A federal court has blocked the Trump-Vance administration from enforcing a requirement that applicants for federal civil service positions answer a politically focused essay question about the President’s executive orders and policy priorities while litigation challenging the requirement continues.

The Office of Personnel Management has finalized new regulations governing Critical Position Pay, or CPP, which allows agencies to offer higher salaries for certain mission-critical positions requiring an extremely high level of expertise.

President Trump recently submitted an alternative pay plan to Congress calling for no across-the-board or locality pay increase for most civilian federal employees in January 2027.