Editing Excepted service (section)

== Hiring authorities ==
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|{{ #invoke:Chart | pie chart
| radius = 125					
|slice 1 	=	13.8	:	Schedule A
|slice 2 	=	1.3	:	Schedule B
|slice 3 	=	0.2	:	Schedule C
|slice 4 	=	2.5	:	Schedule D
|slice 5 	=	0.1	:	Executive
|slice 6 	=	82.1	:	Other
|units suffix = %
}}
|-
|Excepted service positions by hiring <br />authority in 2015<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2018-07-01|title=Excepted Service Hiring Authorities: Their Use and Effectiveness in the Executive Branch|url=https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/OPM%20Special%20Study%20%E2%80%93%20Excepted%20Service%20Hiring%20Authorities_0.pdf|access-date=2024-10-22|website=Chief Human Capital Officers Council|pages=1–2, 9, 20}}</ref>
|}

A hiring authority is the law, executive order, or regulation that allows an agency to hire a person into the federal civil service.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-521|title=Federal Hiring: OPM Needs to Improve Management and Oversight of Hiring Authorities|last=|first=|date=2016-09-01|website=U. S. Government Accountability Office|pages=0, 9–11|via=|volume=|issue=GAO-16-521}}</ref>

=== Office of Personnel Management schedules ===
Some service positions are classified by the [[United States Office of Personnel Management|Office of Personnel Management]] into lettered categories, although not all excepted service authorities fall into this classification:

* Schedule A appointments are "impracticable to examine".  They are used to appoint specific position types such as attorneys, chaplains, physicians; when there is a critical hiring need or the position is in a remote location; and to hire disabled applicants.  In addition to this, as of 2016, there were 122 agency-unique Schedule A hiring authorities.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Federal Hiring Flexibilities Resource Center|url=https://archive.opm.gov/Strategic_Management_of_Human_Capital/fhfrc/FLX05020.asp|access-date=2019-03-04|website=U.S. Office of Personnel Management}}</ref>
* Schedule B appointments are "not practicable to hold a competitive examination".  Schedule B appointees must meet the qualification standards for the job.  As of 2016, there were 36 agency-unique Schedule B hiring authorities.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
* [[Schedule C appointment]]s are political appointments to confidential or policy-setting positions.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
* Schedule D appointments are those where competitive service requirements "make impracticable the adequate recruitment of sufficient numbers".  These are known as the [[Pathways Programs]], which consist of the Internship Program, Recent Graduates Program, and [[Presidential Management Fellows Program]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
*Schedule E appointments are [[administrative law judge]]s.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2018-07-10|title=Executive Order Excepting Administrative Law Judges from the Competitive Service|url=https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-excepting-administrative-law-judges-competitive-service/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120202406/https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-excepting-administrative-law-judges-competitive-service/|archive-date=2021-01-20|access-date=2020-10-24|via=[[NARA|National Archives]]|work=[[whitehouse.gov]]|language=en-US}}</ref>
*[[Schedule Policy/Career appointment|Schedule Policy/Career appointments]], formerly known as Schedule F appointments apply to "confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating positions."<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2020-10-21|title=Executive Order on Creating Schedule F In The Excepted Service|url=https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-creating-schedule-f-excepted-service/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130145607/https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-creating-schedule-f-excepted-service/|archive-date=2021-01-30|access-date=2020-10-24|via=[[NARA|National Archives]]|work=[[whitehouse.gov]]|language=en-US}}</ref>
Schedules A and B were created by the [[Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act|Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883]], Schedule C was created in 1956, and Schedule D was created in 2012.<ref name=":0" />  Schedule E was created in 2018.<ref name=":2" />  Schedule F was created in October 2020 and repealed in January 2021,<ref name=":4" /><ref>[https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/22/executive-order-protecting-the-federal-workforce/ www.whitehouse.gov]</ref> and was reinstated in January 2025.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2025-01-21 |title=Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-accountability-to-policy-influencing-positions-within-the-federal-workforce/ |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=The White House |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Other hiring authorities ===
Several excepted service hiring authorities are not classified into the OPM schedules.  Some of the more prevalent include:

* [[Title 38 appointment]]s are for the [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|Department of Veterans Affairs]] to hire certain medical occupations.<ref name=":02" />  The [[National Institutes of Health]] also uses Title 38 appointments for health care occupations that provide direct patient care services or services incident to it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://policymanual.nih.gov/2300-550-1|title=NIH Policy Manual: Title 38 Premium Pay|last=|first=|date=|website=U.S. National Institutes of Health|access-date=2019-03-19}}</ref>
* A [[Title 42 appointment]] allows scientists and special consultants to be hired as part of the [[United States Public Health Service|Public Health Service]] or [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] under a streamlined process.<ref name=":03">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2012-07-12 |title=Pay for Consultants and Scientists Appointed under Title 42 |url=https://www.gao.gov/products/B-323357 |access-date=2019-03-03 |website=U.S. Government Accountability Office |series=B-323357 |pages=2–5, 17, 20 |via=}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2012-07-12 |title=HHS and EPA Can Improve Practices Under Special Hiring Authorities |url=https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-692 |access-date=2019-03-03 |website=U. S. Government Accountability Office |series=GAO-12-692 |pages=0–6, 11, 25 |issue=}}</ref>
* A [[United States National Guard|National Guard]] technician hiring authority is used for the [[Army Reserve Technician Program]] and [[Air Reserve Technician Program]].<ref name=":02" />
* There is a [[Veterans Recruitment Appointment]] authority.<ref name=":02" />
* There are also agency-wide excepted service authorities, of which the largest are the [[Transportation Security Administration]] and [[Federal Aviation Administration]].<ref name=":02" />
*The [[Senior Biomedical Research Service]], formally the Silvio O. Conte Senior Biomedical Research and Biomedical Product Assessment Service, is for scientific and technical experts in biomedical research, clinical research evaluation, and biomedical product assessment.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2020-06-03|title=HHS Instruction 42-3: Senior Biomedical Research and Biomedical Product Assessment Service|url=https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/asa/ohr/hr-library/42-3-sbrbpas/index.html|access-date=2020-11-22|website=U.S. Department of Health and Human Services|language=en}}</ref>  It was created by the [[Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990]]<ref>{{USBill|101|HR|5241}}, {{USPL|101|509}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> and implemented in 1995, because the [[National Institutes of Health]] concluded that the Senior Executive Service was not ideally suited for their purposes, and a personnel system more similar to academia was needed.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=Hooper|first=Celia|date=January–February 1995|title=Title 38, SBRS raise salary caps|url=https://nihsearch.cit.nih.gov/catalyst/back/95.01/title38.sbrs.html|access-date=2020-11-22|website=The NIH Catalyst}}</ref>  Initially there was a cap of 500 individuals in the Service,<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> but the [[21st Century Cures Act]] increased this to 2000 individuals in 2016.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Denigan-Macauley|first=Mary|date=2020-05-08|title=Biomedical Research: HHS Has Not Yet Used New Authorities to Improve Recruitment and Retention of Scientists|url=https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-531R|access-date=2020-11-22|website=U. S. Government Accountability Office|pages=|via=}}</ref>