II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 59 

To implement merit-based reforms to the civil service hiring system that 

replace degree-based hiring with skills- and competency-based hiring. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 24 (legislative day, JANUARY 3), 2023 

Ms. SINEMA (for herself, Mr. HAGERTY, Mr. LANKFORD, and Mr. CARPER) 

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To implement merit-based reforms to the civil service hiring 

system that replace degree-based hiring with skills- and 

competency-based hiring. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Chance to Compete 

5 Act of 2023’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 (a) TERMS DEFINED IN SECTION 3304 OF TITLE 5, 

8 UNITED STATES CODE.—In this Act, the terms ‘‘agency’’, 

9 ‘‘Director’’, ‘‘examining agency’’, ‘‘Office’’, ‘‘subject matVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Jan 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S59.IS S59

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1 ter expert’’, and ‘‘technical assessment’’ have the mean2 ings given those terms in subsection (c)(1) of section 3304 

3 of title 5, United States Code, as added by section 3(a). 

4 (b) OTHER TERMS.—In this Act, the term ‘‘competi5 tive service’’ has the meaning given the term in section 

6 2102 of title 5, United States Code. 

7 SEC. 3. DEFINING THE TERM ‘‘EXAMINATION’’ FOR PUR8 POSES OF HIRING IN THE COMPETITIVE 

9 SERVICE. 

10 (a) EXAMINATIONS; TECHNICAL ASSESSMENTS.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 3304 of title 5, 

12 United States Code, is amended— 

13 (A) by redesignating subsections (c) 

14 through (f) as subsections (d) through (g), re15 spectively; and 

16 (B) by inserting after subsection (b) the 

17 following: 

18 ‘‘(c) EXAMINATIONS.— 

19 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.— 

20 ‘‘(A) EXAMINATION DEFINED FOR PUR21 POSES OF THIS CHAPTER.—For purposes of 

22 this chapter, the term ‘examination’— 

23 ‘‘(i) means an opportunity to directly 

24 demonstrate knowledge, skills, abilities, 


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1 and competencies, through a passing score 

2 assessment; 

3 ‘‘(ii) includes a re ́sume ́ review that 

4 is— 

5 ‘‘(I) conducted by a subject mat6 ter expert; and 

7 ‘‘(II) based upon indicators 

8 that— 

9 ‘‘(aa) are derived from a job 

10 analysis; and 

11 ‘‘(bb) bear a rational rela12 tionship to performance in the 

13 position for which the examining 

14 agency is hiring; and 

15 ‘‘(iii) on and after the date that is 2 

16 years after the date of enactment of the 

17 Chance to Compete Act of 2023, does not 

18 include a self-assessment from an auto19 mated examination, a re ́sume ́ review (ex20 cept as provided in clause (ii)), or any 

21 other method of determining the experi22 ence or level of educational attainment of 

23 an individual, alone. 

24 ‘‘(B) OTHER TERMS.—In this subsection— 


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1 ‘‘(i) the term ‘agency’ means an agen2 cy described in section 901(b) of title 31; 

3 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘Director’ means the 

4 Director of the Office; 

5 ‘‘(iii) the term ‘examining agency’ 

6 means— 

7 ‘‘(I) the Office; or 

8 ‘‘(II) an agency to which the Di9 rector has delegated examining au10 thority under section 1104(a)(2) of 

11 this title; 

12 ‘‘(iv) the term ‘Office’ means the Of13 fice of Personnel Management; 

14 ‘‘(v) the term ‘passing score assess15 ment’ means an assessment that an indi16 vidual can pass or fail; 

17 ‘‘(vi) the term ‘subject matter expert’ 

18 means an employee or selecting official— 

19 ‘‘(I) who possesses understanding 

20 of the duties of, and knowledge, skills, 

21 and abilities required for, the position 

22 for which the employee or selecting of23 ficial is developing or administering 

24 an assessment; and 


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1 ‘‘(II) whom the delegated exam2 ining unit of the agency that employs 

3 the employee or selecting official des4 ignates to assist in the development 

5 and administration of technical as6 sessments under paragraph (2); and 

7 ‘‘(vii) the term ‘technical assessment’ 

