Bill to scrap education requirements in federal contracting jobs heads to Trump’s desk

A bill to eliminate educational requirements in federal contracting jobs unanimously passed the Senate late Wednesday night, putting the legislation a presidential signature away from becoming law.

The Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act (H.R. 5235), led by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and co-sponsored by Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, cleared the House in February and advanced out of committee in the upper chamber in August.

The bill would ban federal agencies from putting minimum education standards into contract solicitations — unless the agency includes a written explanation showing why those requirements are critical to the mission. 

“This opens up thousands of jobs to people who deserve them, and so it is a jobs bill,” Mace said in a press briefing Thursday. “It is a middle-class American workers bill. If you have the skills, you should get the job.”

Mace, who’s retiring from Congress at the end of this term, said the bill will be transmitted to the White House within “the next couple of days” or “up to a week.” She said she hasn’t gotten any indication yet whether President Donald Trump will sign the bill into law or veto it, but getting the legislation through both chambers “is a huge step.”

“So, step one is done,” she said. “Now it’s step two, and we’ll know in the next couple of days where this is headed.”

The legislation has roots in the technology space. Mace on Thursday recounted the origin story of the bill: congressional testimony in January 2024 from an IBM executive who said “federal contractors are rarely able to place an individual without a four-year degree on a technology services contract, regardless of their qualifications.”

The conversation, Mace told reporters, centered around the federal government’s “arduous red tape” and “how painful and inexpensive it is for companies to try to fulfill these contracts in a meaningful and efficient way.”

“So this is really a blue-collar worker, middle-class, working middle-class bill,” the South Carolina Republican said. “It’s nonpartisan. It had wide support, unanimous support from both Republicans and Democrats alike. It is not partisan. It is not political. It puts South Carolina workers and American workers first. It puts America first.”