The federal government disclosed a proposal that would curtail the appeal rights available to federal workers who are fired, replacing the existing independent review process with an internal channel overseen by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
According to the plan released by OPM, employees who lose their positions would no longer take dismissal disputes to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Instead, they would be required to pursue appeals through the OPM itself. The OPM director serves in a position that reports directly to President Donald Trump.
This modification would shift the locus of employment dispute resolution from an independent administrative board to an executive branch agency under presidential authority. Advocates of the change argue it places decision-making within the agency responsible for personnel policy, while critics would note it represents a transfer of review power away from a separate, independent body.
The proposal also ties into the administration's stated priorities for federal workforce reductions. President Trump has framed large-scale cuts to government staffing as a central objective of his second term, and the proposed rule would be consistent with that broader agenda.
Officials presenting the plan described it as a revision of the procedural path available to dismissed federal employees. The specific mechanics would replace the Merit Systems Protection Board appeals process with a route administered by OPM, consolidating oversight of personnel disputes within an agency directly connected to the White House.
The change would constitute a notable alteration in the architecture of federal employment protections, because it would relocate appeals from an entity designed to be independent to an office whose leadership answers to the president. The proposal therefore raises questions about the institutional separation between adjudicatory review and executive oversight.
At this stage, the plan is a proposal from OPM and would require the usual rulemaking and implementation steps before taking effect. The administration has presented the move as aligned with its broader effort to shrink the size of the federal government and implement personnel reforms consistent with that goal.
Summary
The Office of Personnel Management has proposed ending federal employees' ability to appeal firings to the Merit Systems Protection Board, instead directing such appeals to OPM, whose director reports to President Trump. The shift would transfer review authority from an independent board to an executive branch agency and fits with the administration's emphasis on reducing federal employment.