II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 59
To implement merit-based reforms to the civil service hiring system that
replace degree-based hiring with skills- and competency-based hiring.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY24 (legislative day, JANUARY3), 2023
Ms. S
INEMA(for herself, Mr. HAGERTY, Mr. LANKFORD, and Mr. CARPER)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Chance to Compete 4
Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
(a) T
ERMSDEFINED INSECTION3304 OFTITLE5, 7
U
NITEDSTATESCODE.—In this Act, the terms ‘‘agency’’, 8
‘‘Director’’, ‘‘examining agency’’, ‘‘Office’’, ‘‘subject mat-9
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ter expert’’, and ‘‘technical assessment’’ have the mean-1
ings given those terms in subsection (c)(1) of section 3304 2
of title 5, United States Code, as added by section 3(a). 3
(b) O
THERTERMS.—In this Act, the term ‘‘competi-4
tive service’’ has the meaning given the term in section 5
2102 of title 5, United States Code. 6
SEC. 3. DEFINING THE TERM ‘‘EXAMINATION’’ FOR PUR-7
POSES OF HIRING IN THE COMPETITIVE 8
SERVICE. 9
(a) E
XAMINATIONS; TECHNICALASSESSMENTS.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 3304 of title 5, 11
United States Code, is amended— 12
(A) by redesignating subsections (c) 13
through (f) as subsections (d) through (g), re-14
spectively; and 15
(B) by inserting after subsection (b) the 16
following: 17
‘‘(c) E
XAMINATIONS.— 18
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.— 19
‘‘(A) E
XAMINATION DEFINED FOR PUR -20
POSES OF THIS CHAPTER .—For purposes of 21
this chapter, the term ‘examination’— 22
‘‘(i) means an opportunity to directly 23
demonstrate knowledge, skills, abilities, 24
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and competencies, through a passing score 1
assessment; 2
‘‘(ii) includes a re´sume´review that 3
is— 4
‘‘(I) conducted by a subject mat-5
ter expert; and 6
‘‘(II) based upon indicators 7
that— 8
‘‘(aa) are derived from a job 9
analysis; and 10
‘‘(bb) bear a rational rela-11
tionship to performance in the 12
position for which the examining 13
agency is hiring; and 14
‘‘(iii) on and after the date that is 2 15
years after the date of enactment of the 16
Chance to Compete Act of 2023, does not 17
include a self-assessment from an auto-18
mated examination, a re´sume´review (ex-19
cept as provided in clause (ii)), or any 20
other method of determining the experi-21
ence or level of educational attainment of 22
an individual, alone. 23
‘‘(B) O
THER TERMS.—In this subsection— 24
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‘‘(i) the term ‘agency’ means an agen-1
cy described in section 901(b) of title 31; 2
‘‘(ii) the term ‘Director’ means the 3
Director of the Office; 4
‘‘(iii) the term ‘examining agency’ 5
means— 6
‘‘(I) the Office; or 7
‘‘(II) an agency to which the Di-8
rector has delegated examining au-9
thority under section 1104(a)(2) of 10
this title; 11
‘‘(iv) the term ‘Office’ means the Of-12
fice of Personnel Management; 13
‘‘(v) the term ‘passing score assess-14
ment’ means an assessment that an indi-15
vidual can pass or fail; 16
‘‘(vi) the term ‘subject matter expert’ 17
means an employee or selecting official— 18
‘‘(I) who possesses understanding 19
of the duties of, and knowledge, skills, 20
and abilities required for, the position 21
for which the employee or selecting of-22
ficial is developing or administering 23
an assessment; and 24
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‘‘(II) whom the delegated exam-1
ining unit of the agency that employs 2
the employee or selecting official des-3
ignates to assist in the development 4
and administration of technical as-5
sessments under paragraph (2); and 6
‘‘(vii) the term ‘technical assessment’ 7
means an assessment developed under 8
paragraph (2)(A)(i) that— 9
‘‘(I) allows for the demonstration 10
of job-related technical skills, abilities, 11
and knowledge; 12
‘‘(II)(aa) is based upon a job 13
analysis; 14
‘‘(bb) is relevant to the position 15
for which the assessment is developed; 16
and 17
‘‘(cc) does not discriminate on 18
the basis of a protected status, as es-19
tablished by the Director in regula-20
tions implementing this subsection; 21
and 22
‘‘(III) may include— 23
