Providing for the Appointment of Alumni of AmeriCorps to the Competitive Service

The order directs the head of any executive department or agency to appoint, on a noncompetitive basis, AmeriCorps alumni who have been certified as having satisfactorily completed at least 1,700 hours of qualifying national service. It instructs the AmeriCorps CEO — or a designee — to issue certificates to eligible alumni who completed service as a Team Leader, Member, or AmeriCorps State and National participant. It also authorizes the Director of OPM to issue any additional regulations needed to implement the hiring authority.

Appointments must occur within one year of the most recent qualifying term of service, though extensions of up to three years are allowed for alumni engaged in additional AmeriCorps service, military service, higher education, or other activities an appointing authority deems warranting an extension. Standard disqualifying criteria — citizenship requirements, anti-nepotism rules, OPM suitability standards — still apply. The order does not alter existing Non-Competitive Eligibility status for AmeriCorps VISTA members, which is governed by a separate statute.

AmeriCorps alumni who completed at least 1,700 hours of qualifying national service and seek federal employment; federal agency heads who gain a new noncompetitive hiring authority; the AmeriCorps CEO's office, which is responsible for issuing eligibility certificates; and OPM, which may issue implementing regulations.

AmeriCorps alumni can bypass the standard competitive hiring process when applying for federal jobs, removing a significant barrier to federal employment for this population. Federal agencies gain a pre-vetted, service-experienced talent pool they can hire more quickly and flexibly than through normal competitive procedures.

AmeriCorps CEO issues a certificate to each qualifying alumni upon satisfactory completion of 1,700+ hours of service; that certificate unlocks noncompetitive hiring authority for any agency head. The hiring window is one year post-service, extendable to three years under defined circumstances. OPM can issue supplemental regulations, but the hiring authority is self-executing — eligible alumni can be hired even without additional rulemaking. Standard disqualifiers still screen out ineligible candidates, and AmeriCorps must take corrective action if any certificate is issued in error.