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House Subcommittee Approves Senior Executive Service Diversity Bill

On April 15, the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia approved, by voice vote, the Senior Executive Service Diversity Assurance Act (H.R. 3774), sponsored by Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL). The subcommittee held a hearing on the bill on April 3 (see The Source 4/4/08). 

The bill would establish a Senior Executive Service (SES) Resource Center within the Office of Personnel Management to help improve SES efficiency and its recruitment of diverse individuals to top-level positions. The Resource Center would oversee the executive pay system; develop training programs for senior executives; and collect and maintain statistics on the composition of the SES based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, and persons with disabilities. The Center also would conduct continuing programs for the recruitment of women, members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and the disabled for Senior Executive Service positions. 

The measure also would establish at each federal agency SES Evaluation Panels that consist of three members, “of whom at least one shall be a woman and one other shall be a member of a racial or ethnic minority group.” The evaluation panels would be tasked with reviewing the executive qualifications of each candidate for a position and certifying that the candidates are the “best qualified” for the position they are seeking.