OPM Seeks to Speed up Layoffs, Take Control of Appeals Processes

The Office of Personnel Management issued a proposed rule this week that, if enacted, could significantly impact federal employees looking to appeal reduction-in-force (RIF) actions. A congressional ban that has prevented the Trump administration from carrying out RIFs since last fall is slated to expire today, meaning agencies may soon be free to resume layoffs unless courts intervene.

Currently, federal workers who are the subject of a RIF may appeal the decision to the independent Merit Systems Protection Board. OPM wants to transfer appeals oversight from MSPB to its own Office of Merit System Accountability and Compliance.

In its proposed rule, OPM says that MSPB’s “authority to hear RIF appeals is provided for in OPM regulation, not statute” and argues that giving OPM oversight of appeals would increase efficiency and save money. OPM describes the current RIF appeals process as “unnecessarily lengthy and expensive.” The proposed rule is open for public comment until March 12.

OPM asserts in its proposed rule that federal employees have “no statutory right to an administrative or judicial review pertaining to RIF actions.” But the American Federation of Government Employees, a prominent federal employee union, said ending third-party review of RIF actions would be illegal.

“Eliminating independent review of federal RIF actions would not only make it harder for employees to challenge their proposed terminations, but would essentially give the administration free rein to terminate huge swaths of the federal workforce without meaningful independent oversight,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a press release.

OPM has additionally proposed transferring oversight of suitability appeals from MSPB to OPM. Those appeals are used by fired employees and rejected job applicants to challenge reviews that find their conduct or character makes them unsuitable for employment at a federal agency. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March 2025 directing OPM to take steps to have the final say in suitability determinations.

Earlier this month, OPM published a final rule establishing a new Schedule Policy/Career designation for “policy-influencing” roles. The rule says that employees who are moved to the Schedule Policy/Career designation (a rebrand of the Schedule F designation introduced at the end of Trump’s first term) will lose the right to appeal suspensions, demotions, or firings to the MSPB.

Shrinking the federal workforce

According to newly released OPM data, the size of the federal workforce fell by 242,260 employees in 2025 — a mixture of resignations, retirements, and firings. A recent analysis by Science found that more than 10,000 STEM PhDs left the federal workforce last year, but suggests relatively few scientists actually left their positions because of RIFs. The number of scientists who received RIF notices, however, may be much higher than the number of scientists who were laid off because of them. Some workers at science agencies such as the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were issued termination notices that were later reversed by the Trump administration. Federal courts also blocked or reversed RIF notices at many agencies, including an attempt to lay off over 4,000 workers during the government shutdown last year.