Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Notable

Apply skills-based hiring standards to federal contractors

Attempted

596 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies

“Adopt the civil service’s skills-based hiring standards for federal contractors. The President should direct the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy to adopt the civil service’s skills-based hiring standards for federal contractors and issue waivers from degree-based staffing requirements in existing contracts.”

What has happened

  1. Attempted

    The Senate passed H.R. 5235 without amendment by unanimous consent, after the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reported it on 2026-09-14, so both chambers have passed the House text. The enrolled bill is posted; as of 2026-10-16 the latest action is the 2026-10-14 message on Senate action sent to the House, and it has not been presented or signed. Enactment would be partial: the Act covers solicitations issued 15 months after enactment, not waivers in existing contracts.

  2. Attempted

    The House passed H.R. 5235, the Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act of 2025, by voice vote under suspension of the rules. It adds 41 U.S.C. 3313: a solicitation may not set a minimum education requirement for proposed contractor personnel unless the contracting officer writes a justification into it, and OMB must issue guidance within 180 days that encourages alternatives to education requirements. It also repeals section 813 of the FY2001 NDAA (FAR 39.104), the narrower rule for information-technology services, which the new section replaces with one for all solicitations. That is the ask's object — degree-based staffing requirements on federal contractors — reached by statute rather than by OFPP adopting the civil service's standards, and passage by one chamber is attempted (playbook §3b). The bill does not reach existing contracts, for which the ask wants waivers.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Federal Register full-text search, conditions[term]="skills-based hiring" over the window, returns nine documents; all nine are OPM or Education Department documents about federal employment or education programs, none about contractors.
  • The texts of Executive Orders 14275 and 14402 were read at govinfo (FR-2025-04-18/html/2025-06839.htm, FR-2026-05-05/html/2026-08900.htm): neither mentions a degree or credential requirement.
  • The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (acquisition.gov/far-overhaul, last updated 2026-06-26) is the live vehicle for such a change and has not made one.
  • Negative search: chapter log, Cluster negative search — the degree-and-skills asks (#1642, #1643).

Resolved in review (2026-10-16): see the two attempted events. The matcher did not propose this. H.R. 5235, the Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act of 2025 (introduced 2025-09-09), passed the House by voice vote on 2026-02-23, according to the passage field of its bills.ndjson record. Its latest action, on 2026-10-14, is “Message on Senate action sent to the House”, so the Senate has acted on it. The 2026-08-31 negative above does not mention the bill. Only the title and the actions are in the Corpus. To close: read the text at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/BILLS-119hr5235 (the engrossed and any Senate version) and the action list (congress.gov API, bill/119/hr/5235/actions). The text has to answer three questions:

  1. Does it direct OFPP, the FAR Council or agencies to limit minimum-education or degree requirements in federal contracts, or to use skills-based qualifications instead? That is this ask’s object.
  2. Did the Senate pass it without amendment, and on what date?
  3. Has it been presented or signed?

If the answer to (1) is yes, the House passage of 2026-02-23 is attempted under §3b, and it replaces the 2026-08-31 not started under §6b, with the earlier reasoning kept in ch-18.md. That holds even though the ask is addressed to the President: the object is the same, and enactment would decide the rung. If the answer is no, add a sentence saying why the bill does not reach it. #1643 (degree requirements for federal jobs) concerns the civil service, not contractors, and is not reached by a contracting bill.

Review (2026-10-16, network). The enrolled text (congress.gov/119/bills/hr5235/BILLS-119hr5235enr.htm) and the congress.gov API action list were read. (1) Yes: new 41 U.S.C. 3313 bars a minimum education requirement for proposed contractor personnel unless justified in writing in the solicitation, OMB guidance must encourage alternatives, and NDAA FY2001 §813 is repealed. (2) The Senate passed it without amendment by unanimous consent on 2026-09-30. (3) Not presented or signed: the latest action is the 2026-10-14 message to the House. The 2026-08-31 not started was replaced (§6b); its reasoning, which predated the House vote and missed it, stays in ch-18.md. If it is signed, enactment is partial (it reaches new solicitations, not waivers in existing contracts).

Action
expand
Object
Skills-based hiring standards for federal contractors
ID
1642