[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 28 (Monday, July 17, 2000)]
[Pages 1607-1608]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Executive Order 13162--Federal Career Intern Program

July 6, 2000

    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

[[Page 1608]]

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.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
July 6, 2000.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., July 11, 
2000]

Note: This Executive order was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on July 10, and it was published in the Federal Register on 
July 12.