‘‘(aa) a structured interview; 24
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‘‘(bb) a work-related exer-1
cise; 2
‘‘(cc) a custom or generic 3
procedure used to measure an in-4
dividual’s employment or career- 5
related qualifications and inter-6
ests; or 7
‘‘(dd) another assessment 8
that meets the criteria under 9
subclauses (I) and (II). 10
‘‘(2) T
ECHNICAL ASSESSMENTS .— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For the purpose of 12
conducting an examination for a position in the 13
competitive service, a subject matter expert who 14
is determined by the subject matter expert’s 15
agency to be an expert in the subject and job 16
field of the position, as affirmed and audited by 17
the Chief Human Capital Officer or Human Re-18
sources Director (as applicable) of that agency, 19
may— 20
‘‘(i) develop, in partnership with 21
human resources employees of the exam-22
ining agency, a position-specific assessment 23
that is relevant to the position; and 24
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‘‘(ii) administer the assessment devel-1
oped under clause (i) to— 2
‘‘(I) determine whether an appli-3
cant for the position has a passing 4
score to be qualified for the position; 5
or 6
‘‘(II) rank applicants for the po-7
sition for category rating purposes 8
under section 3319. 9
‘‘(B) S
HARING AND CUSTOMIZATION OF 10
ASSESSMENTS.— 11
‘‘(i) S
HARING.—An examining agency 12
may share a technical assessment with an-13
other examining agency if each agency 14
maintains appropriate control over exam-15
ination material. 16
‘‘(ii) C
USTOMIZATION.—An examining 17
agency with which a technical assessment 18
is shared under clause (i) may customize 19
the assessment as appropriate, provided 20
that the resulting assessment satisfies the 21
requirements under part 300 of title 5, 22
Code of Federal Regulations (or any suc-23
cessor regulation). 24
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‘‘(iii) PLATFORM FOR SHARING AND 1
CUSTOMIZATION.— 2
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The Director 3
shall establish and operate a platform 4
on which examining agencies can 5
share and customize technical assess-6
ments under this subparagraph. 7
‘‘(II) G
UIDANCE.—Not later than 8
1 year after the date of enactment of 9
the Chance to Compete Act of 2023, 10
the Director shall issue guidance to 11
examining agencies on how to effi-12
ciently and effectively share assess-13
ments using the platform established 14
under subclause (I). 15
‘‘(C) A
DOPTION OF DETERMINATIONS BY 16
OTHER AGENCIES.—For purposes of sections 17
3318(b) and 3319(c), an appointing authority, 18
other than the appointing authority requesting 19
a certificate of eligibles, that selects an indi-20
vidual from that certificate in accordance with 21
such section 3318(b) or 3319(c) may adopt the 22
determination described in subparagraph (A) of 23
this paragraph of a subject matter expert em-24
ployed by the requesting appointing authority 25
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instead of administering an additional technical 1
assessment of the individual.’’. 2
(2) A
LTERNATIVE RANKING AND SELECTION 3
PROCEDURES.—Section 3319(a) of title 5, United 4
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 5
following: ‘‘To be placed in a quality category under 6
the preceding sentence, an applicant shall be re-7
quired to have passed an examination in accordance 8
with section 3304(b), subject to the exceptions in 9
that section.’’. 10
(3) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND -11
MENT.—Section 3330a(a)(1)(B) of title 5, United 12
States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘section 13
3304(f)(1)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 3304(g)(1)’’. 14
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION OF PASSINGSCOREASSESS-15
MENTREQUIREMENT.—Not later than 2 years after the 16
date of enactment of this Act, the Director and the head 17
of any other examining agency shall eliminate the use of 18
any examination for the competitive service that does not 19
satisfy the definition of the term ‘‘examination’’ in sub-20
section (c)(1)(A) of section 3304 of title 5, United States 21
Code, as added by subsection (a) of this section. 22
(c) OPM R
EPORTING.— 23
