MSPB says vet’s case against federal internship program has legal merit

The Merit Systems Protection Board has ruled that a disabled veteran can legally challenge the government's career internship program, reversing a 2008 decision by an administrative judge.

The ruling deals another blow to the Federal Career Intern Program, created by a 2000 executive order as a special hiring authority for the government. A July decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia allowed a separate lawsuit filed by the National Treasury Employees Union against the program to move forward.

The veteran, Alvern C. Weed, said the internship program cost him a job with the Social Security Administration in 2005. Weed had applied for the job during the first round of hiring by responding to an advertisement on the federal recruiting site USAJobs.gov, and was added to a list of candidates who had preference because of their veteran status. But the supervisor in charge of filling the position ignored that list, according to the case, and instead selected two candidates who responded to a newspaper advertisement.

During a second round of hiring, SSA used the FCIP to fill similar positions, and limited its recruiting to the University of Montana in Missoula rather than posting job announcements publicly. SSA has argued that Weed's preference rights were not violated during the second round of hiring because he did not apply for a job during that round. An MSPB administrative judge sided with SSA in December 2008. The latest MSPB decision overturns that ruling.

NTEU, which filed an amicus brief in Weed v. SSA, hailed MSPB's decision. The union has tried to dismantle FCIP for at least two years, filing its own lawsuit in 2007. NTEU argues agencies are using the special hiring authority associated with the two-year internship program to circumvent merit system principles, adversely affecting current employees' opportunities for promotion.

In a June report on federal hiring authorities, MSPB noted that FCIP has become the third most frequently used tool to bypass the competitive application process. In fiscal 2005, the report said, almost 10,000 new hires came into government through the program, and in fiscal 2007, the number rose to 17,000. In General Schedule grades 5 and 7, more than half the new hires in fiscal 2005 came in through the intern program.