A Senate panel has advanced bills codifying skills-based hiring, restricting IG employees’ political activity

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday unanimously advanced legislation codifying recent changes to the federal hiring process stressing applicants’ skills and experience over educational attainment.

The Chance to Compete Act (S. 59), introduced by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and James Lankford, R-Okla., would enshrine a series of recent changes undertaken during the Trump and Biden administrations reducing agency hiring managers’ reliance on degree requirements when evaluating federal job applicants. The measure was passed out of the House in 2022, but the Senate failed to take action before the end of the congressional session at the end of that year.

The bill establishes that skills-based assessments administered by agency subject matter experts are acceptable job assessments in the competitive hiring process, and allows agencies to share the assessments of qualified job applicants with one another, an initiative called shared certifications that has drawn rave reviews from federal HR leaders.

The committee also advanced the Allowing Contractors to Choose Employees for Select Skills Act (S. 4631), a similar bill that extends skills-based hiring to the federal contracting workforce, by a 10-1 vote. Sen. LaPhonza Butler, D-Calif., was the lone dissenting vote. 

A tweak to the Hatch Act

By a 10-1 vote, the panel moved legislation expanding the list of federal positions in which employees are “further restricted” from partisan political activity under the Hatch Act. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone dissenter.

The bill (S. 4656), introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., would add employees of agency offices of inspectors general to the Hatch Act’s list of employees with additional guard rails on political activity, alongside other oversight agencies like the Office of Special Counsel and Merit Systems Protection Board and national security organizations like the National Security Agency and FBI.

Unlike most federal workers, employees in “further restricted” positions may not circulate nominating petitions, campaign for or against candidates, make campaign speeches for candidates, distribute campaign literature or volunteer to work on partisan political campaigns.

“OIGs are the independent watchdogs protecting Americans’ taxpayer dollars and fighting waste, fraud and abuse in the executive branch,” Grassley said in a statement this month. “Their efficacy depends on their objectivity. Our commonsense bipartisan bill would seal any gaps that might allow for political influence to creep in and skew OIGs’ invaluable work.”

“Office of Inspector General employees play an essential role in rooting out waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government,” Peters said. “Their work needs to be independent and free from political bias. This legislation will help strengthen the ethical guidelines that these employees follow, and I look forward to working with Sen. Grassley to get it passed.”