The bill inserts a new section into chapter 73 of title 5 that makes anyone 'finally convicted' of a statutory "crime of violence" ineligible for civil‑service employment and requires removal of currently employed individuals once a conviction is final. It also bars the federal government from entering into contracts with such individuals or entities where they hold certain positions, while authorizing the OMB Director to grant narrow waivers for unique or undue burdens.
This matters because it converts an administrative discretion into an explicit statutory bar, imposes new pre‑award and post‑award compliance obligations on contractors, directs a FAR revision within six months, and creates immediate operational questions for personnel offices, contracting officers, small businesses and agencies that rely on contractor personnel who may have convictions that fit the bill’s definition.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill adds §7314 to title 5 to prohibit hiring and to require removal of individuals finally convicted of crimes of violence, using the definition in 18 U.S.C. §16 but excluding subsection (b). Separately, it forbids federal agencies from contracting with such individuals or with entities where they hold covered positions, subject to an OMB waiver for unique or undue burdens.
Who It Affects
Federal HR and security offices, contracting officers, prime contractors and subcontractors with owners or executives who have qualifying convictions, and any individual federally employed or seeking federal employment who has a final conviction for a crime of violence.
Why It Matters
By codifying an across‑the‑board exclusion, the bill replaces variable agency practice with a uniform statutory rule, forces rapid FAR updates, and sets up conflicts between procurement continuity (including existing contracts) and a zero‑tolerance eligibility standard.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The legislation creates two parallel exclusion regimes: one for federal civil‑service employment and one for federal contracting. For employment, it inserts a new statutory section into chapter 73 of title 5 that states any person "finally convicted" of a crime of violence cannot accept or hold a civil‑service position and must be removed if already in such a position when the conviction becomes final. "Finally convicted" is strictly defined to mean the appeals window has closed or all appeals are complete.
For procurement, the bill prohibits the federal government from entering into contracts with any covered individual or with entities where a covered individual holds a covered position. "Covered position" is broadly defined to include anyone providing goods or services under a federal contract, officers or directors (including board members), and anyone with a controlling ownership interest. The statutory prohibition applies to contracts entered into before, on, or after the enactment date; the bill further requires the FAR to be revised within six months to implement the new rule.The bill reuses the federal statutory definition of "crime of violence" from 18 U.S.C. §16 but expressly omits the subsection referenced in the statute’s residual/attempt‑type clause.
On contracting, the Director of OMB may waive the prohibition where terminating a contract or excluding the covered individual would impose a "unique or undue burden" on the government. Agencies must include clauses in contracts to prevent covered individuals from working on contract efforts.
Taken together, the measures shift screening and compliance burdens onto agencies and contractors, create immediate removal triggers for current employees, and open a narrow administrative escape valve through OMB waivers.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill adds a new §7314 to chapter 73 of title 5 that makes anyone "finally convicted" of a crime of violence ineligible for civil service and requires removal if they hold a position when the conviction becomes final.
It adopts the definition of "crime of violence" in 18 U.S.C. §16 but explicitly excludes the statute’s subsection (b) residual language from coverage.
Federal contracting: the government may not contract with a covered individual or with any entity where a covered individual holds a covered position (service provider, officer/director, or controlling owner).
The OMB Director can grant a waiver if terminating the contract or excluding the individual would create a "unique or undue burden" on the federal government.
The prohibitions apply retroactively to contracts entered before enactment and the FAR must be revised to implement the law within six months.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Designates the Act as the "No Violent Criminals in the Federal Workforce Act." This is purely the naming clause and has no operational effect, but it signals Congress’s intent and frames subsequent interpretive disputes about scope and purpose.
Civil‑service hiring bar and mandatory removal
Inserts a statutory disqualification that renders finally convicted individuals ineligible to accept or hold any position in the civil service and requires agencies to remove employees who become finally convicted. The provision gives precise definition to "final conviction," anchoring the trigger to appeal exhaustion rather than interlocutory judgments, which limits ambiguity about when removal obligations attach. Practically, personnel offices will need procedures for case intake, verification of finality, notice and removal processing, and records handling under existing federal personnel and privacy rules.
