I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1242
To require the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to establish
a pilot program to identify and refer veterans for potential employment
with Federal land management agencies, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. C
RANE(for himself and Mr. LEVIN) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
and in addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, and Agri-
culture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require the Director of the Office of Personnel Manage-
ment to establish a pilot program to identify and refer
veterans for potential employment with Federal land
management agencies, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Hire Veterans Act’’. 4
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SEC. 2. PILOT PROGRAM ON IDENTIFICATION, APPOINT-1
MENT, OR REFERRAL OF VETERANS FOR PO-2
TENTIAL EMPLOYMENT WITH FEDERAL LAND 3
MANAGEMENT AGENCIES. 4
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 5
(1) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -6
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-7
gress’’ means— 8
(A) the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of 9
the Senate; 10
(B) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri-11
tion, and Forestry of the Senate; 12
(C) the Committee on Energy and Natural 13
Resources of the Senate; 14
(D) the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of 15
the House of Representatives; 16
(E) the Committee on Agriculture of the 17
House of Representatives; and 18
(F) the Committee on Natural Resources 19
of the House of Representatives. 20
(2) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 21
the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. 22
(3) F
EDERAL LAND MANAGEMENT AGENCY .— 23
The term ‘‘Federal land management agency’’ 24
means— 25
(A) the Forest Service; 26
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(B) the National Park Service; 1
(C) the United States Fish and Wildlife 2
Service; 3
(D) the Bureau of Land Management; or 4
(E) the Bureau of Reclamation. 5
(4) N
ONCOMPETITIVE.—The term ‘‘noncompeti-6
tive’’, when used with respect to an appointment, 7
means an appointment made without regard to sub-8
chapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, United States 9
Code, other than sections 3303 and 3328 of that 10
title. 11
(5) P
ILOT PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘pilot pro-12
gram’’ means the pilot program established by the 13
Director under subsection (b). 14
(6) R
ECOGNIZED POSTSECONDARY CREDEN -15
TIAL.—The term ‘‘recognized postsecondary creden-16
tial’’ has the meaning given the term in section 3 of 17
the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 18
U.S.C. 3102). 19
(7) V
ETERAN.—The term ‘‘veteran’’ has the 20
meaning given the term in section 101 of title 38, 21
United States Code. 22
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 1 year after 23
the date of enactment of this Act, the Director (in con-24
sultation with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Sec-25
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retary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Agriculture) 1
shall establish a pilot program to recruit veterans with rel-2
evant strengths and abilities and refer the veterans to su-3
pervisory or nonsupervisory positions in Federal land 4
management agencies. 5
(c) P
UBLICATION OFINFORMATIONAPPLICATION.— 6
(1) P
UBLICATION.—The Director shall pub-7
licize, and disseminate information about, the pilot 8
program on the website of the Office of Personnel 9
Management. 10
(2) A
PPLICATION.—A veteran seeking to par-11
ticipate in the pilot program shall submit to the Di-12
rector an application in such form, in such manner, 13
and containing such information as the Director 14
may require. 15
(d) T
ESTS OFSTRENGTHS ANDABILITIES.— 16
(1) G
UIDANCE.—Not later than 180 days after 17
the date of enactment of this Act, the Director (in 18
consultation with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 19
the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of 20
Agriculture) shall issue guidance on the development 21
of individual tests to be administered for the pur-22
poses of the pilot program to determine the 23
strengths and abilities of veterans for positions in 24
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the following career fields at Federal land manage-1
ment agencies: 2
(A) Outdoor recreation management. 3
(B) Management of volunteers. 4
(C) Fire planning and fire analysis. 5
(D) Firefighting. 6
(E) Aviation. 7
(F) Forest engineering. 8
(G) Inventory monitoring of land under the 9
management of a Federal land management 10
agency. 11
(H) Landscape restoration. 12
(I) Ecology. 13
(J) Sustainability of ecosystems. 14
(K) Archeology. 15
(L) Range management. 16
(M) Analysis of geospatial data. 17
(N) Biology. 18
(O) Geology. 19
(P) Land use. 20
(Q) Physical sciences. 21
(R) Civil Engineering. 22
(S) Hydrology. 23
(T) Land surveying. 24
(U) Water reclamation. 25
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(V) Finance, budget, and administration. 1
(2) W
AIVER.—For purposes of the pilot pro-2
gram, the Director (in consultation with, as appro-3
priate, the Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary 4
of the Interior) may waive any requirement for a 5
recognized postsecondary credential for a position in 6
a career field described in paragraph (1), if the Di-7
rector determines that such a waiver is necessary. 8
(3) A
DMINISTRATION.—The head of a Federal 9
land management agency shall— 10
(A) administer a test developed described 11
in paragraph (1) to each veteran who applies 12
for participation in the pilot program; 13
(B) develop assessments to measure the 14
relative capacity and fitness of veterans de-15
scribed in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph 16
for positions in the career fields described in 17
paragraph (1); and 18
(C) refer each veteran described in sub-19
paragraph (A) to the official employment 20
website of the Federal Government. 21
(4) M
ANAGEMENT.—The Director (in consulta-22
tion with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs) shall de-23
velop a method to oversee and manage the employ-24
ment of veterans within Federal land management 25
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agencies in positions in the career fields that are 1
covered by the pilot program. 2
(e) A
PPOINTMENT AND REFERRAL.—The head of a 3
Federal land management agency (in consultation with the 4
Secretary of Veterans Affairs), with respect to a veteran 5
who has taken a test administered under subsection 6
(d)(3)(A)— 7
(1) if the veteran has demonstrated through the 8
test the necessary strengths and abilities for a va-9
cant supervisory or nonsupervisory position in a ca-10
reer field covered by the pilot program in the Fed-11
eral land management agency, as determined by the 12
head of the Federal land management agency, may 13
make a noncompetitive career-conditional appoint-14
ment of the veteran to that vacant position; or 15
(2) if the veteran has not demonstrated through 16
the test the necessary strengths and abilities for a 17
vacant supervisory or nonsupervisory position in a 18
career field covered by the pilot program in the Fed-19
eral land management agency, as determined by the 20
head of the Federal land management agency— 21
(A) shall refer the veteran to a recruiter of 22
that Federal land management agency for par-23
ticipation in a training program that the agency 24
shall establish for the purposes of this section, 25
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which shall provide the veteran with the 1
strengths and abilities for a position in such a 2
career field; 3
(B) shall, after the participation by the 4
veteran in a training program described in sub-5
paragraph (A), re-administer that test, for the 6
purpose of re-evaluation, to the veteran as fre-7
quently as the head of the Federal land man-8
agement agency determines appropriate until 9
the veteran demonstrates through the test the 10
necessary strengths and abilities; and 11
(C) may, if the veteran has demonstrated 12
through the test the necessary strengths and 13
abilities, make a noncompetitive career-condi-14
tional appointment of the veteran to a position 15
in such a career field. 16
(f) R
EPORTS.—Not later than 1 year after the date 17
of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter until the 18
termination of the pilot program, the Director (in con-19
sultation with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the 20
heads of the Federal land management agencies) shall 21
submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report 22
on the pilot program. 23
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(g) TERMINATION.—The pilot program shall termi-1
nate on the date that is 5 years after the date on which 2
the Director establishes the pilot program. 3
Æ
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