The REHIRE Act grants a special hiring preference, including five extra points, to certain Federal employees involuntarily removed between January 1, 2025, and January 1, 2027, provided they were not removed for misconduct or poor performance.
Donald Beyer
Representative
VA-8
The REHIRE Act establishes a temporary hiring preference for certain Federal employees involuntarily removed from their positions between January 1, 2025, and January 1, 2027. These eligible former employees will receive the equivalent of a "preference eligible" status plus five extra points on their earned scores when applying for competitive service jobs. This hiring advantage excludes those removed for misconduct, poor performance, or from political positions, and it expires five years after enactment.
REHIRE Act Grants 5-Point Bonus to Federal Workers Involuntarily Removed Between 2025 and 2027
The Restoring Employment and Hiring Incentives for Removed Employees Act, or the REHIRE Act, is setting up a temporary, targeted hiring boost for a specific group of former federal employees. Starting January 1, 2025, and running through January 1, 2027, any federal employee who is involuntarily removed from their job will automatically receive “preference eligible” status when applying for competitive service positions. Crucially, they also get an automatic five extra points added to their score during the hiring process, which is a significant leg up (SEC. 2).
The 'Do-Over' Status: Who Gets the 5 Points?
This isn't a blanket amnesty for everyone who gets let go. The bill is careful to focus this advantage on career employees who were removed for reasons other than their own documented failings. You won’t qualify for this special hiring status if your involuntary separation was due to clearly documented charges of misconduct or poor performance. Likewise, if your last performance review was rated “unacceptable” or “less than fully successful,” you’re out of the running for this benefit (SEC. 2). The goal here seems to be providing a safety net for experienced workers who might lose their jobs due to reorganizations, budget cuts, or other non-disciplinary reasons, ensuring the government doesn't permanently lose institutional knowledge.
The Real-World Scorecard
So, what does a five-point bonus actually mean? In the competitive federal hiring world, where scoring high is everything, five points can easily vault a candidate over dozens of others. For the eligible former employee—say, a mid-level analyst who was laid off due to a department merger—this significantly improves their odds of getting back into a comparable federal job. They move to the front of the line, essentially getting the same scoring advantage previously reserved for certain veterans.
However, this preference system creates a ripple effect. If you’re a highly qualified applicant who never worked for the government but is applying for the same competitive service job, you’re now competing against a pool of former employees who get a five-point head start. This essentially means federal hiring managers will be required to prioritize these preference-eligible candidates, which could make it tougher for new talent to break in during the five years this special hiring preference is active (SEC. 2). This is a classic policy trade-off: prioritize re-employing experienced government workers versus giving equal opportunity to external candidates.