Agencies could use subject matter experts to develop position-specific technical assessments. Image: Dennis Diatel/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffPresident Biden has signed into law S-59, the “Chance to Compete Act,” which aims to widen the pool of candidates for federal jobs by downplaying the role of educational credentials in job qualifications requirements, while encouraging use of assessment methods that allow applicants to demonstrate job-related skills, abilities and knowledge they have gained outside the educational environment.
Agencies could use subject matter experts to develop position-specific technical assessments that could include structured interviews, work-related exercises, procedures to measure career-related qualifications and interests, or other similar assessments. OPM would have to create online platforms through which agencies may share and customize technical assessments and share the résumés of qualifying applicants; it also would have to create online platforms with information about the types of assessments used and hiring outcomes.
Also signed into law were other bills passed just before the 2023-2024 Congress adjourned including:
* S-709, to update requirements for agency performance priorities under the Government Performance and Results Act, to include requiring OMB to regularly conduct strategic reviews of agencies’ performance goals and ensure they are following through with their strategic plans; enhancing the data on performance.gov to track agency-specific and government-wide performance; requiring two or more government officials be designated as federal government priority goal leaders; and ensuring agency performance goals are supported by evidence-building activities.
* S-3613, to require facility security committees in federal buildings to formally consider and respond within 90 days to security recommendations from the Federal Protective Service, which typically involve measures such as security cameras, physical access control systems, screening equipment, and more. Agencies still could reject FPS recommendations in part or in whole, although they would have to detail their reasoning. The FPS in turn would monitor the responses and annually report to Congress; the FPS also would report to Congress on any surveillance technology it recommends for use in federal buildings.
* S-4716, to tighten requirements for auditing recipients of grants made by federal agencies by requiring OMB and GSA to set a new cross-governmental strategy and use advanced analytical tools to identify fraud risk and to make audit data more accessible. The bill also requires periodic government-wide reviews of audit quality that incorporate recommendations from GAO and other oversight entities, and would also increase federal agency coordination to ensure recipients of federal awards are complying with requirements and submitting their required audits.
* HR-5301, to require agencies to list within their annual budget justification any recurring reports, including governmentwide and interagency reports, they identify as outdated or duplicative and to recommend whether to change or end those reports.
* HR-7524, which seeks greater transparency in spending on federal IT, in particular focusing on the GSA’s Technology Transformation Service. The bill requires greater reporting about funded projects, explanations for the basis of the projects, and timelines and potential reimbursements. It also requires reporting by GSA to Congress on each project funded by the Citizen Services Fund and some projects funded by the Acquisition Services Fund.
* HR-9566, to require federal agencies to share custom-developed source code with each other, in a bid to prevent duplicative government contracts to build software. There would be exceptions for source code that is classified, developed primarily for use in a national security system, or developed by an element of the intelligence community; exceptions necessary to protect individual privacy also would be allowed.
Key Bills Advancing, but No Path to Avoid Shutdown Apparent
TSP Adds Detail to Upcoming Roth Conversion Feature
White House to Issue Rules on RIF, Disciplinary Policy Changes
DoD Announces Civilian Volunteer Detail in Support of Immigration Enforcement
See also,
How Do Age and Years of Service Impact My Federal Retirement
The Best Ages for Federal Employees to Retire
How to Challenge a Federal Reduction in Force (RIF) in 2025
Should I be Shooting for a $1M TSP Balance? Depends…
