Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1235) to provide that the term of office of certain members of the Merit Systems Protection Board shall be extended by a period of 1…
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1235) to provide that the term of office of certain members of the Merit Systems Protection Board shall be extended by a period of 1 year, to limit such members from concurrently holding positions within the Federal Government, and for other purposes, as amended.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank House leadership for bringing H.R. 1235, the MSPB Temporary Term Extension Act, so quickly to the floor at the request of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Chairman Cummings and I introduced this bill to prevent a potential crisis at the Merit Systems Protection Board, a vacant Board without any members. Acting Chairman Mark Robbins is and has been the sole member on the Board since January 2017. His holdover term expires at the end of this month, the 28th of February, and it cannot be extended without legislation. We planned to address this issue through regular order, but circumstances arose that prevented us from doing so.
The subcommittee I am going to chair originally scheduled a hearing to examine the problem on February 14, but the hearing was postponed to the end of this month to allow all Members to attend the funerals of our colleagues John Dingell and Walter Jones.
We hoped that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee would take action to address the problem during its business meeting on February 20. Although the Senate committee was able to approve two nominees for the Board, Chairman Johnson indicated he would withhold those nominations from the Senate floor pending the naming of a third nominee by the White House.
The Senate committee was also reportedly working on language to extend Mr. Robbins' holdover term for another year, but no legislation was considered at the markup, thus our action today.
Given these events, it appears less and less likely that the Senate will be able to confirm new Board members before time runs out this Thursday. That is why the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Chairman Cummings and I, introduced this stopgap measure, H.R. 1235, to ensure some work by the MSPB will continue. The legislation will provide a one-time, 1-year extension for Mr. Robbins' term to give the Senate more time to confirm the additional Board members.
This version of the bill before us eliminates the provision prohibiting dual appointments because Mr. Robbins assured us he would continue to recuse himself from working on matters related to OPM and that he would recuse himself from OPM matters that related to votes he had taken at MSPB if this bill is enacted.
This amendment is in response to many of the concerns raised by our Republican friends.
We urgently need to pass this bill because we need to ensure that MSPB can continue its operations. If Mr. Robbins' term expires without new members confirmed, it will be the first time in the agency's history that the Board has no members at all. We will be entering uncharted new territory, and not good territory.
If there is no principal officer to lead the agency, not only is it unclear
which agency functions may continue and which ones must be suspended, but, also, whether the entire agency must shut down completely. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues not to risk that shutdown.
There is a lot at stake here. MSPB protects whistleblowers from retaliation, veterans from job discrimination, and Federal employees from prohibited personnel practices. The agency ensures that the Federal civil service is nonpartisan and complies with the merit system principles.
Since 2017, MSPB has been operating under certain constraints without a quorum on the Board. This has prevented the Board from hearing final appeals of agency adverse actions.
The absence of a quorum has also prevented the Board from issuing special studies of the civil service and reviews of OPM rules and regulations, as is required. This has resulted in a backlog, Mr. Speaker, of 2,000 final appeals which will take more than 3 years to process and eight Merit Systems studies pending issuance by the Board.
The current situation is certainly less than ideal, but let's not make it worse by doing nothing and creating a complete vacancy on the Board.
This would cause decisions made by Mr. Robbins, by the way, to be voided, exacerbating the backlog, and any new Board members who are finally confirmed would have to start again from square one.
We should not and cannot allow that to happen. Addressing the problem should be a bipartisan concern, and I believe it is. We cannot let politics prevent MSPB from doing its job.
The bill in front of us is supported by the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union, the National Federation of Federal Employees, the Government Accountability Project, Public Citizen, Project on Government Oversight, the Make It Safe Coalition, the Senior Executives Association, and the National Taxpayers Union.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record letters of support from those organizations and a coalition of other stakeholders.
American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO,
Washington, DC, February 22, 2019.
Hon. Elijah E. Cummings,
Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Reform,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Jim Jordan,
Ranking Member, House Committee on Oversight and Reform,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Cummings and Ranking Member Jordan: On behalf
of the American Federation of Government Employees. AFL-CIO
(AFGE), I am writing to urge support for the ``Merit Systems
Protection Board (MSPB) Temporary Term Extension Act,''
introduced by Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD). This
legislation would allow the term of the current and only MSPB
member to be extended and avoid having a vacant Board.
An employee may appeal an adverse action to the MSPB, a
third-party agency that hears and adjudicates civil service
appeals. MSPB administrative judges (AJs) hear the matter in
an adversarial setting and decide the case in accordance with
established legal precedents. If dissatisfied with the AJ's
decision. either the agency or the employee may appeal the
decision to the full three Member MSPB. Currently, the Board
does not have a quorum. Mark Robbins is the only member on
the Board and his term expires on February 28, 2019. Robbins'
original term ended in March 2018, and he is currently
serving under a maximum one-year statutory extension.
When Robbins' term expires, the Board will have no
Presidentially-appointed members. The ``MSPB Temporary Term
Extension Act.'' would allow for Robbins to extend his term
for one additional year and avoid having an MSPB with no
members. AFGE believes that the MSPB serves an important role
in upholding the Merit Systems Principles and the rights of
federal employees. Therefore, AFGE strongly urges you to
support the ``MSPB Temporary Term Extension Act.'' to allow a
temporary carryover of the current and only member of the
MSPB. Thank you.
Sincerely,
J. David Cox, Sr.,
National President.
NTEU, The National Treasury Employees Union,
Washington, DC, February 19, 2019.
Hon. Elijah E. Cummings,
Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Reform,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Cummings: On behalf of the National Treasury
Employees Union (NTEU), representing over 150,000 federal
employees in 33 agencies, 1 write to applaud your efforts to
support the important work performed by the Merit Systems
Protection Board (MSBP or Board) and ensure that it can
continue. We believe that your bill, the MSPB Temporary Term
Extension Act, is the appropriate response to address the
impending loss of leadership at the Board.
As you know, Mark Robbins is the Acting Chairman and the
only Member left on the Board. His original term expired last
year and his holdover year will expire on February 28, 2019.
Given the uncertainty regarding the operations of the Board
once Mr. Robbins' term ends, we appreciate that your bill
would temporarily allow Mr. Robbins to remain on the Board
for a short period of time while the President's nominees for
the MSPB undergo Senate consideration. We also appreciate
that the bill stipulates that the individual who would be
allowed to extend their term would be unable to hold another
position in the government at the same time.
NTEU fully supports your carefully crafted temporary
extension bill and we appreciate your efforts to safeguard
the employee protections envisioned in the Civil Service
Reform Act. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Anthony M. Reardon
National President.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 1235, a commonsense stopgap measure to prevent serious injury to hardworking civil servants who expect the Merit Systems Protection Board to function.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Briefly, in responding to my friend: I agree with him. I think we need a full board. Our problem is the Senate. They didn't get around to acting in a timely fashion, and so we are faced with this.
I think it is also important to note that, although a quorum is necessary for most work of MSPB, it isn't necessary for all of it.
So Mr. Robbins, in a caretaker, interim position, can still do some of the work of the board, including issuing stays, reviewing some of the work, and helping to avoid adding to the backlog.
He can't substitute himself fully, obviously, for a quorum in the board. My colleague is quite right about that.
What we are trying to do here is not to compel him or coerce him to stay against his wishes; it is to try to buy some time and have the board at least do some of its basic functions so that we don't come to a complete standstill. That would not be necessary, frankly, had the Senate acted.
I think my friend is right in suggesting that is the ultimate answer, and I would join him in calling on the Senate to act as swiftly as possible. But I think we have no choice but to act on this bill now.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
