Hiring Authorities Bite the Dust

It's time for federal agencies to stop using the special Outstanding Scholar and Bilingual/Bicultural hiring authorities, the Office of Personnel Management says. The agency "strongly advises against further use" of the authorities, officials said in a statement issued earlier this month.

The programs were created after a 1981 lawsuit challenged the civil service hiring examination on the grounds that it discriminated against blacks and Hispanics. They enabled agencies to circumvent the traditional civil service hiring process to bring highly talented students and minorities into the workforce quickly. But after years of use, the two hiring authorities came under fire themselves. Last year, the Merit Systems Protection Board said agencies couldn't use them unless they also applied veterans preference procedures. OPM says that just isn't possible, so agencies should quit using them altogether.

That still leaves the Federal Career Internship Program as an option for agencies looking to make quick non-traditional hires. But as Karen Rutzick reported earlier this year, that program, too has come under legal fire.