Restore general ability testing for federal hiring
What the document says“A government that is unable to select employees based on KSA-like test qualifications cannot work, and the OPM must move forward on this very basic personnel management obligation.”
The chapter recounts the end of the Professional and Administrative Career Examination under a 1981 consent decree and says courts have agreed to review that decree if the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures are reformed. It states that OPM must move forward on selecting employees by knowledge, skills and abilities testing. It separately says the disparate impact doctrine could be ended legislatively or narrowed through the regulatory process.
What the document actually says“A government that is unable to select employees based on KSA-like test qualifications cannot work, and the OPM must move forward on this very basic personnel management obligation.”
A government that cannot pick workers by testing what they know and can do will not work. OPM must get moving on this basic job.
The government used to give a test to people who wanted jobs. A court case ended that test in 1981. The book says the government cannot work well if it cannot test people. It says OPM must find a way to test them again.
Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service
2025-01-20 · 90 FR 8621
Addresses merit hiring and candidate assessment, which is the subject of the chapter's proposal. The chapter's specific ask was that OPM restore testing on knowledge, skills and abilities against the 1981 consent decree and the Uniform Guidelines; whether the hiring plan does that is not established by the order alone.
The order deals with merit hiring and how job seekers are tested. That is the book's subject. The book asked that tests of knowledge and skill come back under set rules. Whether the new hiring plan does that cannot be told from the order alone.
2 agency rules
- Reinvigorating Merit-Based Hiring Through Candidate Ranking in the Competitive and Excepted Service (Rule of Many)Personnel Management Office · September 8, 2025
- Recruitment and Relocation Incentive WaiversPersonnel Management Office · December 15, 2025
Each of these names the order above in its own summary, preamble or filing. That is a fact about the document, not a finding that it carries out this proposal: it is one step further away than the order is, and what it does about the proposal is a reading nobody has made here.