Documents › Agency rules › 2025-17125
Personnel Management Office
Reinvigorating Merit-Based Hiring Through Candidate Ranking in the Competitive and Excepted Service (Rule of Many)
Published September 8, 2025. Takes effect November 7, 2025. printed at 90 FR 43135. amending 5 CFR 302, 5 CFR 332, 5 CFR 337.
This changes how federal job seekers are ranked. It leans on merit.
What the Rule Says It Does
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing this final rule to implement changes authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019 governing the selection of candidates from competitive lists of eligibles. These changes are meant to encourage the use of rigorous, merit-based candidate rankings when hiring in the competitive and excepted service. They also provide expanded flexibility to agencies in the selection of candidates under delegated examining procedures. These changes also affect how agencies select candidates for excepted service appointments.
This is the rule's own summary, as the Federal Register prints it.
The Order It Names
The rule names this order itself. What it does about it is a reading, and none is recorded here.
How This Rule Is Quoted
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