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Title 5, Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-102

§3330e Review of Official Personnel File of Former Federal Employees Before Rehiring

Title 5 › PART III — EMPLOYEES › Subpart B — Employment and Retention › CHAPTER 33 — EXAMINATION, SELECTION, AND PLACEMENT › SUBCHAPTER I — EXAMINATION, CERTIFICATION, AND APPOINTMENT › § 3330e

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Before hiring or rehiring someone who last worked for the federal government in a competitive or excepted job, the hiring official must check the person’s official personnel file for merit-related items like past job actions, performance ratings, and any discipline. "Former Government employee" means a person whose most recent federal job was in the competitive or excepted service. The Office of Personnel Management must write rules to carry this out, and those rules cannot make hiring take longer.

Full Legal Text

Title 5, §3330e

Government Organization and Employees, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)If a former Government employee is a candidate for a position within the competitive service or the excepted service, prior to making any determination with respect to the appointment or reinstatement of such employee to such position, the appointing authority shall review and consider merit-based information relating to such employee’s former period or periods of service such as official personnel actions, employee performance ratings, and disciplinary actions, if any, in such employee’s official personnel record file.
(b)In subsection (a), the term “former Government employee” means an individual whose most recent position with the Government prior to becoming a candidate as described under subsection (a) was within the competitive service or the excepted service.
(c)The Office of Personnel Management shall prescribe regulations to carry out the purpose of this section. Such regulations may not contain provisions that would increase the time required for agency hiring actions.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Pub. L. 114–328, div. A, title XI, § 1136(b), Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2460, provided that: “The amendment made by subsection (a) [enacting this section] shall apply to any former Government employee (as described in section 3330e of title 5, United States Code, as added by such subsection) appointed or reinstated on or after the date that is 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act [Dec. 23, 2016].”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

5 U.S.C. § 3330e

Title 5, Government Organization and Employees

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102