The delegation is a fill-up-the-details delegation because the overtime statute is silent regarding the formalities for overtime to be officially approved.
Affirming a lower court’s dismissal of a claim concerning overtime brought by a registered nurse who worked for the Indian Health Service, a divided Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, determined that the overtime writing requirement found in 5 C.F.R. § 550.111(c) was a valid exercise of the OPM’s rulemaking authority in light of the statutory requirement in 5 U.S.C. § 5542(a) that the government pay overtime “officially ordered or approved.” In a dissent, Judge Stoll, joined by Judges Reyna, Cunningham, and Stark, argued that it is up to Congress, not OPM, to impose a writing requirement and that the court should not defy the command of Loper Bright that the reviewing court, not the agency whose actions it reviews, should decide all relevant questions of law and statutory provisions (Lesko v. United States, No. 2023-1823 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 12, 2025)).
The plaintiff in this case worked as a registered nurse for the Indian Health Service (IHS) for eight months during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, she alleged that supervisors and managers regularly required nurses to stay after hours and work without compensation to meet patient demands.
Lawsuit. After resigning from the IHS, the nurse filed a complaint for a class action suit which included five counts alleging the nurse and other similarly situated nurses...
This Alert provides a summary and takeaways from the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent announcement of False Claims Act (FCA) recoveries for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. FY 2025 saw record-breakin...