Federal Skills Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 967 To require the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to revise job classification and qualification standards for positions within the competitive service regarding educational requirements for such positions, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 11, 2021 Mr. BUDD introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform A BILL To require the Director of the Office of Personnel Manage- ment to revise job classification and qualification stand- ards for positions within the competitive service regard- ing educational requirements for such positions, 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 ‘‘Federal Skills Act’’. 4 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Mar 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H967.IH H967 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 967 IH SEC. 2. REVISION OF JOB CLASSIFICATION AND QUALI- 1 FICATION STANDARDS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of Per- 3 sonnel Management, in consultation with the Director of 4 the Office of Management and Budget, the Assistant to 5 the President for Domestic Policy, and the heads of agen- 6 cies, shall review and revise all job classification and quali- 7 fication standards for positions within the competitive 8 service, as necessary and consistent with the requirements 9 of this section. Any change to job classification and quali- 10 fication standards shall be made available to the public 11 not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of 12 this Act and go into effect not later than 180 days after 13 such date of enactment. 14 (b) EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENT.—An agency may 15 prescribe a minimum educational requirement for employ- 16 ment in the Federal competitive service only when a min- 17 imum educational qualification is legally required to per- 18 form the duties of the position in the State or locality 19 where those duties are to be performed. 20 (c) CONSIDERATION OF EDUCATION.—Unless an 21 agency is determining a candidate’s satisfaction of a le- 22 gally required minimum educational requirement, an agen- 23 cy may consider education in determining a candidate’s 24 satisfaction of some other minimum qualification only if 25 the candidate’s education directly reflects the com- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Mar 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H967.IH H967 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 967 IH petencies necessary to satisfy that qualification and per- 1 form the duties of the position. 2 (d) POSITION LISTING.—Position descriptions and 3 job postings published by agencies for positions within the 4 competitive service should be based on the specific skills 5 and competencies required to perform those jobs. 6 SEC. 3. IMPROVING THE USE OF ASSESSMENTS IN THE FED- 7 ERAL HIRING PROCESS. 8 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of Per- 9 sonnel Management shall work with the heads of all agen- 10 cies to ensure that, not later than 180 days after the date 11 of enactment of this Act, for positions within the competi- 12 tive service, agencies assess candidates in a manner that 13 does not rely solely on educational attainment to deter- 14 mine the extent to which candidates possess relevant 15 knowledge, skills, competencies, and abilities. The heads 16 of all agencies shall develop or identify such assessment 17 practices. 18 (b) CONSIDERATION OF SELF-EVALUATION.—In as- 19 sessing candidates, agencies may not rely solely on can- 20 didates’ self-evaluations of their stated abilities. Appli- 21 cants must clear other assessment hurdles in order to be 22 certified for consideration. 23 (c) EVALUATION.—Agencies shall continually evalu- 24 ate the effectiveness of different assessment strategies to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Mar 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H967.IH H967 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 967 IH promote and protect the quality and integrity of their hir- 1 ing processes. 2 SEC. 4. APPLICATION. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this Act shall be con- 4 strued to impair or otherwise affect— 5 (1) the authority granted by law to an executive 6 department or agency, or the head thereof; or 7 (2) the functions of the Director of the Office 8 of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, 9 administrative, or legislative proposals. 10 (b) RIGHTS OR BENEFITS.—This Act is not intended 11 to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive 12 or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party 13 against the United States, its departments, agencies, or 14 entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other 15 person. 16 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 17 In this Act— 18 (1) the term ‘‘assessment’’ means any valid and 19 reliable method of collecting information on an indi- 20 vidual for the purposes of making a decision about 21 qualification, hiring, placement, promotion, referral, 22 or entry into programs leading to advancement; 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Mar 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H967.IH H967 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 967 IH (2) the term ‘‘competitive service’’ has the 1 meaning given that term in section 2102 of title 5, 2 United States Code; 3 (3) the term ‘‘education’’ refers to Post High- 4 School Education as that term is defined in the Of- 5 fice of Personnel Management General Schedule 6 Qualification Policies; and 7 (4) the term ‘‘qualification’’ means the min- 8 imum requirements necessary to perform work of a 9 particular position or occupation successfully and 10 safely. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Mar 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H967.IH H967 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS