The Department of Justice (DOJ) has cleared the way for the federal government to hire technologists who remain financially connected to their private-sector employers – a decision that could smooth the path for the government’s new US Tech Force initiative.
In a newly released opinion, the DOJ concluded that individuals entering federal service may retain certain forms of deferred compensation from their private-sector employers – including unvested restricted stock units – while serving in government under specific circumstances.
Ethics laws should not “creat[e] wholly unnecessary obstacles to recruiting qualified people for government service,” the opinion says.
In a recent blog, Kevin Hennecken, a senior advisor at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), said the DOJ decision “is a modest, but powerful step for two key reasons.”
“First, it is binding on the executive branch, providing companies, individuals, and agencies assurance they can proceed confidently within the law,” Hennecken said, adding, “Second, it creates new flexibility across government to design programs that attract private-sector talent for term appointments.”
The decision arrives as OPM pushes forward with the US Tech Force initiative – which the agency launched in December – that aims to recruit roughly 1,000 technologists to serve across federal agencies.
Participants are expected to work on high-priority technology modernization efforts, including artificial intelligence, software development, and data initiatives, through two-year employment terms.
OPM said it has partnered with about 25 top private technology companies on the program.
The initial list of private sector partners includes Adobe, Amazon Web Services, AMD, Anduril, Apple, Box, C3.ai, Coinbase, Databricks, Dell Technologies, Docusign, Google Public Sector, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Oracle, Palantir, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Snowflake, Robinhood, Uber, Workday, xAI, and Zoom.
By clarifying the ethics rules surrounding deferred compensation, the DOJ opinion looks to remove a significant barrier for candidates who might otherwise hesitate to leave the private sector to take temporary government roles.