Veteran Recruitment Act

To strengthen United States leadership through the recruitment and hiring of veterans of the United States Armed Forces to civil service positions, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Veteran Recruitment Act 2. Enhancement of Department of State recruitment and hiring of veterans (a) Report Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall, after consultation with the Secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs, submit a report to the President providing a detailed and comprehensive plan for prioritizing the recruitment and hiring of veterans into covered positions. Such plan shall, subject to presidential modification and to be fully implemented not later than one year after the date the plan is submitted to the President, accomplish the following: (1) Ensure that veterans receive priority recruitment and retention for covered positions, including through implementation of military rank equivalency for at least mid-level ranks within the Foreign Service. (2) Identify and eliminate explicit and implicit barriers in the Department’s recruitment and hiring practices that, intentionally or otherwise, prevent veterans from the obtaining covered positions, including barriers in existing digital and non-digital recruitment materials. (3) Identify and adjust Foreign Service training and management standards to align with those of other Federal defense, intelligence, and security agencies, including implementation of rigorous and selective training courses for newly hired recruits. (4) Identify and initiate specific steps that the Department will take to ensure that physically disabled veterans have equal access to covered positions. (b) Hiring Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall initiate and complete the following steps to prioritize the hiring of veterans to covered positions: (1) Expand nationwide access to the Foreign Service oral assessment job interview, including through proctored video-conferencing from military facilities. (2) Direct the Director General of the Foreign Service to expand outreach and recruitment jurisdiction and efforts to United States Armed Forces bases and other facilities in the vicinities of their respective colleges and universities of residence, including through the use of Diplomats in Residence. (3) Direct the Department of State’s Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries to coordinate with relevant Department of Defense leadership and personnel to develop outreach and recruitment programs, which would be tailored to duty stations, that would communicate with active-duty United States Armed Forces personnel who are in the process of honorably separating from military service about covered positions. (4) Expand eligibility of the existing Veterans Innovation Partnership Fellowship in order to boost access of veterans to such Fellowship, including by, at a minimum, eliminating the master’s degree threshold requirement for access to the fellowship. (5) Establish at least one new academic fellowship for veterans, to be modeled on the Department of State’s Rangel and Pickering Fellowships, not later than October 1, 2022. 3. Enhancement of U.S. Agency for Global Media’s recruitment and hiring of veterans Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media shall, after consultation with the Secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs, submit a report to the President providing a detailed and comprehensive plan for prioritizing the Agency’s recruitment and hiring efforts of veterans into positions at the Agency, including leadership, management, policy, and broadcasting positions. Such plan shall, subject to presidential modification and to be fully implemented not later than one year after the date the plan is submitted to the President, accomplish the following: (1) Ensure that veterans receive priority recruitment for Agency positions, including leadership, management, policy, and broadcasting positions. (2) Evaluate explicit and implicit barriers in Agency recruitment and hiring practices that, intentionally or otherwise, prevent veterans from obtaining positions with in the Agency, including barriers in existing digital and non-digital recruitment materials. (3) Identify specific steps that the Agency will take to ensure that physically disable veterans have equal access to Agency positions. (4) Recommend redeployment or realignment of discretionary Agency monetary and personal resources to support all of the above efforts. 4. Department of Defense establishment and implementation of separation memoranda of understanding with Federal agencies Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall— (1) in any circumstance where the Department of Defense has an memorandum of understanding to assist active-duty United States Armed Forces personnel who are in the process of honorably separating from military service (in this section defined as a separation MOU (2) in any circumstance where the Department does not have an existing separation MOU with a Federal agency, at a minimum initiate a separation MOU to enhance recruitment efforts of such personnel by that agency. 5. Office of Personnel Management elimination of veterans preference waivers (a) In general Notwithstanding any other provision of law, beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and until the date guidance is issued under subsection (b), the Director of the Office of Personnel Management may not grant any veteran preference waiver under section 3312 of title 5, United States Code. (b) Guidance Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall issue new guidance providing updated criteria for the Office’s granting of Federal agency, board, or commission veteran preference waiver requests. 6. Definitions In this Act— (1) the term civil service (2) the term covered positions (3) the term veteran

Summary: Veteran Recruitment Act This bill requires the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for Global Media to develop and implement plans to ensure that veterans receive priority hiring recruitment.  The bill also requires the State Department to align Foreign Service positions with military ranks and to expand outreach efforts in recruiting veterans for the Foreign Service.