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Protect Our Probationary Employees Act

To allow Federal employees terminated while serving a probationary or trial period to resume such period upon reinstatement, and for other purposes.

Introduced Mar 10, 2025

Latest action (Mar 10, 2025) Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Summary

This bill allows federal employees who were involuntarily separated while serving an initial probationary period between January 20, 2025 and January 20, 2029 to receive credit for time already served if rehired by their former agency. Under the bill, if an employee is reinstated to the same or similar position, their new probationary period will be shortened by the amount of time they already served in their previous probationary period before being separated. For example, if a position normally requires a one-year probationary period and an employee served six months before separation, they would only need to complete the remaining six months upon reinstatement rather than starting a new one-year probation. The provision applies only to employees separated involuntarily while on an initial appointment probationary or trial period in an Executive agency. The law expires on January 20, 2029.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

71 cosponsors

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Sarah Elfreth’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

  • NAI MICHAEL $16,450
  • CI RENEWABLES $11,100
  • HASI $10,600
  • BUCH CONSTRUCTION $10,000
  • SHALOM TIKVAH $9,900

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Sarah Elfreth → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)

  1. Mar 10, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. · house
  2. Mar 10, 2025 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Text versions (1)

  • Introduced in House · Mar 10, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 10, 2025

Ms. Elfreth (for herself, Ms. Adams, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Baumgartner, Mr. Beyer, Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Bynum, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Davids of Kansas, Mr. Evans of Pennsylvania, Mr. Fields, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Garamendi, Ms. Houlahan, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Hurd of Colorado, Mr. Ivey, Ms. Jacobs, Mr. Kennedy of New York, Mr. Landsman, Mr. Latimer, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Norton, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Olszewski, Mr. Peters, Mr. Pocan, Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Raskin, Ms. Salinas, Mr. Schneider, Mr. Soto, Mr. Subramanyam, Mr. Thanedar, Ms. Titus, Ms. Tlaib, and Ms. Velazquez) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

A BILL

To allow Federal employees terminated while serving a probationary or trial period to resume such period upon reinstatement, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Protect Our Probationary Employees Act”.

SEC. 2. RESUMPTION OF PROBATIONARY PERIOD.

(a) In General.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the duration of the probationary or trial period for a covered appointment of a covered probationary employee to become final shall be equal to the difference between—

(1) the duration of such probationary or trial period that, but for this Act, would apply to such covered appointment; and

(2) the duration of the probationary or trial period that such covered probationary employee served in the previous Federal position of such covered probationary employee, to the extent that such duration does not exceed the duration described in paragraph (1).

(b) Sunset.—This Act shall terminate on January 20, 2029.

(c) Definitions.—In this Act—

(1) Covered appointment.—The term “covered appointment” means an appointment of a covered probationary employee to a position in the former employing agency of such covered probationary employee that, to the extent practicable, is the same as the previous Federal position of such covered probationary employee.

(2) Covered probationary employee.—The term “covered probationary employee” means an individual who—

(A) is, or was, involuntarily separated from Government service during the period beginning on January 20, 2025, and ending on the date specified in subsection (b); and

(B) immediately prior to such separation, held a position in an Executive agency and serving a probationary or trial period under an initial appointment.

(3) Executive agency.—The term “Executive agency” has the meaning given such term in section 105 of title 5, United States Code.

(4) Former employing agency.—With respect to a covered probationary employee, the term “former employing agency” means the Executive agency from which the separation of such individual made such individual a covered probationary employee.

(5) Previous federal position.—The term “previous Federal position” means the position in the Federal Government held by the covered probationary employee immediately before becoming a covered probationary employee. <all>

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