Federal Policy Action Hub
A practitioner-first guide to the executive orders, agency strategies, congressional bills, and oversight reports driving Learning and Employment Records, talent marketplaces, and the alignment of education and workforce outcomes — and how to action each of them today on the LER.me platform.
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Section 1 · Executive Orders
Six executive orders, one proclamation, and one DOGE workforce optimization initiative — together replacing four-year-degree hiring screens with verifiable, citizen-owned skills evidence. Here's what each EO requires and how to action it through the LER.me platform.
Created the National Council for the American Worker (NCAW) and the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board (AWPAB). The AWPAB Digital Infrastructure Working Group went on to author the foundational federal LER white papers.
Directed federal agencies to replace degree-based hiring with skills- and competency-based hiring, restricting the use of minimum educational requirements unless legally required, and requiring assessment of actual skills and competencies. The foundational federal mandate for skills-based hiring and the policy context in which LERs were first surfaced as a federal priority.
Expanded the use of Registered Apprenticeships across federal employment and federally funded projects, established a multi-agency working group to improve apprenticeship pathways, and re-established federal labor-management forums. Rescinded by the Trump Administration in March 2025.
Directed development of a Federal Hiring Plan emphasizing skills, practical ability, and constitutional commitment; required implementation of technical, skills-based assessments; and rescinded prior DEIA-related hiring orders.
Set the framework for federal workforce reduction and the four-to-one separation/hire ratio that frames the talent strategy described in subsequent OPM/OMB memoranda.
Directs the Secretaries of Labor, Education, and Commerce to (a) review all federal workforce development programs within 90 days, (b) submit within 120 days a plan to reach and surpass 1 million new active apprentices, (c) identify alternative credentials and assessments to the four-year college degree, and (d) improve transparency of credential and program performance outcomes. Foundational to the alignment of education and workforce outcomes under the current administration.
Required agency Strategic Hiring Committees, Annual Staffing Plans, and continued OPM/OMB oversight of merit-hiring implementation. Operationalized via the Continued Accountability OPM/OMB joint memorandum.
Proclamation explicitly references the Connecting Talent to Opportunity Challenge and the goal of building talent marketplaces and a national skills currency that translates learning into recognized value in the labor market. Notable as a White House proclamation tying community colleges, LERs, and talent marketplace policy together.
Section 2 · White Papers
Two white papers from the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board defined the federal vision for Learning and Employment Records: verifiable, portable, learner-controlled, and interoperable. The LER.me platform delivers each of these qualities in production today.
First federal-level white paper to formally identify Learning and Employment Records as a novel but technically feasible technology for connecting verified credentials and experience among workers, employers, and education providers. Recommended creation of an LER Inventory and limited-scope pilots.
Authored by AWPAB's Digital Infrastructure Working Group with the U.S. Department of Commerce. The principal federal reference document on LERs. Defines core qualities (verifiable, portable, learner-controlled, interoperable), describes the LER ecosystem, presents pilot results from IBM, Walmart, and Salesforce, and makes recommendations for federal and state action. Frequently cited in subsequent agency guidance and proposed legislation.
Source: Department of Commerce: full white paper (2020) · T3 Network Hub overview and links to both papers
Section 3 · Agency Strategy
The 2025–2026 federal LER mandate runs through this section: America's Talent Strategy, the $15M Connecting Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge, OCTAE Program Memorandum 26-3, the ED–DOL partnership, and the OPM Merit Hiring Plan and U.S. Tech Force.
Joint strategic plan from the U.S. Departments of Labor, Commerce, and Education that explicitly aligns federal investment with industry-driven workforce outcomes. Built around five pillars: Industry-Driven Strategies, Worker Mobility, Integrated Systems, Accountability, and Flexibility and Innovation. Calls for a Credentials of Value scorecard, an AI Workforce Hub, AI literacy framework, and consolidation of workforce programs into a Make America Skilled Again (MASA) state grant.
Economy Act (31 U.S.C. § 1535) Interagency Agreement under which DOL administers day-to-day operations of ED's Perkins V CTE and WIOA Title II Adult Education programs, while ED retains statutory authority. Operationalizes the integration directed by the workforce executive orders.
Source: ED press release: initial implementation announcement · ED December 2025 update: successful-implementation update
The first federal funding mechanism to explicitly require Learning and Employment Records, a credential registry, and skills-based job description generators as core components of state Talent Marketplaces. $15M total over multiple phases. Eligible applicants are state Governors. Applications close April 30, 2026; semifinalists receive technical assistance during a six-month incubation phase. The Challenge defines a Talent Marketplace as a public digital system administered by a State Workforce Agency that integrates an LER, a Credential Registry, and a Skills-Based Job Description generator, leveraging AI to translate, transcribe, and transact learning assertions, job descriptions, and credentials as discrete competency statements.
