On Monday, December 16, the House of Representatives approved the Chance to Compete Act (S. 59), bipartisan legislation endorsed by the Federal Managers Association (FMA), by a voice vote. This followed Senate passage of the bill late the week prior. President Biden signed the bill into law (P.L. 118-188) on December 23, 2024.

FMA National President Craig Carter applauded final passage of the bill, for which the association has advocated for years. He described it as a “commonsense, bipartisan” piece of legislation to improve hiring in the federal workforce.

“This bill gets away from self-assessment questionnaires and creates new assessments to consider an applicants’ skills and technical qualifications,” Carter wrote. “It brings subject-matter experts and hiring managers deeper into the hiring process, and removes rigid higher education requirements, relying instead on knowledge and skills.”

Carter praised outgoing Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) Tom Carper (D-DE), as well as James Lankford (R-OK), Bill Hagerty (R-TN) in the Senate and Representatives Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), James Comer (R-KY), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), and Nancy Mace (R-SC) for their work on the new hiring reform law.