Congressional Affairs Specialist

**Duties**:

- Provides information, analysis and guidance on legislative, regulatory, and policy questions; summarizes alternatives for consideration by FDA and HHS policy makers, under the guidance of supervisors.
- Manages all aspects of straight forward Congressional briefing preparations including preparing written and oral testimony and talk papers.
- Prepares draft congressional correspondence, congressional inquiries, agency position papers on legislative proposals of national importance, including those that can affect basic agency authority.
- Prepares agency position papers on legislative proposals of national importance.
- Provides comprehensive analyses, recommendations and presents alternative courses of action.
- Prepares testimony for FDA officials for hearings before Congressional committees relative to FDA programs, activities, legislative position and proposals.
- Prepares, under supervision, responses to priority correspondence and inquiries from the Congress, the White House, the Secretary, the Commissioner and other Administration officials.
- Serves as a focal point for contact with Members of Congress and their committees and staffs, caucuses and individual members offices to identify interests and concerns of Congress and to explain FDA's policies and procedures.

**Requirements**:
**Conditions of Employment**:

- Citizenship Requirement: You must be a U.S. Citizen to be considered for this advertisement unless explicitly stated otherwise.
- FDA participates in e-Verify: All new hires must complete the I-9 form; this information will be processed through e-Verify to determine your employment eligibility. If a discrepancy arises, you must take affirmative steps to resolve the matter.
- You must meet ALL requirements by the closing date of this announcement to be considered. Only education, experience, and qualifications attained by this date will be considered. You must continue to meet all requirements through the hiring process.
- Direct Deposit: You will be required to have all federal salary payments electronically deposited into a bank account with a financial institution of your choice.
- Additional selections may be made from this vacancy, within the same geographical area, by other organizational elements from within FDA, through shared corporate recruiting activities.

**Qualifications**:

- The position of Congressional Affairs Specialist falls under the 0301 occupational series. To qualify for this position at grade GS-11/12, you must meet all requirements by 11:59 pm EST on 04/19/2024.
- **MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS**:
Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. The specialized experience must demonstrate one year of full-time work experience, or the equivalent if part-time (for example, an employee working 20 hours per week for a 12-month period should be credited with 6 months of experience.). Experience may have been obtained in either the federal service or its equivalent with state or local government, the private sector, or nongovernmental organizations.
- **GS-11**: You must possess one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 or equivalent band level of responsibility in the Federal service which includes experience assisting in the conducting of legislative and/or congressional outreach activities; researching policies; drafting briefing materials; -OR
Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related; -OR
Combination of specialized experience and graduate level education in a field related to the duties of this position that meets 100% of the qualification requirements for this position.
- **GS-12**:You must possess one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 level or equivalent band level of responsibility in the Federal service which includes experience conducting legislative and/or congressional outreach activities; drafting and developing congressional correspondence; analyzing legislation and coordinating briefings.- **IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from MM/YY to MM/YY) and the number of hours worked per week if part time. As qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. Applicants are encouraged to use the USAJOBS Resume Builder to develop their federal resume.**
- Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National