(1) P
UBLIC DASHBOARD.— 24
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(A) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall 1
maintain and periodically update a publicly 2
available dashboard that, with respect to each 3
position in the competitive service for which an 4
examining agency examined applicants during 5
the applicable period, includes— 6
(i) the type of assessment used, such 7
as— 8
(I) a behavioral off-the-shelf as-9
sessment; 10
(II) a re´sume´review conducted 11
by a subject matter expert; 12
(III) an interview conducted by a 13
subject matter expert; 14
(IV) a technical off-the-shelf as-15
sessment; or 16
(V) a cognitive ability test; 17
(ii) whether or not the agency selected 18
a candidate for the position; and 19
(iii) the hiring authority used to fill 20
the position. 21
(B) T
IMING.— 22
(i) I
NITIAL DATA.—Not later than 23
180 days after the date of enactment of 24
this Act, the Director shall update the 25
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dashboard described in subparagraph (A) 1
with data for positions in the competitive 2
service for which an examining agency ex-3
amined applicants during the period begin-4
ning on the date of enactment of this Act 5
and ending on the date of submission of 6
the report. 7
(ii) S
UBSEQUENT UPDATES .—Not 8
later than October 1 of each fiscal year be-9
ginning after the date on which the dash-10
board is initially updated under clause (i), 11
the Director shall update the dashboard 12
described in subparagraph (A) with data 13
for positions in the competitive service for 14
which an examining agency examined ap-15
plicants during the preceding fiscal year. 16
(2) A
NNUAL PROGRESS REPORT .— 17
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each year, the Direc-18
tor, in accordance with subparagraphs (B) and 19
(C), shall make publicly available and submit to 20
Congress an overall progress report that in-21
cludes summary data of the use of examinations 22
(as defined in subsection (c)(1)(A) of section 23
3304 of title 5, United States Code, as added 24
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by subsection (a) of this section) for the com-1
petitive service, including technical assessments. 2
(B) C
ATEGORIES; BASELINE DATA.—In 3
carrying out subparagraph (A), the Director 4
shall— 5
(i) break the data down by applicant 6
demographic indicator, including veteran 7
status, race, gender, disability, and any 8
other measure the Director determines ap-9
propriate; and 10
(ii) use the data available as of Octo-11
ber 1, 2020, as a baseline. 12
(C) L
IMITATIONS.—In carrying out sub-13
paragraph (A), the Director may only make 14
publicly available and submit to Congress data 15
relating to examinations for which— 16
(i) the related announcement is 17
closed; 18
(ii) certificates have been audited; and 19
(iii) all hiring processes are com-20
pleted. 21
(d) GAO R
EPORT.—Not later than 5 years after the 22
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 23
of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 24
that— 25
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(1) assesses the implementation of this section 1
and the amendments made by this section; 2
(2) assesses the impact and modifications to the 3
hiring process for the competitive service made by 4
this section and the amendments made by this sec-5
tion; and 6
(3) makes recommendations for the improve-7
ment of the hiring process for the competitive serv-8
ice. 9
SEC. 4. AMENDMENTS TO COMPETITIVE SERVICE ACT OF 10
2015. 11
(a) P
LATFORMS FOR SHARINGCERTIFICATES OF 12
E
LIGIBLES.—Section 3318(b) of title 5, United States 13
Code, is amended— 14
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘240-day’’ 15
and inserting ‘‘1-year’’; 16
(2) by redesignating paragraph (5) as para-17
graph (6); and 18
(3) by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol-19
lowing: 20
‘‘(5) P
LATFORM FOR SHARING RE ´SUME´SOFIN-21
DIVIDUALS ON CERTIFICATES OF ELIGIBLES .—The 22
Director of the Office shall establish and operate a 23
platform on which an appointing authority can 24
share, with other appointing authorities and the 25
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Chief Human Capital Officers Council established 1
