Secretary may appoint a former Federal employee under paragraph (1) to a position at a higher grade or with more promotion potential than the position previously held by the former Federal employee without regard to section 335.103(c)(1)(vi) of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations (relating to requirements for competitive procedures), or any successor thereto. (b) Definition In this section, the term former Federal employee means an individual who— (1) before the date on which the individual is appointed to a position under subsection (a)(1), performed service as an employee, as defined in section 2105 of title 5, under a career or career-conditional appointment