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At a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington, Maryland Democratic Rep. Sarah Elfreth discusses her bipartisan bill aimed at protecting probationary federal workers fired by the Trump administration. (Daranee Balachandar/Capital News Service)
Trump seeks to limit legal options for fired federal workers
Listen to this articleWASHINGTON – The Trump administration is trying to make it harder for fired federal employees to get their jobs back, according to a government plan released on Monday, by limiting their right to appeal their dismissal to an independent board.
The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s HR office, proposed ending the right of fired federal employees to dispute their dismissal before the independent Merit Systems Protection Board, according to the plan. Instead, fired workers would need to appeal to OPM, an office whose director reports to President Donald Trump.
The Merit Systems Protection Board mediates disputes between federal workers and their employers. The board saw a spike in new cases after Trump took office for the second time. The board’s caseload jumped 266% from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025, according to government records, compared to the same period the year before.
If the proposal is implemented, it would build on Trump’s earlier efforts to shrink the size of the federal government. Trump has made mass layoffs of government employees a centerpiece of his second term. At the same time, he has undermined avenues for those same workers to dispute their dismissals, including by firing members of government offices that enforce job protections for federal employees.
The U.S. government shed 317,000 federal employees in 2025, OPM Director Scott Kupor said late last year. Kupor told Reuters that only a fraction of those who left were fired, with the majority opting to accept a buyout or leave on their own. Reuters could not independently verify the accuracy of Kupor’s statement.
OPM will be fair and impartial when handling complaints from fired federal employees, said McLaurine Pinover, a spokeswoman for the office. The goal is to give the workers “timely correction when errors occur,” she said, adding that agencies should be able to “restructure responsibly and fairly.”
Reporting by Courtney Rozen; editing by Chizu Nomiyama.
