Starting at age 18 males born in 1960 and later are required to register with the SSS by age 26 and that under a 1985 law, those who fail to do so are ineligible for federal service. Image: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffRules proposed by OPM would revise policies regarding job applicants who didn’t register with the Selective Service System to, in the words of a February 7 Federal Register notice, “ensure that individuals in these circumstances have an opportunity to fully explain their failure to register and that the determination is based on a more complete record.”
The proposal notes that with some exceptions, starting at age 18 males born in 1960 and later are required to register with the SSS by age 26 and that under a 1985 law, those who fail to do so are ineligible for federal service unless they can show by a preponderance of the evidence that the failure was not knowing or willful.
The rules would clarify that a failure to register would have to be both knowing and willful – not just one or the other — and would revise procedures for arguing that the failure to register was not knowing and willful.
Currently, rules provide only for the submission of a request for an OPM determination together with any explanation or other documentation the covered individual chooses to furnish. Under the proposal an individual would have to submit a sworn statement in support of his claim and make himself available to be interviewed by an adjudicator or provide testimony concerning his explanation for the failure to register.
In addition, the rules would have agencies make initial determinations, rather than having to delay the recruitment process to send cases to OPM for adjudication. That would be consistent with a 2021 report from the National Academy of Public Administration recommending that in general OPM delegate decision-making authorities to individual agencies, it said.
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