Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., and three other House Democrats are pressing the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for answers on persistent delays in federal retirement processing, citing mounting complaints from retirees who have waited months for benefits.
In an April 13 letter, Walkinshaw – joined by Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., and Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va. – said OPM has not fully responded to a December inquiry into reports of significant backlogs affecting retiring federal employees.
The letter comes amid a recent surge in retirement from the federal workforce. According to OPM data, roughly 140,000 employees separated from federal service through retirement-related options between January 2025 and April 2026, including participants in the White House-directed deferred resignation program.
Lawmakers said OPM’s partial response pointed to expected progress in early 2026 through its Online Retirement Application (ORA), a digital tool intended to modernize the retirement process. But the representatives stated that modernization efforts have not resolved immediate service gaps.
The lawmakers said they have continued to hear from constituents “who are experiencing significant delays and communication failures regarding their retirement applications.”
The letter raised concerns that OPM has not provided clear guidance on how retirees can contact their former agencies’ human resources offices after losing access to government systems. Lawmakers said the agency has also failed to clarify whether direct human assistance remains available or outline a consistent process for outreach.
Other questions unanswered by OPM include the number of retirement cases that are currently not being processed through ORA, and why disability, deferred resignations, and postponed retirements aren’t fully supported by the system.
Lawmakers also pointed to OPM’s initial response to their December inquiry that said contact center workforce declined from 150 to 115 employees over the past year due to retirements and administration workforce policies. However, the representatives said the agency did not provide details on staffing or workload changes within its Office of Legislative Affairs, which helps process retirement issues raised through congressional offices.
The lawmakers also cited a January warning from OPM’s Office of Inspector General that staffing cuts could worsen processing delays, including the loss of more than 100 employees in Retirement Services that had not been previously disclosed.
They asked OPM to explain the discrepancy and outline any plans to address staffing shortages beyond the ORA rollout.
While the lawmakers said they support modernization efforts, they cautioned OPM against using those efforts to deflect current operational challenges.
“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,” the representatives wrote.