Fed jobs get hiring rule refresh: Veterans safe
Published Date: 9/18/2026
Proposed Rule
Summary
The Office of Personnel Management is updating rules for excepted service jobs, including special hiring paths and administrative law judge appointments. These changes make hiring clearer and fairer, keep veterans’ rights safe, and modernize how some jobs convert to career positions. If you work in or apply for these jobs, check out the new rules and share your thoughts by November 17, 2026!
Analyzed Economic Effects
7 provisions identified: 7 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Veterans' Preference Preserved; New Consideration Process
OPM will keep veterans' preference and priority-placement rights but will replace old priority reemployment lists and Orders A/B/C with a simpler rule that requires agencies to identify and consider qualified and available priority candidates before selecting non-priority candidates, unless a lawful exception applies.
Pathways Can Convert to Policy/Career Jobs
Eligible Pathways Participants may be converted noncompetitively to permanent positions in Schedule Policy/Career where authorized, but conversion to Schedule Policy/Career does not itself give competitive status or career tenure. Individuals appointed to Schedule Policy/Career can acquire competitive status only after 2 years of continuing Schedule Policy/Career service, and pre-conversion Pathways service does not count toward that 2-year period.
Recent Graduates Ceiling Raised to GS-11
The default Recent Graduates appointment ceiling would be raised to GS-11 or equivalent, while preserving a GS-12 exception for certain scientific and professional research positions requiring a directly related Ph.D. or equivalent degree.
Priority Consideration Goes From Lists to Case-by-Case System
OPM would eliminate the required priority reemployment, reemployment, and regular employment lists and instead require agencies to maintain documented procedures and records to identify, notify, evaluate, and consider priority candidates for each vacancy, while preserving the ordering and pass-over protections of 5 U.S.C. 3313, 3315, 3318, and related statutes.
New ALJ Appointments Moved to Schedule E
New administrative law judge (ALJ) appointments made on or after July 10, 2018 must be made under Schedule E and are exempt from part 302 examination and rating procedures; agencies must follow veterans' preference as far as administratively feasible, and Schedule E ALJs are not subject to a trial period under part 11.
Law Clerk Trainees Exempted From Part 302 Rules
Law clerk trainee positions filled under 5 CFR 213.3102(e) (time-limited appointments for law graduates or equivalent pending bar admission) would be expressly exempt from the appointment procedures of part 302 to provide additional hiring flexibility consistent with attorney hiring.
Faster Reappointments for Some Preference Eligibles
Agencies may reappoint a current or former nontemporary executive-branch employee who is a preference eligible to a covered position without applying the full examination, rating, ranking, and referral procedures of part 302, but such reappointments still must respect priority-consideration obligations and applicable law.
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Key Dates
Department and Agencies
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