5 U.S.C. § 7511 — Definitions; application

(a) Definitions (1) "Employee" means: (A) someone in the competitive service who either (i) is not serving a probationary or trial period under their first appointment, or (ii) has completed 1 year of continuous current service under something other than a temporary appointment limited to 1 year or less; (B) a "preference eligible" (a veteran with hiring preference) in the excepted service who has completed 1 year of continuous current service in the same or similar positions in an Executive agency, the United States Postal Service, or the Postal Regulatory Commission; and (C) someone else in the excepted service (without preference-eligible status) who either (i) is not serving a probationary or trial period leading toward the competitive service, or (ii) has completed 2 years of continuous current service in the same or similar Executive agency positions under something other than a temporary appointment limited to 2 years or less. (2) "Suspension" has the same meaning given in section 7501(2) of this title. (3) "Grade" means a level of classification under a position classification system. (4) "Pay" means the rate of basic pay fixed by law or administrative action for the employee's position. (5) "Furlough" means placing an employee in a temporary status without duties and without pay, because of lack of work or funds or for other nondisciplinary reasons. (b) This subchapter does not apply to an employee: (1) appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate; (2) whose position the President, the Office of Personnel Management, or an agency head has determined to be confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating, and excepted from the competitive service; (3) appointed directly by the President; (4) receiving an annuity from the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund or the Foreign Service Retirement and Disability Fund, based on that employee's own service; (5) [Repealed by Public Law 114–328, a 2016 law.]; (6) who is a member of the Foreign Service, as described in section 103 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980; (7) whose position is with the Central Intelligence Agency or the Government Accountability Office; (8) whose position is with the United States Postal Service, Postal Regulatory Commission, Panama Canal Commission, Tennessee Valley Authority, FBI, a Defense Department intelligence component, or a military department's intelligence activity — unless the employee qualifies through (a)(1)(B) or a related provision in section 1005(a) of title 39; (9) described in section 5102(c)(11) of this title; or (10) in a Veterans Health Administration position excluded from the competitive service under title 38 — unless the employee was appointed under section 7401(3) of that title. (c) The Office of Personnel Management may extend this subchapter's coverage, by regulation, to any position or group of positions it has excepted from the competitive service and that isn't otherwise covered.