Source: ED press release: launch announcement · ED Homeroom Blog: detailed Challenge description · OCTAE announcement
Direct ED guidance to states urging combined WIOA Combined State Plans that integrate Perkins V. The memo's definition of Talent Marketplace references LERs, Credential Registries, and skills-based job description generators verbatim from the CTO Challenge — making this the operational policy guidance for states pursuing CTO awards.
Source: OCTAE memo PDF: Memorandum 26-3 full text · OCTAE memoranda index
DOL transmittal of OCTAE Program Memorandum 26-3 to the entire public workforce system — distributing the unified-talent-development guidance to State Workforce Agencies, Workforce Boards, American Job Centers, ETA grantees, community colleges, and State Apprenticeship Agencies.
Source: DOL ETA: TEN 08-25 publication
Encourages states to use WIOA waivers (Out-of-School Youth/In-School Youth mix, 90% On-the-Job Training, transitional jobs, Incumbent Worker Training) to advance integrated talent development without waiting for WIOA reauthorization.
Source: DOL ETA Advisories index
DOL framework for AI literacy, developed pursuant to America's Talent Strategy and EO 14278's directive on incumbent-worker upskilling for AI.
Operationalizes integration of WIOA and Perkins V planning processes.
Joint plan from the White House Domestic Policy Council and OPM implementing EO 14170. Codifies the 80-day time-to-hire goal, agency Talent Teams, Talent Pool Managers, Shared Certificate Coordinators, the Rule of Many, and a federal dashboard tracking compliance. Implements technical-assessment requirements from the bipartisan Chance to Compete Act (2024).
Establishes the U.S. Tech Force program — a 1,000-person government-wide technologist pipeline using shared certificates and skills-based assessments. Coordinated through OPM, OMB, GSA, NSF, OSTP, and the White House.
Source: OPM: memorandum text (PDF)
Final rule implementing flexibility provisions of the Chance to Compete Act of 2024. Allows agencies to use technical/skills assessments to rank candidates and select from broader pools (top X percent, top N applicants, pass/fail thresholds).
Source: OPM CHCOC memos page
Federal grant notice that explicitly incentivizes EOC projects integrating learning and employment records (LERs) with AI-enabled learner wallets and expanding access to talent marketplaces composed of credential registries, skills based job description generators, and LERs. First time the LER/talent-marketplace stack appears as a competitive priority in a TRIO program.
$175M in funding aligned with America's Talent Strategy; jointly administered by DOL/ETA on behalf of ED through the interagency agreement. Uses Absolute Priority structure to push grantees toward Registered Apprenticeship and short-term postsecondary credentials.
Source: ED Talent Search: program page
Section 4 · Legislation
Every major federal workforce bill of the 118th and 119th Congresses assumes the same data backbone: portable citizen-owned LERs, aligned credential registries, eligibility calculators, and outcomes-grade credential reporting. Here's how to be ready for each one.
The principal vehicle for WIOA reauthorization. Passed the U.S. House in April 2024 (118th Congress); died in the Senate. Reintroduced in 2026. Expands accepted credential criteria to include on-the-job experience and non-traditional learning; strengthens performance accountability with credential-level outcomes data; creates a Critical Industry Skills Fund and a 50% training-spend mandate (House version); proposes moving Adult Education and Family Literacy Act programs from ED to DOL.
Amends WIOA to require states to identify or develop assessments measuring an individual's prior knowledge, skills, competencies, and experiences; and to help individuals communicate their skills to employers through skills-based resumes, profiles, or portfolios — language that maps directly onto LER use cases. Reintroduced from H.R. 6166 (118th Congress).
Bill to require the Secretary of Labor to establish a grant program for states to improve or establish credential registries — directly aligned with the credential-registry component of LER ecosystems and Talent Marketplaces.
Establishes a privacy-protected postsecondary student data system at NCES with periodic data matches across federal agencies. Provides post-completion outcome data — earnings, employment, further education — by program of study and credential level. Foundational data infrastructure for comparing credential value, the type of data Talent Marketplaces depend on. Bipartisan support across multiple Congresses.
Source: Congress.gov: H.R. 2957 (118th) · Congress.gov: S. 839 (117th)
Extends federal Pell Grants to high-quality, short-term workforce training programs (8–15 weeks). Passed as a component of subsequent legislation; eligibility goes live July 1, 2026. Quality framework requires programs to demonstrate placement and earnings outcomes — the same data backbone needed for credential transparency and LER ecosystems.
Bipartisan law (enacted December 2024) requiring federal agencies to embed skills-based recruitment and technical assessments in hiring practices, share certificates of eligibles across agencies, and reduce reliance on self-assessments. Operationalized through OPM's Merit Hiring Plan and Rule of Many regulation.
Amends WIOA to provide greater flexibility for incumbent-worker training programs, supporting upskilling and continuous learning that aligns with LER and credential transparency objectives.
