118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION S. 59
AN ACT
To implement merit-based reforms to the civil service hiring
system that replace degree-based hiring with skills- and
competency-based hiring.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
†S 59 ES
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Chance to Compete 2
Act of 2024’’. 3
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 4
(a) A
MENDATORYDEFINITIONS.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 3304 of title 5, 6
United States Code, is amended— 7
(A) by redesignating subsections (b) 8
through (g) as subsections (h) through (m), re-9
spectively; 10
(B) by redesignating subsection (a) as sub-11
section (b); and 12
(C) by inserting before subsection (b), as 13
so redesignated, the following: 14
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 15
‘‘(1) A
GENCY.—The term ‘agency’ means an 16
Executive agency. 17
‘‘(2) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘Director’ means 18
the Director of the Office. 19
‘‘(3) E
XAMINATION.—The term ‘examination’ 20
means the process by which an applicant dem-21
onstrates knowledge, skills, abilities, and com-22
petencies. 23
‘‘(4) E
XAMINING AGENCY .—The term ‘exam-24
ining agency’ means— 25
‘‘(A) the Office; or 26 3
†S 59 ES
‘‘(B) an agency to which the Director has 1
delegated examining authority under section 2
1104(a)(2). 3
‘‘(5) O
FFICE.—The term ‘Office’ means the Of-4
fice of Personnel Management. 5
‘‘(6) P
ASSING SCORE.—The term ‘passing 6
score’ means a minimum acceptable score or rating, 7
consistent with applicable law, that may include a 8
quantitative or qualitative assessment that an appli-9
cant can pass or fail. 10
‘‘(7) R
ELEVANT COMMITTEES .—The term ‘rel-11
evant committees’ means— 12
‘‘(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 13
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and 14
‘‘(B) the Committee on Oversight and Ac-15
countability of the House of Representatives. 16
‘‘(8) S
UBJECT MATTER EXPERT .—The term 17
‘subject matter expert’ means an employee or select-18
ing official— 19
‘‘(A) who possesses an understanding of 20
the duties of, and knowledge, skills, and abili-21
ties required for, the position for which the em-22
ployee or selecting official is developing or ad-23
ministering an examination; and 24 4
†S 59 ES
‘‘(B) whom the delegated examining unit 1
of the examining agency that employs the em-2
ployee or selecting official designates to assist 3
in the development and administration of tech-4
nical assessments. 5
‘‘(9) T
ECHNICAL ASSESSMENT .—The term 6
‘technical assessment’ means a position-specific tool 7
that is relevant to the position for which the tool is 8
developed that— 9
‘‘(A) allows for the demonstration of job- 10
related skills, abilities, knowledge, and com-11
petencies; 12
‘‘(B) is based upon a job analysis; and 13
‘‘(C) does not solely include or principally 14
rely upon a self-assessment from an automated 15
examination.’’. 16
(2) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND -17
MENTS.— 18
(A) T
ITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE.—Part 19
III of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 20
(i) in chapter 33— 21
(I) in section 3302(2), by strik-22
ing ‘‘3304(a)’’ and inserting 23
‘‘3304(b)’’; and 24 5
†S 59 ES
(II) in section 3330a(a)(1)(B), 1
by striking ‘‘3304(f)(1)’’ and inserting 2
‘‘3304(l)(1)’’; and 3
(ii) in section 9810(b), by striking 4
‘‘3304(b)’’ and inserting ‘‘3304(h)’’. 5
(B) A
CT TO ESTABLISH A COMMISSION ON 6
SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE .— 7
Section 8(d)(2) of the Act entitled, ‘‘An Act to 8
establish a Commission on Security and Co-9
operation in Europe’’, approved June 3, 1976 10
(22 U.S.C. 3008(d)(2)) is amended by striking 11
‘‘3304(c)(1)’’ and inserting ‘‘3304(i)(1)’’. 12
(C) U.S.-C
HINA RELATIONS ACT OF 13
2000.—Section 308(e)(2) of the U.S.-China Re-14
lations Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 6918(e)(2)) is 15
