By: Stephanie Rapp-Tully, Esq., for Tully Rinckey PLLC
Last month marked the fifth straight year the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) has lacked a quorum. Since the spring of 2019, the quasi-judicial body that protects federal employees from unlawful employment practices such as discrimination and whistleblower retaliation has been without a single member on its three-person board. While MSPB Administrative Judges can still issue initial decisions, if an agency or employee files a petition for review of that decision, the Board cannot issue a decision, even a nonprecedential one, leaving many employees, including those who have suffered reprisal for whistleblowing, in legal limbo. An estimated 3,600 petitions for review currently sit in a backlog.
Although last year President Biden made three nominations for the Board—Cathy Harris, Raymond Limon, and Tristan Leavitt—each nominee must be confirmed by the full Senate before serving on the Board. Back in October, the U.S Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted to advance all three nominees; however, a full Senate vote was not held before the end of the calendar year. The nominations of Limon and Leavitt have been carried over into 2022 with bipartisan support; however, Harris will have to be renominated by President Biden.
With all three seats available but only two needed to establish a quorum, many federal employees are hopeful that this unprecedented and unwanted logjam will be broken...
CNN is defending its reporting on a statement given by Iranian officials regarding a ceasefire agreement the U.S. and Iran reached just hours before President Trump was set to launch an attack on ...