MSPB Backlog May See Relief This Year

There has been some movement in the Senate on confirming MSPB nominees. At the moment, many cases are still frozen due to the lack of a quorum at the agency.

It has been 25 months since there was a quorum at the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB or Board). This means that any Petition for Review filed with the MSPB is sitting in a file at the agency. Until there is a quorum, no decisions will be made.

There is now some progress being made on the nominations, although the process still has a way to go.

Two Nominees to MSPB Voted Out of Committee

Two nominees to the Board,  Dennis Dean Kirk (chair) and Julia Clark have been voted out of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. The full Senate may not vote on the nominees until a third nominee is named. There was a third nominee, Andrew Maunz, but he has recently withdrawn his name from consideration.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee did not take action on nominations of the three new members of the MSPB during the last Congressional session. Currently, there is one MSPB Member. That is the Acting Chairman, Mark A. Robbins. Robbins is also the General Counsel for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has introduced a bill to extend the holdover term of the Acting MSPB Chairman to two years. Whether this bill will be passed and would have any impact on the current situation at the MSPB remains to be seen.

FedSmith will keep readers updated as events occur on this.

About the Author

Ralph Smith has several decades of experience working with federal human resources issues. He has written extensively on a full range of human resources topics in books and newsletters and is a co-founder of two companies and several newsletters on federal human resources. Follow Ralph on Twitter: @RalphSmith47