amended by striking ‘‘3304(c)(1)’’ and insert-16
ing ‘‘3304(i)(1)’’. 17
(D) E
NERGY INDEPENDENCE AND SECU -18
RITY ACT OF 2007.—Section 136(i)(1) of the 19
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 20
(42 U.S.C. 17013(i)(1)) is amended by striking 21
‘‘3304(a)(3)’’ and inserting ‘‘3304(b)(3)’’. 22
(E) S
UBSECTION HEADINGS .—Section 23
3304 of title 5, United States Code, as amend-24 6
†S 59 ES
ed by paragraph (1) of this subsection, is 1
amended— 2
(i) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘The 3
President’’ and inserting ‘‘R
ULES.—The 4
President’’; 5
(ii) in subsection (h), by striking ‘‘An 6
individual’’ and inserting ‘‘E
XAMINATION 7
OREXCEPTION REQUIRED.—An indi-8
vidual’’; 9
(iii) in subsection (i), by striking ‘‘(1) 10
For the purpose’’ and inserting ‘‘T
ECHNI-11
CIANS.—(1) For the purpose’’; 12
(iv) in subsection (j), by striking ‘‘The 13
Office’’ and inserting ‘‘C
ONSIDERATION OF 14
E
XPERIENCE.—The office’’; 15
(v) in subsection (k), by striking 16
‘‘Employees’’ and inserting ‘‘U
SE OFPUB-17
LICBUILDINGS.—Employees’’; and 18
(vi) in subsection (l), by striking ‘‘(1) 19
Preference eligibles or veterans’’ and in-20
serting ‘‘P
REFERENCE ELIGIBLES AND 21
V
ETERANS.—(1) Preference eligibles or 22
veterans’’. 23
(b) F
REESTANDINGDEFINITIONS.—In this Act— 24 7
†S 59 ES
(1) each term that is defined in section 3304(a) 1
of title 5, United States Code, as added by sub-2
section (a) of this section, shall have the meaning 3
given the term in such section 3304(a); and 4
(2) the term ‘‘competitive service’’ has the 5
meaning given the term in section 2102 of title 5, 6
United States Code. 7
SEC. 3. MODERNIZING FEDERAL HIRING. 8
Section 3304 of title 5, United States Code, is 9
amended by inserting after subsection (b), as redesignated 10
by section 2, the following: 11
‘‘(c) E
XAMINATIONS.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For the purpose of testing 13
applicants for appointment for a position, or class of 14
positions, in the competitive service, an examining 15
agency shall conduct an examination pursuant to 16
subsection (b). 17
‘‘(2) I
NTERIM EXAMINATION PERIOD .— 18
‘‘(A) P
REFERENCE FOR TECHNICAL AS -19
SESSMENT.—During the 3-year period begin-20
ning on the date of enactment of the Chance to 21
Compete Act of 2024, an examining agency 22
shall preference the use of a technical assess-23
ment, to the maximum extent practicable, to as-24
sess the job-related skills, abilities, knowledge, 25 8
†S 59 ES
and competencies of an applicant for a position 1
in the competitive service. 2
‘‘(B) U
SE OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESS -3
MENT.—During the 3-year period beginning on 4
the date of enactment of the Chance to Com-5
pete Act of 2024, if an examining agency deter-6
mines that the use of a technical assessment to 7
assess the job-related skills, abilities, knowl-8
edge, and competencies of an applicant for a 9
position in the competitive service is not prac-10
ticable, the examining agency may use an alter-11
native assessment for that purpose if the exam-12
ining agency includes a brief description of the 13
rationale for the use of the alternative assess-14
ment in the job posting. 15
‘‘(3) T
RANSITION PLANNING.— 16
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later 18 months 17
after the date of enactment of the Chance to 18
Compete Act of 2024, the Director shall submit 19
to the relevant committees a plan to transition 20
Federal hiring practices to adopt technical as-21
sessments in accordance with subsection (d), 22
which shall include— 23
‘‘(i) the prioritization of— 24
‘‘(I) job classifications; and 25 9
†S 59 ES
‘‘(II) resource requirements; and 1
‘‘(ii) a timeline for full implementa-2
tion of the transition. 3
‘‘(B) A
DDITIONAL CONSULTATION .—In de-4
veloping the plan under subparagraph (A), the 5
Director shall consult with, at minimum— 6
‘‘(i) the Director of the Office of Man-7
agement and Budget; 8
‘‘(ii) the Chair of the Chief Human 9
Capital Officers Council; 10