Table of sections updated
Makes the statutory code amendment official by adding the new section to the chapter index. This is a housekeeping step required for codification and does not change substantive obligations, but it confirms the bill’s aim to make the hiring bar a permanent statutory change rather than an executive policy.
Procurement prohibitions and waiver authority
Establishes two procurement rules: (1) an absolute prohibition on entering into contracts with covered individuals or entities in which they hold covered positions, and (2) a contractual clause requirement barring covered individuals from working on the contract. The OMB Director retains discretionary authority to waive these prohibitions where termination or exclusion would impose a "unique or undue burden," creating an administrative escape valve but leaving the waiver standard vague and highly fact‑specific.
Definitions, retroactivity, and FAR rewrite deadline
Defines key terms—'covered individual,' 'covered position,' 'crime of violence,' and 'finally convicted'—and makes the procurement ban applicable to past, present, and future contracts. It mandates that the FAR be revised within six months to reflect the new statutory bars, imposing a concrete timeline on procurement rule writers and obligating contracting officers to reconcile existing FAR suspension/debarment regimes with the new absolute statutory disqualification.
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Explore Employment in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Federal HR and security offices — gain a clear statutory standard for excluding and removing employees with qualifying violent convictions, reducing inter‑agency variance in policy.
- Contracting officers and agency procurement teams — receive a statutory tool to insist that contract‑performing personnel meet a uniform eligibility baseline tied to criminal convictions.
- Federal employees and contractors working in safety‑sensitive, law‑enforcement, or national‑security roles — benefit from a legally enforceable exclusion that reduces the risk of co‑worker exposure to individuals with violent criminal histories.
- Members of the public and victims' advocacy groups — obtain a transparent, government‑wide rule that may increase public confidence in who the government hires and contracts with.
Who Bears the Cost
- Individuals with final convictions for crimes of violence — face a blanket statutory bar to federal employment and to forming or controlling contracting entities that do business with the government.
- Federal agencies' HR offices — must establish verification, removal, and appeals‑adjacent procedures, and will likely face case processing burdens and personnel litigation risk.
- Contractors and small businesses — must screen executives, owners, and contract personnel for final convictions and may lose contracts or be forced to restructure ownership; small firms with controlling owners who have qualifying convictions are particularly exposed.
- Office of Management and Budget and FAR councils — must adjudicate waiver requests and rewrite procurement regulations within six months, creating administrative pressure and potential interagency friction over implementation standards.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill forces a trade‑off between the government’s interest in excluding individuals with violent convictions to protect safety and public trust, and competing concerns about rehabilitation, proportionality, due process and the administrative costs and disruptions of enforcing a broad, retroactive eligibility bar across hiring and procurement.
The bill’s literal triggers and definitions create multiple implementation knots. Tying the employment bar and removal trigger to a "final" conviction limits premature removals, but it also creates a period where employees with pending appeals remain in post—raising safety and liability questions.
Agencies will have to reconcile removal authority with civil‑service protections, adverse‑action procedures, and any applicable collective bargaining rules.
On procurement, the statute’s retroactive sweep to existing contracts will pressure contracting officers to either seek OMB waivers, change contract performance (including personnel swaps), or terminate contracts — each option carries operational disruption and potential, costly litigation. The definition of "covered position" sweeps in not only direct contract performers but officers, directors, and controlling owners, which means ownership structures and board compositions will require due diligence and likely restructuring.
The OMB waiver standard—"unique or undue burden"—is intentionally flexible but legally vague, meaning OMB guidance, precedential waiver decisions, or case law will determine how tightly waivers are granted. Finally, requiring a FAR revision in six months sets a tight timeline that may force interim or uneven agency practices while the FAR council and OMB draft a uniform regulatory framework.
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