Hire Veterans Act

Summary#

This bill requires the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to set up a pilot program, within 1 year, to recruit veterans and refer them for possible jobs at Federal land management agencies: the Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Reclamation. OPM must publicize the pilot on its website and accept veteran applications.

The Director, working with the Departments of Veterans Affairs, the Interior, and Agriculture, must issue guidance within 180 days to develop tests that measure veterans' strengths and abilities for many career fields (for example, firefighting, forestry, ecology, engineering, hydrology, recreation management, and geospatial analysis). Agency heads will administer those tests, create assessments, and refer applicants to the official Federal employment website. The Director may let agencies waive a required postsecondary credential for pilot positions when appropriate.

If a veteran's test shows they have the needed skills for a vacant position, an agency head may give a noncompetitive career-conditional appointment to that veteran. If the veteran does not yet show the needed skills, the agency must refer the veteran to a training program the agency creates, re-test the veteran as needed, and may appoint the veteran noncompetitively if they later demonstrate the skills.

OPM must develop a method to oversee veteran employment in covered career fields. The Director must report to several congressional committees starting 1 year after enactment and annually until the pilot ends. The pilot program ends 5 years after it is established.

What it means for you#

• Veterans: You can apply to the pilot through OPM, take tests to show job-related strengths, be referred to training if needed, and possibly receive a noncompetitive appointment to certain land management jobs.
• Federal land agencies: Agencies must run tests, run or offer training programs, and can hire qualified veterans noncompetitively for covered positions.
• Timeline: OPM must set up the pilot within 1 year, issue test guidance within 180 days, report annually, and the pilot lasts for 5 years after it starts.

Expenses#

No publicly available information on costs or budget effects is included in the bill text or metadata.

Proponents' View#

The bill is written to identify veterans with relevant strengths and refer them to Federal land management jobs. It sets up testing, training, and a path for noncompetitive hiring to place veterans into many land-management career fields.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information on opposition or critics' views is included in the bill text or metadata.