Sponsors (3)
Official title: To establish the Presidential Management Fellows Program, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 12, 2025 by Melanie Ann Stansbury · Last progress December 12, 2025
The bill expands and professionalizes the PMF pipeline — speeding hiring and increasing training and conversion opportunities — at the cost of greater administrative expense, centralized authority, and reduced competitive‑service protections and appeal rights for some Fellows.
Federal PMF Fellows who complete and are certified can convert into term or permanent competitive service jobs without a break in service, and transfers between agencies preserve Program credit, reducing employment gaps and preserving career continuity.
Fellows receive structured career development (individual development plans, at least 80 hours/year of interactive training, mentoring, and 120–180 day rotations) plus OPM leadership development, improving skills, readiness, and promotion prospects.
The bill substantially expands the PMF leadership pipeline (doubling leadership‑track slots FY2026–FY2031) and centralizes recruitment standards, increasing opportunities for early‑career entrants into federal leadership tracks.
Fellows will generally serve in excepted service/trial‑period statuses with reduced competitive‑service protections and limited appeal rights, which can diminish veterans' and other applicants' procedural protections.
Strict eligibility and time limits, certification requirements, and short post‑denial timelines (e.g., 30 days after denial) risk abrupt job loss or disqualification after agencies have invested in training and placement.
Expanding Fellow slots and requiring training, rotations, FEB staffing, and periodic reporting increase personnel and administrative costs for agencies, raising taxpayer expense or forcing program tradeoffs.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Creates a strengthened statutory PMF Program, doubles fellow positions for FY2026–FY2031 vs baseline, requires training/rotations/mentoring, and enables conversion to competitive service on certification.
Creates a strengthened, expanded Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program and formalizes Federal Executive Boards to support recruiting, training, development, rotational assignments, mentoring, evaluation, and conversion of Fellows into competitive service jobs. It sets program sizes for FY2026–FY2031, defines roles and responsibilities for OPM (the Director), agencies, and regional FEBs, establishes selection, appointment, transfer, certification, withdrawal and removal rules, and requires recurring reporting on Program performance.