New Regulations for Military Spouse Employment
Dec 17 2008
Back in September, the President signed an Executive Order trying to ease the path to federal employment for military spouses. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has now posted the new regulations on the Federal Register for a 30-day public comment period that began on December 5th. After the public comment period and any subsequent revisions by OPM, the new rules will go into effect.
For you policy wonks out there, here is the summary excerpt from the Federal Register:
OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
5 CFR Parts 315 and 316
RIN 3206-AL73
Noncompetitive Appointment of Certain Military Spouses
AGENCY: U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing
proposed regulations that allow agencies to noncompetitively appoint
certain military spouses to positions in the competitive service. These
regulations implement Executive Order 13473, 73 FR 56703 (Sept. 28,
2008), which authorizes noncompetitive appointments in the Civil
Service for spouses of certain members of the armed forces. These
regulations facilitate the entry of military spouses into the Federal
civil service as part of an effort to recruit and retain skilled and
experienced members of the armed forces and to recognize and honor the
service of members injured, disabled, or killed in connection with their service.
You can see the entire entry here. We are one step closer to a potentially better employment outlook for military spouses.
I contacted OPM and they are only waiting for the new administration to review. Perhaps you can start an effort to get some attention to this very important order. The OPM contact name and email is in the draft Federal Register document and she indicated no time frame currently exists for review by the new administration. I’m surprised since this is a very important order for Military spouses of which my daughter is one.