8 means an assessment developed under 

9 paragraph (2)(A)(i) that— 

10 ‘‘(I) allows for the demonstration 

11 of job-related technical skills, abilities, 

12 and knowledge; 

13 ‘‘(II)(aa) is based upon a job 

14 analysis; 

15 ‘‘(bb) is relevant to the position 

16 for which the assessment is developed; 

17 and 

18 ‘‘(cc) does not discriminate on 

19 the basis of a protected status, as es20 tablished by the Director in regula21 tions implementing this subsection; 

22 and 

23 ‘‘(III) may include— 

24 ‘‘(aa) a structured interview; 


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1 ‘‘(bb) a work-related exer2 cise; 

3 ‘‘(cc) a custom or generic 

4 procedure used to measure an in5 dividual’s employment or career6 related qualifications and inter7 ests; or 

8 ‘‘(dd) another assessment 

9 that meets the criteria under 

10 subclauses (I) and (II). 

11 ‘‘(2) TECHNICAL ASSESSMENTS.— 

12 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For the purpose of 

13 conducting an examination for a position in the 

14 competitive service, a subject matter expert who 

15 is determined by the subject matter expert’s 

16 agency to be an expert in the subject and job 

17 field of the position, as affirmed and audited by 

18 the Chief Human Capital Officer or Human Re19 sources Director (as applicable) of that agency, 

20 may— 

21 ‘‘(i) develop, in partnership with 

22 human resources employees of the exam23 ining agency, a position-specific assessment 

24 that is relevant to the position; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) administer the assessment devel2 oped under clause (i) to— 

3 ‘‘(I) determine whether an appli4 cant for the position has a passing 

5 score to be qualified for the position; 

6 or 

7 ‘‘(II) rank applicants for the po8 sition for category rating purposes 

9 under section 3319. 

10 ‘‘(B) SHARING AND CUSTOMIZATION OF

11 ASSESSMENTS.— 

12 ‘‘(i) SHARING.—An examining agency 

13 may share a technical assessment with an14 other examining agency if each agency 

15 maintains appropriate control over exam16 ination material. 

17 ‘‘(ii) CUSTOMIZATION.—An examining 

18 agency with which a technical assessment 

19 is shared under clause (i) may customize 

20 the assessment as appropriate, provided 

21 that the resulting assessment satisfies the 

22 requirements under part 300 of title 5, 

23 Code of Federal Regulations (or any suc24 cessor regulation). 


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1 ‘‘(iii) PLATFORM FOR SHARING AND

2 CUSTOMIZATION.— 

3 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—The Director 

4 shall establish and operate a platform 

5 on which examining agencies can 

6 share and customize technical assess7 ments under this subparagraph. 

8 ‘‘(II) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 

9 1 year after the date of enactment of 

10 the Chance to Compete Act of 2023, 

11 the Director shall issue guidance to 

12 examining agencies on how to effi13 ciently and effectively share assess14 ments using the platform established 

15 under subclause (I). 

16 ‘‘(C) ADOPTION OF DETERMINATIONS BY

17 OTHER AGENCIES.—For purposes of sections 

18 3318(b) and 3319(c), an appointing authority, 

19 other than the appointing authority requesting 

20 a certificate of eligibles, that selects an indi21 vidual from that certificate in accordance with 

22 such section 3318(b) or 3319(c) may adopt the 

23 determination described in subparagraph (A) of 

24 this paragraph of a subject matter expert em25 ployed by the requesting appointing authority 


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1 instead of administering an additional technical 

2 assessment of the individual.’’. 

3 (2) ALTERNATIVE RANKING AND SELECTION

4 PROCEDURES.—Section 3319(a) of title 5, United 

5 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 

6 following: ‘‘To be placed in a quality category under 

7 the preceding sentence, an applicant shall be re8 quired to have passed an examination in accordance 

9 with section 3304(b), subject to the exceptions in 

10 that section.’’. 

11 (3) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND12 MENT.—Section 3330a(a)(1)(B) of title 5, United 

13 States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘section 

14 3304(f)(1)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 3304(g)(1)’’. 

