Quick Hits

*** With a midnight shutdown looming on Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 82-6 on Sept. 29 to invoke cloture and move to a final vote on the continuing resolution to fund the government through Dec. 11. The Senate convenes at noon on Sept. 30 to vote. President Trump's signature is required on the bill to prevent a government shutdown on Oct. 1, the start of fiscal year 2021.

*** The Office of Personnel Management is seeking comment from agencies about plans to revamp the credentials needed for hundreds of federal occupational categories. The Trump administration, under an executive order, wants to include "competency-based assessments" to stand in for college degrees and other formal credentials in federal hiring.

"Developing competency-based assessments will benefit the Federal workforce by generating larger pools of highly skilled job candidates from which agencies may choose their employees, thereby enabling highly skilled workers with non-traditional educational paths to serve the American public," Acting OPM Director Michael Rigas wrote in a Sept. 25 memo to federal agency heads.