‘‘(iii) employee representatives; and 11
‘‘(iv) relevant external stakeholders. 12
‘‘(4) I
MPLEMENTATION OF TECHNICAL ASSESS -13
MENTS.— 14
‘‘(A) I
MPLEMENTATION OF PLAN .—Not 15
later than 3 years after the date of enactment 16
of the Chance to Compete Act of 2024, the Di-17
rector shall implement the plan submitted 18
under paragraph (3). 19
‘‘(B) A
DOPTION OF TECHNICAL ASSESS -20
MENTS.—On and after the date that is 3 years 21
after the date of enactment of the Chance to 22
Compete Act of 2024, an examining agency 23
shall use a technical assessment to examine ap-24 10
†S 59 ES
plicants for positions in the competitive service 1
in accordance with subsection (d). 2
‘‘(C) W
AIVER.— 3
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The requirement 4
under subparagraph (B) shall not apply to 5
an examining agency with respect to a par-6
ticular job series if— 7
‘‘(I) the examining agency deter-8
mines that use of a technical assess-9
ment is impracticable for the job se-10
ries; and 11
‘‘(II) the head of the examining 12
agency submits to the Director and 13
the relevant committees a certification 14
that use of the technical assessment is 15
impracticable, which certification shall 16
include— 17
‘‘(aa) identification of the 18
job series; 19
‘‘(bb) identification of the 20
number of positions that are in-21
cluded in the job series within 22
the agency for which the exam-23
ining agency is conducting exami-24
nations; and 25 11
†S 59 ES
‘‘(cc) a description of the ra-1
tionale for the determination. 2
‘‘(ii) E
FFECTIVENESS OF WAIVER .—A 3
waiver under this subparagraph shall be 4
effective for the period— 5
‘‘(I) beginning on the date that is 6
1 day after the date on which the ap-7
plicable certification is submitted 8
under clause (i)(II); and 9
‘‘(II) ending on the date that is 10
3 years after the date on which the 11
applicable certification is submitted 12
under clause (i)(II). 13
‘‘(iii) N
O DELEGATION OF CERTIFI -14
CATION AUTHORITY.—The head of an ex-15
amining agency may not delegate the au-16
thority to submit a certification under 17
clause (i)(II). 18
‘‘(d) T
ECHNICALASSESSMENT.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For the purpose of con-20
ducting an examination for a position in the com-21
petitive service, an individual who is determined by 22
an examining agency to be a subject matter expert 23
in the subject and job field of the position may— 24 12
†S 59 ES
‘‘(A) develop, in partnership with human 1
resources employees of the examining agency, a 2
position-specific assessment that is relevant to 3
the position, based on job analysis, which may 4
include— 5
‘‘(i) a structured interview; 6
‘‘(ii) a work-related exercise; 7
‘‘(iii) a custom or generic procedure 8
used to measure an applicant’s employ-9
ment or career-related qualifications and 10
interests; or 11
‘‘(iv) another assessment that— 12
‘‘(I) allows for the demonstration 13
of job-related technical skills, abilities, 14
and knowledge; and 15
‘‘(II) is relevant to the position 16
for which the assessment is developed; 17
and 18
‘‘(B) administer the assessment developed 19
under subparagraph (A) to— 20
‘‘(i) determine whether an applicant 21
for the position has a passing score to be 22
qualified for the position; or 23 13
†S 59 ES
‘‘(ii) rank applicants for the position 1
for category rating purposes under section 2
3319. 3
‘‘(2) F
EASIBILITY STUDY ON SHARING AND 4
CUSTOMIZATION OF ASSESSMENT .—Not later than 1 5
year after the date of enactment of the Chance to 6
Compete Act of 2024, the Director shall— 7
‘‘(A) conduct a feasibility study that exam-8
ines the practicability, including a cost benefit 9
analysis, of— 10
‘‘(i) the sharing of technical assess-11
ments by an examining agency with an-12
other examining agency; 13
‘‘(ii) mechanisms for each examining 14
agency to maintain appropriate control 15
over examination material that is shared 16
by the examining agency as described in 17
clause (i); 18
‘‘(iii) limits on customization of a 19
technical assessment that is shared as de-20
