Advancing Skills-Based Hiring Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Advancing Skills-Based Hiring Act builds a voluntary compliance-assistance program at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for employment tests and selection procedures. Employers may submit validity evidence for competency-based assessments or other professionally developed selection tools, even before there is an adverse-impact finding. The EEOC must review the evidence, determine whether the assessment is job-related and consistent with business necessity, or explain what changes would allow that determination. The bill also directs education and technical assistance on validation methods and defines competency-based assessment as a tool measuring knowledge, skills, abilities, or behavioral characteristics tied to successful job performance.
Who Benefits and How
Employers using skills-based hiring benefit because they can obtain an EEOC determination before relying on a test in employment decisions. Human resources compliance teams benefit from clearer validation expectations for criterion-related, content, construct, or transportability studies. Job applicants benefit if selection tests are better validated for actual job requirements and business necessity. Workers from protected groups benefit because submissions must include available adverse-impact information.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission must build the voluntary submission, review, determination, and technical-assistance process. Participating employers must pay the required fee and submit validity evidence, including adverse-impact information where available. Employment testing vendors may face stronger pressure to support validation studies and defensible assessment design. Civil rights litigants may need to account for EEOC determinations when challenging or defending selection procedures.
Key Provisions
- Establishes an EEOC process for voluntary employer submission of assessment validity evidence.
- Requires EEOC determinations on job-relatedness and business necessity or technical assistance explaining deficiencies.
- Provides education and technical assistance on employment-test validation methods.
- Defines competency-based assessment and sets a 90-day effective date.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates a voluntary EEOC process for employers to submit validation evidence for competency-based assessments and receive determinations or technical assistance on job-relatedness and business necessity.
Key Policy Areas
Labor, Civil Rights, Employment Testing
Primary Purpose
Creates a voluntary EEOC process for employers to submit validation evidence for competency-based assessments and receive determinations or technical assistance on job-relatedness and business necessity.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Employers using skills-based hiring
- Human resources compliance teams
- Job applicants
- Workers from protected groups
Identified Costs
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Participating employers
- Employment testing vendors
- Civil rights litigants
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMs. Stefanik introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Employers using skills-based hiring, Human resources compliance teams, Job applicants
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology