrats are doubling down on their investigation into the Trump administration’s management of the government’s retirement processing system, as some federal retirees remain without annuities months after submitting their applications.
In a letter sent Monday to Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, Democrats on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee pressed for more details on OPM’s ability to address what has become an unprecedented surge of retirement applications — in large part due to the deferred resignation program (DRP) and other workforce reductions under the Trump administration.
The lawmakers first pushed Kupor for answers on the situation in December, questioning how OPM was addressing processing delays amid the retirement influx. Monday’s letter, obtained by Federal News Network, now seeks further details.
“To date, OPM has provided only a partial response to a number of those questions,” the lawmakers wrote. “In the meantime, we continue to hear from constituents who are experiencing significant delays and communication failures regarding their retirement applications.”
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In their letter, Reps. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) and Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), along with Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), questioned how OPM is ensuring federal retirees can stay in contact with their former agencies on the status of their applications. The lawmakers also called for a progress update from OPM for onboarding agencies and payroll providers to its new online retirement application (ORA).
“While information regarding OPM’s ORA system was provided, no clear answer was given regarding how retirees may directly contact their former employing agency’s HR office when there is a concern regarding the status of their retirement application,” states the letter, led by Walkinshaw — also a leader of the new Federal Workforce Caucus.
In 2025, OPM first launched the ORA platform, attempting to modernize and streamline the government’s paper-based, legacy retirement processing system. Kupor has touted the benefits of the new ORA system in expediting retirement processing, saying it has been crucial for managing the recent high volume of retirement claims.
“To be clear, we are supportive of efforts to modernize OPM’s retirement application process and hope to see continued progress on the use and implementation of ORA,” the Democrats wrote in their letter. “What we do not support is the use of rhetoric about modernization efforts to obscure the existing backlog of retirement applications for federal employees, many of whom were pushed out by the Trump administration’s workforce reduction policies.”
OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover said the agency has made “steady progress reducing the retirement backlog after a surge in applications earlier this year, with inventory declining significantly from its recent peak.”
“At the same time, OPM continues expanding digital processing through the ORA system, which processes claims about twice as fast as traditional paper submissions,” Pinover told Federal News Network. “OPM remains committed to transparency, modernization and working with Congress to ensure federal retirees receive the benefits they’ve earned as efficiently as possible.”
As of March 2026, nearly 55,700 federal retirement applications are pending finalization at OPM. That’s after another nearly 14,800 retirement applications entered OPM’s system, while the agency’s Retirement Services (RS) division processed and finalized over 22,200 applications.
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OPM’s total application inventory peaked in February this year with over 65,200 claims. Since then, OPM has managed to shave off close to 9,600 retirement applications from the backlog.
About half of processed retirement claims appear to be going through OPM’s new ORA system. According to OPM, digital retirements submitted through ORA are processed at about twice the speed of a traditional retirement application.
Once a retirement claim reaches OPM, the agency is generally able to provide “interim annuities” relatively quickly to retirees, giving them a portion of their annuity calculations while they wait for their applications to be finalized.
“Many delays occur before cases reach OPM, as retirement packages must first be completed by agencies and payroll providers before adjudication can begin,” Pinover said. “Once cases arrive at OPM, most retirees receive interim payments on average seven days within submission of their retirement application, so they have income while their claims are finalized. Interim pay accounts for 80% of their full annuity payment.”
Some 2025 retirement claims, however, still appear stuck in the earlier steps of the government’s retirement process — pending at either their agency or payroll provider, and leaving those individuals without annuity payments at all.
In their letter, the lawmakers also cited a November 2025 Office of Inspector General report, which flagged workforce reductions as a top management challenge for OPM. That’s after the agency lost approximately 1,000 employees, a third of its total staffing, over the last year.
OPM’s cutbacks included a loss of about 100 employees working in the RS division through DRP separations, regular retirements and canceled hiring actions, according to the OIG report.
“We are concerned that a reduced workforce … could affect Retirement Services’ progress and its ability to continue to respond to the roughly 6,000 calls received daily,” the report states.
Kupor has pushed back against some of the OIG’s concerns, arguing that increased staffing is “not the answer.” He instead blamed the delays in retirement processing largely on outdated tech systems.
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In their letter, the Democrats questioned why the RS staffing losses were not included in Kupor’s response to their initial request in December. They are also looking for information on staffing changes in OPM’s Office of Legislative Affairs, which they said “plays an important role in the retirement process” when applications are delayed.
The lawmakers further requested details on the agency’s progress toward integrating specific federal retirement cases into the ORA system, including disability, deferred and postponed retirements.
“Even if ORA improves long-term efficiency, how is OPM addressing the existing retirement backlog, including cases resulting from the Trump administration’s workforce reduction policies, under current staffing levels?” the lawmakers wrote.
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