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Foreign Service Test-Free Reentry Act of 2026
To expedite the rehiring of certain former career members of the Foreign Service, and for other purposes.
Summary
- Allows the Secretary of State to rehire certain former Foreign Service career members without requiring written or oral examinations.
- Applies to career members who were involuntarily separated or retired due to a reduction in force or other expedited retirement process between January 20, 2025 and January 31, 2030.
- Requires that the former career member was serving in good standing, meaning they had no documented low performance rankings in the 5 years before their separation or retirement.
- Limits the expedited rehiring authority to involuntary separations and retirements as part of a reduction in force or expedited retirement process.
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)
5 cosponsors
Actions (2)
- Jul 16, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. · house
- Jul 16, 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
July 16, 2026
Mr. Beyer (for himself, Mr. Meeks, Mr. Walkinshaw, Ms. Titus, Mr. Olszewski, and Ms. Norton) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To expedite the rehiring of certain former career members of the Foreign Service, 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 “Foreign Service Test-Free Reentry Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. EXPEDITED REHIRING OF FORMER CAREER MEMBERS.
Section 308 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3948) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(c)(1) With respect to any former career member of the Service involuntarily separated or retired as part of a reduction in force or other expedited retirement process during the period beginning January 20, 2025, and ending January 31, 2030, who was serving in good standing as of the date of such separation or retirement, the Secretary may reappoint such former career member without requiring any written or oral examination or other threshold qualification described in section 301.
“(2) For purposes of this subsection—
“(A) the term ‘serving in good standing’, with respect to an individual who was separated or retired, means that the individual did not receive any low rankings within the 5 years prior to their separation or retirement date to the extent that such review with respect to such individual is clearly documented; and
“(B) the authority provided under paragraph (1) may not be exercised with respect to any former career service member that was not involuntarily separated or retired—
“(i) during the period described in that paragraph; and
“(ii) as part of a reduction in force or other expedited retirement process.”. <all>
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