In today’s news and commentary, new Trump administration rules will remove the Merit Systems Protection Board’s independence, a suspended CFPB union leader alleges retaliation, and the National Treasury Employees Union requires its members to pay dues as it battles to stay financially afloat.
First, new rules from the Trump administration set to take effect next month will strip the Merit Systems Protection Board of its independence. Under the new rules, the Office of Personnel Management will take over MSPB appeals involving probationary terminations, suitability determinations, and reduction-in-force layoffs, and will bar workers from appealing those decisions to federal court. The Trump administration has eroded the authority of the MSPB, the independent agency created after Watergate to shield civil servants from political reprisal, through technical changes, legal reinterpretations, and court decisions. The MSPB quietly removed the word “independent” from its website following the Supreme Court’s Trump v. Slaughter decision, and the White House’s new Schedule Policy/Career reclassification took away 4,800 workers’ rights bring a challenge before the board. “Through different means, the prior jurisdiction of the MSPB is being chipped away,” said Cathy Harris, the former Democratic MSPB chair fired in February 2025. “Pretty soon you’re left with a block of melted ice.”
Next, the Trump administration is being accused of retaliation after placing Stephen Wheeler, a data...
False. The quotes attributed to the politicians have been fabricated by a foreign-run disinformation operation. AAP FactCheck - Pauline Hanson and Anthony Albanese did not trade barbs during a liv...