Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Oversight and Reform’s government operations subcommittee, and Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., ranking member of the House subpanel, have called on President Biden to nominate members to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).
“Without a quorum, the MSPB is unable to act on claims of whistleblower retaliation and is at risk of essentially having to cease its operations,” the lawmakers wrote in an April 5th letter to Biden.
Hice and Connolly said MSPB has lacked a quorum since Jan. 2017 and has been without a single member on the board since March 2019, resulting in a backlog of over 3,000 cases filed by federal employees.
The lawmakers said cases pending in federal courts could jeopardize the ability of MSPB’s administrative judges to issue initial decisions on employees’ appeals if the board fails to assemble a quorum to provide the judges with the required authorities to carry out their duties.
“Once your nominations are made, we trust that the Senate will work quickly to confirm the qualified candidates to the MSPB and restore the Board to full operations,” the letter reads.