15 (b) IMPLEMENTATION OF PASSING SCORE ASSESS16 MENT REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 2 years after the 

17 date of enactment of this Act, the Director and the head 

18 of any other examining agency shall eliminate the use of 

19 any examination for the competitive service that does not 

20 satisfy the definition of the term ‘‘examination’’ in sub21 section (c)(1)(A) of section 3304 of title 5, United States 

22 Code, as added by subsection (a) of this section. 

23 (c) OPM REPORTING.— 

24 (1) PUBLIC DASHBOARD.— 


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1 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall 

2 maintain and periodically update a publicly 

3 available dashboard that, with respect to each 

4 position in the competitive service for which an 

5 examining agency examined applicants during 

6 the applicable period, includes— 

7 (i) the type of assessment used, such 

8 as— 

9 (I) a behavioral off-the-shelf as10 sessment; 

11 (II) a re ́sume ́ review conducted 

12 by a subject matter expert; 

13 (III) an interview conducted by a 

14 subject matter expert; 

15 (IV) a technical off-the-shelf as16 sessment; or 

17 (V) a cognitive ability test; 

18 (ii) whether or not the agency selected 

19 a candidate for the position; and 

20 (iii) the hiring authority used to fill 

21 the position. 

22 (B) TIMING.— 

23 (i) INITIAL DATA.—Not later than 

24 180 days after the date of enactment of 

25 this Act, the Director shall update the 


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1 dashboard described in subparagraph (A) 

2 with data for positions in the competitive 

3 service for which an examining agency ex4 amined applicants during the period begin5 ning on the date of enactment of this Act 

6 and ending on the date of submission of 

7 the report. 

8 (ii) SUBSEQUENT UPDATES.—Not 

9 later than October 1 of each fiscal year be10 ginning after the date on which the dash11 board is initially updated under clause (i), 

12 the Director shall update the dashboard 

13 described in subparagraph (A) with data 

14 for positions in the competitive service for 

15 which an examining agency examined ap16 plicants during the preceding fiscal year. 

17 (2) ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT.— 

18 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each year, the Direc19 tor, in accordance with subparagraphs (B) and 

20 (C), shall make publicly available and submit to 

21 Congress an overall progress report that in22 cludes summary data of the use of examinations 

23 (as defined in subsection (c)(1)(A) of section 

24 3304 of title 5, United States Code, as added 


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1 by subsection (a) of this section) for the com2 petitive service, including technical assessments. 

3 (B) CATEGORIES; BASELINE DATA.—In 

4 carrying out subparagraph (A), the Director 

5 shall— 

6 (i) break the data down by applicant 

7 demographic indicator, including veteran 

8 status, race, gender, disability, and any 

9 other measure the Director determines ap10 propriate; and 

11 (ii) use the data available as of Octo12 ber 1, 2020, as a baseline. 

13 (C) LIMITATIONS.—In carrying out sub14 paragraph (A), the Director may only make 

15 publicly available and submit to Congress data 

16 relating to examinations for which— 

17 (i) the related announcement is 

18 closed; 

19 (ii) certificates have been audited; and 

20 (iii) all hiring processes are com21 pleted. 

22 (d) GAO REPORT.—Not later than 5 years after the 

23 date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 

24 of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 

25 that— 


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1 (1) assesses the implementation of this section 

2 and the amendments made by this section; 

3 (2) assesses the impact and modifications to the 

4 hiring process for the competitive service made by 

5 this section and the amendments made by this sec6 tion; and 

7 (3) makes recommendations for the improve8 ment of the hiring process for the competitive serv9 ice. 

10 SEC. 4. AMENDMENTS TO COMPETITIVE SERVICE ACT OF 

11 2015. 

12 (a) PLATFORMS FOR SHARING CERTIFICATES OF

13 ELIGIBLES.—Section 3318(b) of title 5, United States 

14 Code, is amended— 

15 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘240-day’’ 

16 and inserting ‘‘1-year’’; 

17 (2) by redesignating paragraph (5) as para18 graph (6); and 

19 (3) by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol20 lowing: 

21 ‘‘(5) PLATFORM FOR SHARING RE ́SUME ́S OF IN22 DIVIDUALS ON CERTIFICATES OF ELIGIBLES.—The 

23 Director of the Office shall establish and operate a 

24 platform on which an appointing authority can 

25 share, with other appointing authorities and the 


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1 Chief Human Capital Officers Council established 

2 under section 1303 of the Chief Human Capital Of3 ficers Act of 2002 (5 U.S.C. 1401 note; Public Law 

4 107–296), the re ́sume ́s of individuals who are on a 

5 certificate of eligibles requested by the appointing 

6 authority.’’. 

