The Senate bill would codify regulations that structured the PMF Program to prevent it from being eliminated by presidential executive orders. Image: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
By: FEDweek StaffNewly introduced legislation (S-768) seeks to revive and put in law the Presidential Management Fellows program, which for decades placed several hundred persons with advanced degrees—mostly in public administration and related areas—into fellowship type positions in federal agencies, with the opportunity to convert to mid-management positions in the competitive service status after a year of satisfactory performance.
President Trump had canceled the program—without explanation other than as part of “a reduction in the elements of the federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary”—in a February executive order that meanwhile abolished Federal Executive Boards, which had been the primary means of coordinating among agencies in a geographic area on issues such as emergency response.
Since being created in the Carter administration, the management fellows program had morphed into one of three prongs of the Pathways Program; Trump’s order did not affect the other two, the Internship program and the Recent Graduates program.
The Senate bill would “codify the regulations that structured the PMF Program over four decades to prevent it from being eliminated by presidential executive orders, make changes to improve the program, and empower Congress’ role to support and protect the program,” said sponsor Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who was a management fellow early in his career.
“The PMF program has for years operated under both Republican and Democratic Presidents to lift up merit and align skills with opportunity. Even in these divided times, I hope we can show strong bipartisan support for the importance of talent in government and the need to codify this important program in legislation,” he said.
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