scribed in clause (i) and mechanisms to en-21
sure that the resulting technical assess-22
ment satisfies the requirements under part 23
300 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations 24
(or any successor regulation); and 25 14
†S 59 ES
‘‘(iv) the development of an online 1
platform on which examining agencies can 2
share and customize technical assessments 3
as described in this subparagraph; and 4
‘‘(B) submit to the relevant committees a 5
report on the study conducted under subpara-6
graph (A). 7
‘‘(e) F
EDERALAGENCYTALENTTEAMS.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An agency may establish 1 9
or more agency talent teams, including at the com-10
ponent level. 11
‘‘(2) D
UTIES.—An agency talent team shall 12
provide hiring support to the agency, including by— 13
‘‘(A) improving examinations; 14
‘‘(B) facilitating the writing of job an-15
nouncements for the competitive service; 16
‘‘(C) sharing high-quality certificates of eli-17
gible applicants; and 18
‘‘(D) facilitating hiring for the competitive 19
service using examinations. 20
‘‘(f) O
FFICE OFPERSONNELMANAGEMENTTALENT 21
T
EAM.—The Director may establish a Federal talent team 22
to support agency talent teams by— 23
‘‘(1) facilitating hiring actions across the Fed-24
eral Government; 25 15
†S 59 ES
‘‘(2) providing training; 1
‘‘(3) creating tools and guides to facilitate hir-2
ing for the competitive service; and 3
‘‘(4) developing technical assessments. 4
‘‘(g) R
ULEMAKING.—The Director shall promulgate 5
such regulations as are necessary to implement and inter-6
pret this section.’’. 7
SEC. 4. COMPETITIVE SERVICE CANDIDATE HIRING AND 8
REFORM. 9
(a) R
EVIEW.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Director shall conduct a 11
review of examinations for hiring for each position 12
in the competitive service that an examining agency 13
has determined requires a minimum educational re-14
quirement because the position is of a scientific, 15
technical, or professional nature pursuant to section 16
3308 of title 5, United States Code, to determine 17
whether data, evidence, or other information justifies 18
the need for educational requirements for the posi-19
tion. 20
(2) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out para-21
graph (1), the Director shall consult with, at min-22
imum— 23
(A) agencies, as deemed appropriate by the 24
Director; 25 16
†S 59 ES
(B) employee representatives; 1
(C) external experts; and 2
(D) relevant stakeholders. 3
(b) R
EPORT ONHIRINGPRACTICES.—Not later than 4
1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 5
shall submit to the relevant committees recommendations 6
to amend the hiring practices of examining agencies in ac-7
cordance with the findings of the review conducted under 8
subsection (a)(1). 9
SEC. 5. REPORTS. 10
(a) I
MPLEMENTATION REPORTS.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 12
the date of enactment of this Act, and each year 13
thereafter ending with the fifth publication and sub-14
mission of the report, the Director shall publish on 15
a public-facing website, and submit to the relevant 16
committees, a report that— 17
(A) examines the progress of examining 18
agencies in implementing the requirements of 19
this Act and the amendments made by this Act; 20
and 21
(B) identifies any significant difficulties 22
encountered in the implementation described in 23
subparagraph (A). 24 17
†S 59 ES
(2) INCLUSION IN ANNUAL REPORT .—The Di-1
rector may include the report required under para-2
graph (1) as an addendum to the report required 3
under subsection (b). 4
(3) D
ELAYED REPORTING .—If the Director is 5
unable to publish and submit the report within the 6
timeline required under paragraph (1), the Director 7
shall publish on a public-facing website, and submit 8
to the relevant committees, a notification of the 9
delay that— 10
(A) provides a reason for the delay; and 11
(B) advises the public and the relevant 12
committees of the anticipated date of publica-13
tion and submission of the report. 14
