Legislation· Dec 2024Sponsored by Kyrsten Sinema (I)
Chance to Compete Act of 2024
Requires federal agencies to use job-specific skills tests, not just résumés or self-ratings, to fill most federal jobs.
Tradeoff
Shifts federal hiring toward job-specific skills tests over self-rated applications. Agencies can skip the switch by certifying it is impracticable, and must explain alternatives in job postings.
What's in it
Adds $81 million in spending subject to over 2025-2029 with direct spending and revenue effects negligible, and no estimate beyond 2029 (not estimated for 2025-2034 ).
The roughly $81 million over five years is the federal cost of OPM and agencies rewriting hiring practices, reports, and data systems, while the real change falls on how federal civil service jobs are filled.
The Senate passed this by on December 12, 2024. The House passed it by on December 16, 2024. It became law.
Senate
Introduced
(Jan 24, 2023)
Senate
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs(Jan 24, 2023)
Senate
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted to send it to the floor
Reported(Jul 31, 2024)
Committee report S. Rept. 118-250.
Senate · Amended
Senator Sinema's
Agreed to by (S.Amdt. 3325 · Dec 12, 2024)
Drops the earlier public hiring dashboard, GAO review, and certificate-sharing platform provisions, and replaces the occupational questionnaire option with an alternative assessment.
No individual votes were recorded.
Senate
Passage of the bill
Passed by (Dec 12, 2024)
No individual votes were recorded.
House
Passage of the bill
Passed by (Dec 16, 2024)
No individual votes were recorded.
House
Received from the Senate
Received(Dec 16, 2024)
House
Sent to the President
(Dec 23, 2024)
White House · Signature
Signed
Joe Biden (D)
Enacted
Became law(Dec 23, 2024)
- Bill Hagerty (R-TN)
- James Lankford (R-OK)
- Thomas R. Carper (D-DE)