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To allow for Special Hiring Authority under the Defense Production Act of 1950, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill grants federal agencies that serve on the Defense Production Act Committee special authority to hire subject matter experts without following standard civil service hiring procedures. These agencies can directly appoint experts to competitive service positions for the specific purpose of identifying, soliciting, evaluating, or approving activities that may receive financial assistance under the Defense Production Act. The bill allows agencies to bypass normal hiring requirements under federal civil service law to bring in specialized expertise more quickly. The special hiring authority is limited to the identified functions related to Defense Production Act programs.
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)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Josh Gottheimer’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- BLACKSTONE $116,700
- APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT $71,500
- KKR & CO INC. $50,600
- CENTERVIEW PARTNERS $25,000
- FORTRESS INVESTMENT GROUP $23,200
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Josh Gottheimer → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Mar 27, 2026 Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. · house
- Mar 27, 2026 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.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 27, 2026
Mr. Gottheimer introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To allow for Special Hiring Authority under the Defense Production Act of 1950, 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 “DPA Specialized Staffing Act”.
SEC. 2. SPECIAL HIRING AUTHORITY FOR SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS.
Each agency represented on the Defense Production Act Committee may appoint, without regard to the provisions of sections 3309 through 3318 of title 5, United States Code, subject matter experts directly to positions in the competitive service (as defined in section 2102 of that title) in the agency for the sole purpose of identifying, soliciting, evaluating, or approving activities that may receive financial assistance under this Act. <all>
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