DoD has published an internal reminder regarding hiring policies under the national security personnel system, noting that the DoD authorization law signed earlier this year, P.L. 110-181, requires NSPS to follow standard federal hiring laws, the so-called Title 5 laws.
One area affected by the new requirement is the referral and selection from the highest three available eligibles for each vacancy filled through the competitive examining process, DoD said. The "rule of 3" applies to all referrals when using the traditional numerical scoring.
Through the "rule of 3" procedures, "each eligible is afforded his or her right to receive a bona fide employment consideration. A selecting official may not pass over a preference eligible to select a lower ranking non-preference eligible or non-preference eligible with the same or lower score without sound reasons that relate directly to the veteran’s fitness for employment," the guidance said.
It added that the rule of 3 "allows a selecting official to eliminate an eligible that has been considered for three separate appointments from the same or different certificates for the same position. When a preference eligible is passed over on a list of eligibles, upon request, he/she is entitled to a copy of the agency’s reasons for the passover and the examining office’s response."
When making selections using the category rating system, selections are made from within the highest quality category regardless of the number of candidates and the "rule of 3" does not apply, DoD said. However, preference eligibles receive absolute preference within each category. If a preference eligible is in the category, an agency may not select a non-preference eligible unless the agency requests to pass over the preference eligible and the request is approved.
It said that detailed policies are in OPM’s Delegated Examining Operations Handbook available at:
