Congressman Joe Garcia Introduces “Top Tech” Bill Aimed at Improving Federal Agency Hiring Process for Qualified Tech Employees

Washington, DC – This week, Congressman Joe Garcia introduced the Top Tech for USA Act of 2014. The bill is designed to provide the heads of federal agencies with direct-hire authority to appoint qualified candidates to positions relating to information technology, as well as for other purposes.

As some estimates show, a large percentage of federal technology employees are over 50 years old. With fewer employees under the age of 30, a lack of current skills seems to be an issue in many federal agencies.   

“Technology industry is growing astronomically and the search for qualified employees is competitive” said Garcia. “Legislation like this is critical to help us ensure we hire the brightest and most talented individuals for these types of positions that will lead us into the future and will guide our federal agencies in running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.”

The bill would allow federal agencies to conduct their own hiring where there is a critical need for these types of employees.  Currently, these agencies rely on drawn-out, inefficient hiring processes run by the Office of Personnel Management – a system that evaluates multiple candidates for each position and uses lengthy questionnaires. Even with an 80 day hiring target date, many agencies still struggle to meet those goals.

All too often, government agencies in need of technology experts lose out on the best candidates because of red tape and the lengthy federal hiring process.

“As we saw with the roll out of Healthcare.gov, top tech talent is highly important to the success of future federal projects” exclaimed Garcia. “We cannot leave it to chance again with such important issues on the line affecting such a large percentage of the American public.”

Late last year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unsuccessfully launched the federal healthcare enrollment website.  The website experienced extreme glitches when high numbers of individuals attempted to access the system to enroll. With these types of initiatives in place, experienced, well-trained tech professionals would alleviate and hopefully reduce these types of issues. Rep. Garcia was a staunch advocate of prioritizing fixes to the program for easier public access.