House Set to Vote on Workplace Safety Standards, Hiring, Other Issues

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By: FEDweek Staff

The House has scheduled floor voting on a bill (HR-8466) to require agencies to have safety plans meeting certain specifications for onsite work during the period of a public health emergency such as the current pandemic.

Those plans would have to address issues such as provision of personal protective equipment, testing, cleaning and occupancy limits. It also would require that employees be made aware of expectations, procedures and policies.

Also up for House voting is HR-6967, to expand and put into law several changes to hiring policy already underway downplaying the role of educational credentials in job qualifications and the role of self-evaluations in assessing candidates.

The bill defines acceptable job assessments used in competitive-service hiring to include skills-based assessments; authorizes agencies to use subject-matter experts to administer skills-based assessments; allows agencies to share their applicant assessments; and directs agencies to have a group of staff who specialize in supporting the development of skills-based assessments, improving examinations, and otherwise carrying out its requirements.

Also scheduled are:
* HR-8510, to expand whistleblower protections at the VA including by broadening the types of actions considered to be retaliatory; increasing enforcement of settlements in such cases; increasing training on whistleblower protections; and strengthening the independence of the VA office overseeing whistleblower protections.

* S-2551, to create a training program to help federal employees responsible for purchasing artificial intelligence technologies better understand the benefits it offers as well as the ethical and national security risks and benefits it poses.

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