7 (b) MAXIMIZING SHARING OF APPLICANT INFORMA8 TION.—Section 2 of the Competitive Service Act of 2015 

9 (Public Law 114–137; 130 Stat. 310) is amended— 

10 (1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as 

11 subsections (d) and (e), respectively; and 

12 (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol13 lowing: 

14 ‘‘(c) MAXIMIZING SHARING OF APPLICANT INFORMA15 TION.— 

16 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 

17 ‘‘(A) the terms ‘agency’, ‘Director’, and 

18 ‘Office’ have the meanings given those terms in 

19 section 3304(c)(1) of title 5, United States 

20 Code; and 

21 ‘‘(B) the term ‘competitive service’ has the 

22 meaning given the term in section 2102 of title 

23 5, United States Code. 

24 ‘‘(2) MAXIMIZING SHARING.—The Director 

25 shall maximize the sharing of information among 


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1 agencies regarding qualified applicants for positions 

2 in the competitive service, including by— 

3 ‘‘(A) providing for the delegation to other 

4 agencies of the authority of the Office to host 

5 multi-agency hiring actions to increase the re6 turn on investment on high-quality pooled an7 nouncements; and 

8 ‘‘(B) sharing certificates of eligibles and 

9 accompanying re ́sume ́s for appointment.’’. 

10 (c) AMENDMENT OF IMPLEMENTING REGULA11 TIONS.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enact12 ment of this Act, the Director shall promulgate regulations 

13 to carry out the amendments made by this section. 

14 SEC. 5. MODERNIZING AND REFORMING THE ASSESSMENT 

15 AND HIRING OF FEDERAL JOB CANDIDATES. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3308 of title 5, United 

17 States Code, is amended— 

18 (1) by striking ‘‘scientific, technical, or profes19 sional’’; 

20 (2) by inserting ‘‘legally’’ before ‘‘performed’’; 

21 and 

22 (3) by inserting ‘‘in a jurisdiction in which the 

23 duties of the position are to be performed’’ after ‘‘a 

24 prescribed minimum education’’. 

25 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.— 


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1 (1) REGULATIONS AND GUIDANCE DOCU2 MENTS.—Not later than 1 year after the date of en3 actment of this Act, the Director shall amend all 

4 regulations and guidance documents as necessary to 

5 implement the amendments made by subsection (a). 

6 (2) HIRING PRACTICES.—Not later than 1 year 

7 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 

8 and the head of any other examining agency shall 

9 amend the hiring practices of the Office or the other 

10 examining agency, respectively, in accordance with 

11 the amendments made by subsection (a). 

12 SEC. 6. TALENT TEAMS. 

13 (a) FEDERAL AGENCY TALENT TEAMS.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—An agency may establish 1 

15 or more talent teams (referred to in this section as 

16 ‘‘agency talent teams’’), including at the component 

17 level. 

18 (2) DUTIES.—An agency talent team shall pro19 vide hiring support to the agency and other agencies, 

20 including by— 

21 (A) improving examinations (as defined in 

22 subsection (c)(1)(A) of section 3304 of title 5, 

23 United States Code, as added by section 3(a)); 

24 (B) facilitating writing job announcements 

25 for the competitive service; 


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1 (C) sharing high-quality certificates of eli2 gibles; and 

3 (D) facilitating hiring for the competitive 

4 service using examinations (as defined in such 

5 subsection (c)(1)(A)) and subject matter ex6 perts. 

7 (b) OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT.—The 

8 Director may establish a Federal talent team to support 

9 agency talent teams in facilitating pooled hiring actions 

10 across the Federal Government, providing training, and 

11 creating technology platforms to facilitate hiring for the 

12 competitive service, including— 

13 (1) the development of technical assessments; 

14 and 

15 (2) the sharing of certificates of eligibles and 

16 accompanying re ́sume ́s under sections 3318(b) and 

17 3319(c) of title 5, United States Code. 

Æ 


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