Data / Federal rules / 2025-17125
Reinvigorating Merit-Based Hiring Through Candidate Ranking in the Competitive and Excepted Service (Rule of Many)
The Personnel Management Office published this final rule in the Federal Register on September 8, 2025. It took effect on November 7, 2025.
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What the agency says
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing this final rule to implement changes authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019 governing the selection of candidates from competitive lists of eligibles. These changes are meant to encourage the use of rigorous, merit-based candidate rankings when hiring in the competitive and excepted service. They also provide expanded flexibility to agencies in the selection of candidates under delegated examining procedures. These changes also affect how agencies select candidates for excepted service appointments.
Key facts
- Document number
- 2025-17125
- Type
- Final rule
- Action
- Final rule
- Agency
- Personnel Management Office
- Published
- September 8, 2025
- Takes effect
- November 7, 2025
- Dates
- This rule will be effective on November 7, 2025. Agencies must be in full compliance with this final rule not later than March 9, 2026.
- Docket
- Docket ID: OPM-2023-0015
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 3206-AN80
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 5 CFR 302; 5 CFR 332; 5 CFR 337
- Topics
- Administrative practice and procedure; Government contracts; Government employees; Investigations
- Significant
- Yes, under Executive Order 12866
- Pages
- 12
Other documents from the Personnel Management Office
| Document | Type | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Administrative Leave for Workforce Realignment and Other Purposes 2026-21320 | Final rule | Oct 19 |
| Elimination of Time-in-Grade 2026-21319 | Final rule | Oct 19 |
| Managing Senior Professional Performance 2026-21316 · significant | Final rule | Oct 19 |
| Family and Medical Leave Act 2026-21104 | Final rule | Oct 15 |
| Employment in the Excepted Service 2026-19222 · significant | Proposed rule | Sep 18 |
| Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: Optimizing FEHB Plan Offerings 2026-18944 | Proposed rule | Sep 15 |
| Promoting Employee Accountability 2026-18943 | Proposed rule | Sep 15 |
| Shared Certificates and Pooled Hiring Actions 2026-18828 · significant | Final rule | Sep 15 |
Everything from the Personnel Management Office · Rules on administrative practice and procedure · Rules on government contracts · Rules on government employees · Published in September 2025
Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.