Share Your Voice - Hiring Military Spouses

Public Invited to Comment on Draft Rules for Spouse Employment

The public is invited to comment on proposed rules to speed up the hiring process for some military spouses seeking federal jobs.

The Office of Personnel Management published the rules Dec. 5 in the Federal Register and will accept comments until Jan. 5.

OPM drafted the regulations to implement an executive order signed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 25 allowing agencies to make noncompetitive appointments of military spouses.

“This is a quick-hire authority that will allow the federal government easy access to a talent pool of deserving military spouses,” Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Les’ Melnyk explained.

The draft regulations “do not provide a hiring preference for military spouses, nor do they establish selection priority for these individuals,” according to the proposed rules in the Federal Register.

However, “if a spouse is otherwise qualified for the job, he or she may be hired immediately by any federal agency, thus benefiting the agency while simultaneously eliminating the oftentimes lengthy application process and delays that discourage many spouses from applying for federal jobs in the first place,” Melnyk said.

The employment initiative would apply to spouses of active-duty servicemembers who have received permanent-change-of-station orders, spouses of servicemembers who have received 100-percent disability discharges, as well as un-remarried widows or widowers of military members who have been killed while on active duty, according to the proposed rules.

Bush proposed the military-spouse employment initiative during his State of the Union speech to the nation in January.

Read more on this draft and learn how and where to send your comments here.

A related article can be found here.  

Comments

[Tiffany]

That sounds like a good idea considering I've heard that the hiring process is SOOO long. I'm just wondering if it would apply to all federal jobs or just those relating to the Armed Forces. Hmm I will certainly have to keep this in mind considering we are about to PCS.

[Alex]

I have held a federal Governemnt job since we have married.
There are several things that need to be addressed when it comes to hiring spouses and this is a start, it comes to late as we are approaching our last years in the Army. Hopefully more attention will be given the employment practices for our spouses. This will help with quality of life and hopefully retention of our Army.

[Sean]

Education4miltiary provide career training at no charge to military spouses. Part of my job is to help get the word out. Here’s our url http://www.education4military.com/advantage-tuition-military-spouse.asp