§353 Acquisition Professional Career Program

Summary

The Department must create a career program to train and hire acquisition professionals. The Under Secretary for Management will run the program. The Under Secretary will pick which job types, grades, and how many positions are in the program and manage them centrally. The Department will post who can apply on its website. It will recruit from colleges (including schools with acquisition programs, historically Black colleges and universities, and Hispanic-serving institutions), people with non‑government work experience, and those with military service. The Department will hire eligible people and give them structured training, on‑the‑job work, rotations across offices, mentors, shadowing, and extra specialized training such as small business contracting and new acquisition techniques. The Secretary must send a report one year after December 27, 2021, and every year through 2027 to the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The report must show numbers of approved and started candidates, basic background info without personal details, job‑type breakdowns, which offices took part and rotation lengths, attrition and retention data with year‑to‑year comparisons, and recruitment and retention efforts. Definitions: Hispanic‑serving institution, historically Black colleges and universities, and institution of higher education are as defined in title 20.