A key bill that annually carries changes in federal personnel policies, the DoD authorization, has passed the House and has advanced in the Senate, with so far only relatively minor provisions affecting employees of that department or of other agencies.
The major government-wide provisions of the bill address hiring practices. They would give agencies more flexibility to: decide how many candidates for a competitive service position to pass along to the hiring manager from a referral list, with a minimum of three; and would expand authority to make temporary or term appointments into competitive service positions and to make noncompetitive “critical needs” appointments.
For DoD, the bill would extend the shortcut “direct hire” authority to various IT-related and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) occupations; expand special authorities to recruit and hire recent graduates into competitive service positions; create additional exceptions to the general policy against hiring retired military personnel into civilian positions within six months of their retirement; and continue long-running authority to waive limits on premium pay and annual compensation for employees working overseas in dangerous situations. It also would require the department to report on its use of family-friendly work arrangements such as telework and their impact on retaining employees.
During floor voting, the House adopted amendments to encourage the hiring by federal agencies of spouses of military personnel and to require DoD to assess its need for employees in the STEM fields and create a plan to address skills gaps.
Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee has written a counterpart measure, although it has not released details. A summary says it would establish a strategic defense fellows program “to cultivate future civilian leaders of the Department of Defense” and would authorize “additional civilian positions to support Defense Security Service efforts to protect classified information, technologies, and material from foreign adversaries.”
