To help fight the nationwide opioid crisis, the Office of Personnel Management has issued direct hire authority for the Justice Department to quicker place talent at three of its components.
The new OPM guidance was announced July 12 and is aimed at streamlining the hiring process for specialized employees for the U.S Attorneys’ Offices, the Criminal Division and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“The President has declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency, and OPM takes that very seriously,” Margaret Weichert, OPM’s acting director, said in a release. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that every agency has the tools they need to combat this crisis.”
OPM said it has in the past issued the same authority for the departments of State, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services in accordance with an October 2017 memo on combating the U.S. drug and opioid epidemic.