President Trump issued an executive order on federal hiring reform titled “Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service.” This EO includes many goals FMA supports, including reducing time-to-hire, better communication with job applicants throughout the hiring process, and better utilization of technology in the hiring and selection process. FMA National President Craig Carter touted broad support for addressing these challenges in a letter to the White House.

This executive action follows the legislative success at the end of the 118th Congress, with Congress adopting, and President Biden, signing the FMA-endorsed Chance to Compete Act (P.L. 118-188) into law. FMA National President Craig Carter applauded final passage of the bill, for which the association has advocated for years. He described it as a “common sense, 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.”

FMA will continue to work with the administration and Congress on efforts to boost recruitment and retention and improve hiring for the federal workforce.