II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 918
To allow Federal employees who are involuntarily separated from Government
service while serving a probationary or trial period to resume that period
upon reinstatement, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH10, 2025
Mr. V
ANHOLLEN(for himself and Mr. WARNER) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To allow Federal employees who are involuntarily separated
from Government service while serving a probationary
or trial period to resume that period upon reinstatement,
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 ‘‘Protect Our Proba-4
tionary Employees Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. RESUMPTION OF PROBATIONARY PERIOD. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
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•S 918 IS
(1) COVERED APPOINTMENT .—The term ‘‘cov-1
ered appointment’’ means an appointment of a cov-2
ered probationary employee to a position in the 3
former employing agency of that covered proba-4
tionary employee that, to the extent practicable, is 5
the same as the previous Federal position occupied 6
by that covered probationary employee. 7
(2) C
OVERED PROBATIONARY EMPLOYEE .—The 8
term ‘‘covered probationary employee’’ means an in-9
dividual who— 10
(A) is, or was, involuntarily separated from 11
Government service during the period beginning 12
on January 20, 2025, and ending on the date 13
described in subsection (c); and 14
(B) immediately before the involuntary 15
separation described in subparagraph (A), occu-16
pied a position in an Executive agency under 17
which the individual served a probationary or 18
trial period under an initial appointment. 19
(3) E
XECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Executive 20
agency’’ has the meaning given the term in section 21
105 of title 5, United States Code. 22
(4) F
ORMER EMPLOYING AGENCY .—With re-23
spect to a covered probationary employee, the term 24
‘‘former employing agency’’ means the Executive 25
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•S 918 IS
agency from which the involuntary separation of 1
that individual made that individual a covered pro-2
bationary employee. 3
(5) P
REVIOUS FEDERAL POSITION .—The term 4
‘‘previous Federal position’’ means, with respect to 5
a covered probationary employee, the position in an 6
Executive agency occupied by the covered proba-7
tionary employee immediately before becoming a cov-8
ered probationary employee. 9
(b) R
ESUMPTION OFPROBATIONARYPERIOD.—Not-10
withstanding any other provision of law, the duration of 11
the probationary or trial period for a covered appointment 12
of a covered probationary employee to become final shall 13
be equal to the difference between— 14
(1) the duration of that probationary or trial 15
period that, but for this Act, would apply to that 16
covered appointment; and 17
(2) the duration of the probationary or trial pe-18
riod that the covered probationary employee served 19
in the previous Federal position of that covered pro-20
bationary employee, to the extent that such duration 21
does not exceed the duration described in paragraph 22
(1). 23
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(c) SUNSET.—This Act shall terminate on January 1
20, 2029. 2
Æ
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