Source: Congress.gov: S. 3877 bill text
Senate HELP Committee bill to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act. Includes provisions directing ED's research efforts to use linked, open, and interoperable data standards — the technical foundation underlying LERs and credential registries.
Bill addressing federal cyber workforce training pipelines; aligned with the broader skills-based hiring agenda and the U.S. Tech Force.
Maintains separate WIOA accounts and rejects the Make America Skilled Again (MASA) consolidation proposed in America's Talent Strategy. Continues Title II (AEFLA), keeps Job Corps open under federal injunction, and maintains existing federal workforce program structure pending WIOA reauthorization.
Section 5 · CRS & GAO Oversight
CRS and GAO reports document the federal skills-gap and assessment-capacity problems the LER.me platform was built to solve. Auditable, verifiable evidence of worker skills replaces self-assessments and degree screens.
Congressional Research Service report describing the OPM Merit Hiring Plan, federal hiring freeze, EO 14210 (DOGE), and skills-based assessments in the federal hiring process. A useful overview of the policy stack on skills-based federal hiring.
Source: Congress.gov CRS: full report
Government Accountability Office report identifying critical skills gaps in the federal workforce — cited in OPM's U.S. Tech Force memorandum to justify expanded skills-based hiring.
Section 6 · Policy References
The Bipartisan Policy Center, the National Governors Association, and the Competency-Based Education Network call for portable LERs, recognized skills frameworks, a Talent Advisory Council, a national Talent Data System, and four governance building blocks for state-led Talent Marketplaces. EBSCOed and LER.me deliver these in production today — and EBSCOed is named in the C-BEN/NGA Building Talent Marketplaces acknowledgments.
Although issued by a non-government commission, this report explicitly recommends federal action to support skills frameworks and Learning and Employment Records (LERs) so workers earn portable credentials recognized across employers and states. It also recommends Congressional creation of a Talent Advisory Council and Talent Data System. Influential bipartisan reference document for federal LER policy advocacy.
National Governors Association project documenting state-level LER deployment use cases. Frequently cited in federal CTO Challenge planning.
Source: NGA: project page
Joint guide from the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) and the National Governors Association, in collaboration with leaders from 20 states, Tribal nations, territories, and regions. Reproduces the federal Talent Marketplace, Learning and Employment Record, Credential Registry, and Skills-Based Job Description Generator definitions verbatim; outlines four governance building blocks (codified cross-agency governance, quality data and technology infrastructure, incentives and policy alignment, public trust and stewardship); and details state exemplars including the Alabama Talent Triad (the nation's first Talent Marketplace), Arkansas LAUNCH, the Navajo Nation Tribal Talent Marketplace, the Kentucky Graduate Profile, Puerto Rico skills-based public-sector hiring, Tennessee competency-based teacher pathways, and Illinois early childhood sector governance. The guide also recommends aligning WIOA, Perkins V, and Workforce Funding Program dollars to talent marketplace adoption, plus interstate reciprocity protocols for portable skills records. EBSCOed's Greg DiDonato is named in the acknowledgments. Funded by the Walmart Foundation.
Source: C-BEN / NGA: Building Talent Marketplaces (PDF, February 2026) · Center for Skills by C-BEN
A Learning and Employment Record is a verifiable, portable, learner-controlled, and interoperable digital record of an individual's learning, skills, and employment evidence. The 2020 American Workforce Policy Advisory Board white paper is the foundational federal definition. The LER.me platform delivers all four qualities in production today, with the citizen — not the system — owning the record for life.
Per the U.S. Department of Education's Connecting Talent to Opportunity Challenge and OCTAE Program Memorandum 26-3, a Talent Marketplace is a public digital system administered by a State Workforce Agency that integrates a Learning and Employment Record (LER), a Credential Registry, and a Skills-Based Job Description generator. AI translates, transcribes, and transacts learning assertions, job descriptions, and credentials as discrete competency statements.
The CTO Challenge (December 2025), OCTAE Program Memorandum 26-3 (February 2026), the Educational Opportunity Centers FY 2026 Notice, the AWPAB white papers (2019, 2020), America's Talent Strategy (August 2025), and the H.R. 1446 Validate Prior Learning Act all reference LERs explicitly.
Effective July 1, 2026, the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act extends Pell Grants to high-quality short-term workforce training programs (8–15 weeks). Programs must demonstrate placement and earnings outcomes — the same outcomes data that talent marketplaces and LER ecosystems require. LER.me Workforce Eligibility ships 40+ pre-filled eligibility calculators, including Workforce Pell.
EBSCOed and LER.me can stand up a CTO-compliant Talent Marketplace stack — LER + Credential Registry + skills-based job description generator — within the six-month CTO incubation phase. Professional services tailor the platform to existing state workforce systems.
EBSCOed and LER.me deliver the citizen-owned Learning and Employment Records, credential registry, and talent marketplace federal policy now requires.