Senate panel advances third MSPB nominee
The Merit System Protection Board is getting closer to having a quorum of confirmed officials in place to begin chipping away at its backlog of more than 2,000 appeals.
The Merit System Protection Board is one step closer to getting a quorum to clear its backlog of more than 2,000 appeals.
The agency has been operating without a quorum for more than two years and without any Senate-confirmed leadership at all since March.
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee advanced the nomination of B. Chad Bungard to serve as an MSPB member June 19. With that approval, the Senate now has three candidates for the MSPB awaiting confirmation votes. Dennis Dean Kirk was tapped to lead the board and Julia Akins Clark was nominated to serve as a member.
MSPB's three-member board reviews federal workforce merit principles and adjudicates appeals. Its mission is to protect civil servants from political interference, cronyism and discrimination. The board has lacked a quorum since Jan. 7, 2017, leaving it unable to issue decisions that require a vote.
While MSPB's cadre of administrative judges can issue rulings, these only take effect if there is no appeal from either side. As of the end of May, there is a backlog of 2,151 appeals facing the agency.