Sponsors (5)
The bill expands noncompetitive hiring and training to place veterans into federal land‑management jobs—boosting veteran employment and agency staffing—while raising tradeoffs around reduced competition, potential safety/qualification risks, added administrative costs, and temporary workforce uncertainty.
Veterans: expanded streamlined hiring pathways and training increase veterans' employment opportunities in federal land‑management jobs (e.g., firefighting, ecology).
Federal land agencies (Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service): targeted recruitment of experienced candidates improves staffing and operational capacity for mission‑critical roles.
Veterans and agencies: authority to waive postsecondary credential requirements lets skilled veterans without formal credentials fill appropriate roles, broadening the eligible candidate pool.
Public users and agency staff: waiving credential requirements could place underqualified hires into technical roles, risking safety, service quality, and mission effectiveness.
Non‑veteran jobseekers and taxpayers: noncompetitive hiring reduces competition and limits opportunities for non‑veteran applicants for the same positions.
Federal agencies and taxpayers: implementing testing, training, and administration for the pilot imposes additional administrative costs on OPM and agencies that could divert resources from other priorities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a five-year OPM pilot to recruit, test, train, refer, and potentially noncompetitively appoint veterans into jobs at five federal land management agencies.
Introduced February 12, 2025 by Eli Crane · Last progress February 12, 2025
Creates a five-year pilot program to recruit veterans into supervisory and nonsupervisory jobs at five federal land management agencies. OPM must set up the program within one year, design tests and guidance, publicize it, and work with the Departments of Veterans Affairs, the Interior, and Agriculture; agencies must test, train, refer to USAJobs, and may make noncompetitive career-conditional appointments for veterans who demonstrate required strengths.