Career Intern Program

PROGRAM POLICY - EXECUTIVE ORDER

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

For Immediate Release

EXECUTIVE ORDER 13162

FEDERAL CAREER INTERN PROGRAM

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the

laws of the United States of America, including sections 3301 and 3302 of

title 5, United States Code, and in order to provide for the recruitment

and selection of exceptional employees for careers in the public sector, it

is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. There is hereby constituted the Federal Career Intern

Program (Program). The purpose of the Program is to attract exceptional

men and women to the Federal workforce who have diverse professional

experiences, academic training, and competencies, and to prepare them for

careers in analyzing and implementing public programs. "Career Intern" is

a generic term, and agencies may use occupational titles as appropriate.

Sec. 2. The Program is another step in the Administration's effort to

recruit the highest caliber people to the Federal Government, develop their

professional abilities, and retain them in Federal -departments and

agencies. Cabinet secretaries and agency administrators should view the

Program as complementary to existing programs that provide career

enhancement opportunities for Federal employees, and departments and

agencies are encouraged to identify and make use of those programs, as well

as the new Program, to meet department and agency needs.

Sec. 3. (a) The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) shall develop

appropriate merit-based procedures for the recruitment, screening,

placement, and continuing career development of Career Interns.

(b) In developing those procedures, the OPM shall provide for such

actions as deemed appropriate to assure equal employment opportunity and

the application of appropriate veterans' preference criteria.

Sec. 4. (a) A successful candidate shall be appointed to a position

in Schedule B of the excepted service at the GS-5, 7, or 9 (and equivalent)

or other trainee level appropriate for the Program, unless otherwise

approved by the OPM. The appointment shall not exceed 2 years unless

extended by the Federal department or agency, with the concurrence of the

OPM, for up to 1 additional year.

(b) Tenure for a Career Intern shall be governed by the

following principles and policies:

(1) Assigned responsibilities shall be consistent with a Career

Intern's competencies and career interests, and the purposes

of the Program.

(2) Continuation in the Program shall be contingent upon

satisfactory performance by the Career Intern throughout the

internship period.

(3) Except as provided in subsections (4) and (5) of this

section, service as a Career Intern confers no rights to

further Federal employment in either the competitive or

excepted service upon the expiration of the internship

period.

(4) Competitive civil service status may be granted to a Career

Intern who satisfactorily completes the internship and meets

all other requirements prescribed by the OPM.

(5) Within an agency, an employee who formerly held a career or

career-conditional appointment immediately before entering

the Career Intern Program, and who fails to complete the

Career Intern Program for reasons unrelated to misconduct or

suitability, shall be placed in a career or

career-conditional position in the current agency at no

lower grade or pay than the one the employee left to accept

the position in the Career Intern Program.

Sec. 5. A Career Intern shall participate in a formal program of

training and job assignments to develop competencies that the OPM

identifies as core to the Program, and the employing agency identifies as

appropriate to the agency's mission and needs.

Sec. 6. The OPM shall prescribe such regulations as it determines

necessary to carry out the purpose of this order.

Sec. 7. The OPM shall provide oversight of the Program.

Sec. 8. Executive Order 12596 of May 7, 1987, is revoked.

Sec. 9. Judicial Review. This order is intended only to improve the

internal management of the executive branch. It does not create any right

or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable in law or equity, by a

party against the United States, its agencies, its officers or employees,

or any other person.

July 6, 2000.