Federal Managers Association

In the News

• GSA official put on leave for social media post saying veterans’ preference in federal hiring is hampering tech recruiting - August 3, 2026

• A government workforce expert told Government Executive that many hiring rules, including veterans’ preference, have become “procedural hurdles rather than achieving the intended outcome” because they haven’t been updated in decades.

  Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive

  A senior official at the General Services Administration recently posted on his personal social media that veterans’ preference in federal hiring is preventing his team from bringing on qualified tech-focused employees.
  
  “Veterans preference is brutally unfair when taken to the extreme of blocking any consideration of non-veterans, but we're seeing that everywhere these days,” wrote Pete Waterman, the director of FedRAMP, a governmentwide program that sets security and risk standards for cloud products. “Even Tech Force wouldn't let us look at normal folks until we made offers to all the veterans first.”
  
  Veterans’ preference gives former armed forces members priority in hiring for certain agency positions. The Trump administration launched Tech Force last year to recruit software and data engineers for two-year positions. While officials initially said they could bring on 1,000 participants by the end of March, the program’s director announced in May that only 180 to 200 hires had been made so far.

  To read the full article, click here.

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