under section 1303 of the Chief Human Capital Of-2
ficers Act of 2002 (5 U.S.C. 1401 note; Public Law 3
107–296), the re´sume´s of individuals who are on a 4
certificate of eligibles requested by the appointing 5
authority.’’. 6
(b) M
AXIMIZINGSHARING OFAPPLICANTINFORMA-7
TION.—Section 2 of the Competitive Service Act of 2015 8
(Public Law 114–137; 130 Stat. 310) is amended— 9
(1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as 10
subsections (d) and (e), respectively; and 11
(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-12
lowing: 13
‘‘(c) M
AXIMIZINGSHARING OFAPPLICANTINFORMA-14
TION.— 15
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 16
‘‘(A) the terms ‘agency’, ‘Director’, and 17
‘Office’ have the meanings given those terms in 18
section 3304(c)(1) of title 5, United States 19
Code; and 20
‘‘(B) the term ‘competitive service’ has the 21
meaning given the term in section 2102 of title 22
5, United States Code. 23
‘‘(2) M
AXIMIZING SHARING .—The Director 24
shall maximize the sharing of information among 25
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agencies regarding qualified applicants for positions 1
in the competitive service, including by— 2
‘‘(A) providing for the delegation to other 3
agencies of the authority of the Office to host 4
multi-agency hiring actions to increase the re-5
turn on investment on high-quality pooled an-6
nouncements; and 7
‘‘(B) sharing certificates of eligibles and 8
accompanying re´sume´s for appointment.’’. 9
(c) A
MENDMENT OF IMPLEMENTING REGULA-10
TIONS.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enact-11
ment of this Act, the Director shall promulgate regulations 12
to carry out the amendments made by this section. 13
SEC. 5. MODERNIZING AND REFORMING THE ASSESSMENT 14
AND HIRING OF FEDERAL JOB CANDIDATES. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 3308 of title 5, United 16
States Code, is amended— 17
(1) by striking ‘‘scientific, technical, or profes-18
sional’’; 19
(2) by inserting ‘‘legally’’ before ‘‘performed’’; 20
and 21
(3) by inserting ‘‘in a jurisdiction in which the 22
duties of the position are to be performed’’ after ‘‘a 23
prescribed minimum education’’. 24
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION.— 25
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(1) REGULATIONS AND GUIDANCE DOCU -1
MENTS.—Not later than 1 year after the date of en-2
actment of this Act, the Director shall amend all 3
regulations and guidance documents as necessary to 4
implement the amendments made by subsection (a). 5
(2) H
IRING PRACTICES.—Not later than 1 year 6
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 7
and the head of any other examining agency shall 8
amend the hiring practices of the Office or the other 9
examining agency, respectively, in accordance with 10
the amendments made by subsection (a). 11
SEC. 6. TALENT TEAMS. 12
(a) F
EDERALAGENCYTALENTTEAMS.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—An agency may establish 1 14
or more talent teams (referred to in this section as 15
‘‘agency talent teams’’), including at the component 16
level. 17
(2) D
UTIES.—An agency talent team shall pro-18
vide hiring support to the agency and other agencies, 19
including by— 20
(A) improving examinations (as defined in 21
subsection (c)(1)(A) of section 3304 of title 5, 22
United States Code, as added by section 3(a)); 23
(B) facilitating writing job announcements 24
for the competitive service; 25
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(C) sharing high-quality certificates of eli-1
gibles; and 2
(D) facilitating hiring for the competitive 3
service using examinations (as defined in such 4
subsection (c)(1)(A)) and subject matter ex-5
perts. 6
(b) O
FFICE OFPERSONNELMANAGEMENT.—The 7
Director may establish a Federal talent team to support 8
agency talent teams in facilitating pooled hiring actions 9
across the Federal Government, providing training, and 10
creating technology platforms to facilitate hiring for the 11
competitive service, including— 12
(1) the development of technical assessments; 13
and 14
(2) the sharing of certificates of eligibles and 15
accompanying re´sume´s under sections 3318(b) and 16
3319(c) of title 5, United States Code. 17
Æ
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