Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, released the following statement in support of the Biden Administration’s finalized rule designed to expand and improve opportunities for early career talent in the federal government:
“The federal government is facing a retirement tsunami, and yet we still have a long way to go toward ensuring we can recruit and retain the workforce of tomorrow. That’s why I introduced the Building the Next Generation of Federal Employees Act, and it’s why I am thrilled that the Biden Administration is taking action today to significantly expand and improve the most prominent internship program in the federal government.Pathways had more than 60,000 paid interns in 2010. By 2020, participation had tanked to just 4,000. That is an unsustainable decline, and yet it doesn’t even convey the full scale of the desperate recruitment situation the federal government finds itself in today. 70% of private sector interns are ultimately hired by the company they interned with. The same cannot be said of federal interns, who have a much tougher path to employment with the federal government after their internships are completed. This is a problem that will only get worse without the significant intervention this rule provides. Today’s finalized rule brings us one step closer to embracing modern day recruiting and hiring strategies that will allow us to effectively build out the next generation of civil servants.”
Connolly is the author of the Building the Next Generation of Federal Employees (NextGenFeds) Act, legislation to help the federal government leverage internships to attract a qualified and diverse pool of candidates to the federal workforce and to create a pathway for interns to transition to full-time employment in public service. Connolly outlined the importance of the legislation in a 2022 OpEd for CNN.
