Restore rigorous civil-service exams and narrow disparate-impact constraints
Mandate argues the PACE consent decree and disparate-impact doctrine blocked KSA exams; urges legislative/regulatory narrowing of disparate impact and moving forward with rigorous exams like USAHire despite equity concerns.
Mandate
Mandate Ch. 3 (Central Personnel Agencies) — OPM Merit Hiring: PACE abolished via consent decree still controlling federal hiring; doctrine of disparate impact could be ended legislatively or narrowed by regulation; government unable to select on KSA tests for three decades; OPM must move forward on exams; courts may review decree if Uniform Guidelines reformed.
Undo plan
1) Preserve Uniform Guidelines protections against unjustified discriminatory exams.
2) Pair any validated testing expansion with job-relatedness studies and adverse-impact monitoring.
3) Reject unilateral abandonment of disparate-impact remedies without congressional action.
4) Expand diverse recruitment pipelines rather than gutting civil-rights hiring safeguards.
5) Verify: OPM validation reports; EEOC/DOJ review of exam adverse impact.