(b) A
NNUALREPORT.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 16
the date of enactment of this Act, and each year 17
thereafter, the Director shall publish on a public-fac-18
ing website and submit to the relevant committees a 19
report that, with respect to categories of positions in 20
the competitive service for which an examining agen-21
cy examined applicants during the applicable period, 22
includes— 23
(A) the type of examination used; and 24 18
†S 59 ES
(B) summary data from examinations that 1
are closed, audited, and anonymous on the use 2
of examinations for the competitive service, in-3
cluding technical assessments. 4
(2) D
EMOGRAPHIC INDICATORS .—In carrying 5
out paragraph (1), the Director shall break the data 6
down by applicant demographic indicators to facili-7
tate direct comparability and trendline comparisons 8
to data available as of October 1, 2020, as a base-9
line. 10
(3) L
IMITATIONS.—In carrying out this sub-11
section, the Director may only publish and submit to 12
the relevant committees data relating to examina-13
tions for which— 14
(A) the related announcement is closed; 15
(B) certificates have been audited; and 16
(C) all hiring processes are completed. 17
(4) D
ELAYED REPORTING .—If the Director is 18
unable to publish and submit the report within the 19
timeline required under paragraph (1), the Director 20
shall publish on a public-facing website, and submit 21
to the relevant committees, a notification of the 22
delay that— 23
(A) provides a reason for the delay; and 24 19
†S 59 ES
(B) advises the public and the relevant 1
committees of the anticipated date of publica-2
tion and submission of the report. 3
(c) P
ROVISION OFDATA BYAGENCIES.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 5
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 6
shall issue guidance to examining agencies regarding 7
the data that the Director needs from the examining 8
agencies in order to comply with subsections (a) and 9
(b). 10
(2) R
EPORTING TIMELINES .—Each examining 11
agency shall provide the data outlined in the guid-12
ance issued by the Director under paragraph (1) on 13
a quarterly basis. 14
SEC. 6. GAO REPORT. 15
Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment 16
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 17
shall submit to Congress a report that— 18
(1) assesses the implementation of this Act and 19
the amendments made by this Act; 20
(2) assesses the impact of modifications made 21
by this Act to the hiring process for the competitive 22
service under section 3304 of title 5, United States 23
Code; and 24 20
†S 59 ES
(3) makes recommendations for the improve-1
ment of the hiring process for the competitive serv-2
ice. 3
SEC. 7. EVALUATION FOR POTENTIAL UPDATES OR REVI-4
SIONS TO GOVERNMENT-WIDE SYSTEMS OF 5
RECORDS AT THE OFFICE OF PERSONNEL 6
MANAGEMENT. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 8
date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall evaluate 9
whether the Government-wide system of records notices, 10
the OPM/GOVT–5 Recruiting, Examining, and Placement 11
Records, and the OPM/GOVT–6 Personnel Research and 12
Test Validation Records, or any successor materials there-13
to, require updating or revision in order to support the 14
implementation of this Act and the amendments made by 15
this Act. 16
(b) I
SSUANCE OFUPDATES ORREVISIONS; NOTICE 17
TOCONGRESS.—If the Director determines under sub-18
section (a) that any updates or revisions are necessary, 19
the Director, in accordance with section 552a of title 5, 20 21
†S 59 ES
United States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Privacy 1
Act’’), shall promptly— 2
(1) issue the updates or revisions; and 3
(2) notify the relevant committees. 4
Passed the Senate December 12, 2024.
Attest:
Secretary. 118
TH
CONGRESS
2
D
S
ESSION
S. 59
AN ACT
To implement merit-based reforms to the civil serv-
ice hiring system that replace degree-based hiring
with skills- and competency-based hiring.