CNMI Government Veterans Preference

The CNMI Government Veterans' Preference Act of 2023, Public Law 23-05 of August 1, 2023, gave the Commonwealth its first civil service veterans preference. Read the numbers before you rely on it. Under 1 CMC § 8702, a preference eligible who applies through Preferential Credit of Qualification Evaluation for entrance into the civil service under the Commonwealth Civil Service Act is entitled to additional points above their rating: two points for a preference eligible as defined at 5 U.S.C. § 2108(3)(C)-(G), and one point for a preference eligible as defined at 5 U.S.C. § 2108(3)(A)-(B). Those two federal brackets are the familiar ten-point and five-point categories. Paragraph (3)(A)-(B) covers the veteran who served in a war, campaign or expedition, or during the Gulf War window; paragraphs (C) through (G) cover the veteran with a service-connected disability or a Purple Heart, and the derived categories of a disabled veteran's spouse, an unremarried widow or widower, and a mother of a deceased or disabled veteran. Federally they are worth ten points and five points. In the Commonwealth they are worth two and one. That is one fifth of the federal weight, and one fifth of what Guam awards under 4 GCA § 4104, what American Samoa's personnel rules award, and what most states in this catalog award. The legislature's own findings in Public Law 23-05 said it was "cognizant of such efforts by the different states and territories," named Guam, Florida and California, and said "it is imperative that the CNMI implement its own form of veterans' preference." The form it implemented is a fifth as heavy. This catalog records the figures because a veteran who reads "veterans preference" and pictures the federal scheme will overestimate what it does on a competitive register. The definition is by dynamic reference, which is unusual and helpful. Section 8701 defines preference eligible "identically as at 5 U.S.C. §§ 2108(3)-(4) and 2108a(c) as they may be amended," so when Congress widens the federal categories the Commonwealth's widen with them and no local bill is needed. Section 2108a(c) is the provision covering members of the reserve components and the National Guard for preference purposes. Three limits to note. The preference attaches to entrance into the civil service through the preferential credit evaluation, not to promotion. The Office of Personnel Management may revise the administration of the section by regulation, and under § 8703 it is directed to promulgate regulations implementing the preference in civil service examination, so the operating detail lives in OPM rules rather than in the statute. And unlike Guam, the Commonwealth has no statutory tiebreaker giving a preference holder the first offer when two candidates are equally qualified. Ask the Office of Personnel Management for the current regulation and for how the preferential credit evaluation is scored before assuming a point or two will move you on a list.