Trump administration proposes rule that destroys federal workers’ legal rights, handing their future over to the very people who fired them

The Trump administration has proposed a sweeping new rule that would strip federal workers of their fundamental right to challenge their firings before an independent board and block them from taking their case to federal court entirely, as reported by The Hill. This is a massive shift, and honestly, it looks like another step backward for employee protection.

The new proposed regulation would specifically affect federal employees terminated through a Reduction in Force, or RIF, which is the process 22 different agencies used last year when the administration conducted widespread layoffs. If this rule is finalized, any worker fired in a future RIF wouldn’t be able to plead their case before the quasi-judicial Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

That’s a huge deal because the MSPB is an independent body that actually found some agencies had “engaged in a prohibited personnel practice” when they fired workers last year. Instead, the power to review these challenges would be moved to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). If that name sounds familiar, it should. Last year, OPM, along with the Office of Management and Budget, was the group that instructed agencies to start those RIFs in the first place.

You’re effectively taking the appeal process away from an independent judge and handing it directly to the people who ordered the layoffs

Under the new plan, fired workers wouldn’t even be guaranteed a hearing unless OPM specifically ordered one. Currently, federal workers who disagree with an MSPB decision can appeal that ruling in federal court, but the new rule would eliminate that possibility too. OPM defended this move, stating that there is “little added value from the review that an Article III court could provide relative to OPM’s adjudicatory venue.” Essentially, they’re saying they know better than a federal judge, which is a bold claim.

Union leaders are understandably furious about this development. Everett Kelley, who is the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal worker union, said that eliminating independent review of RIF actions would not only make it harder for employees to challenge their proposed terminations, but it “would essentially give the administration free rein to terminate huge swaths of the federal workforce without meaningful independent oversight.”

Kelley stressed that this is part of a larger plan, stating, “This is all part of a deliberate attempt to dismantle the nonpartisan civil service.” He argued that these actions unlawfully concentrate removal authority in OPM and directly undermine the statutory framework that Congress established to ensure an independent, professional, and nonpartisan civil service.

OPM, for its part, is defending the rule as a necessary way to streamline both the layoffs and the resulting challenges. An OPM spokesperson claimed that Congress gave them the authority to set how RIF appeals are handled and that the new rule puts that responsibility to work. They argue it “replaces a slow, costly process with a single, streamlined review led by OPM experts,” which means agencies can restructure without years of litigation, and employees get “faster, fairer resolution.”

While OPM might be selling this as a simple bureaucratic fix, it’s worth noting that OPM previously reviewed RIF appeals, but that process was shifted decades ago specifically to move the power to an independent board. This isn’t just a minor update; it’s a complete reversal of established best practices.