President Biden announced that two nominations for the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) had been sent to the Senate. If both are confirmed, the board would have a quorum for the first time since 2017.
Biden tapped Raymond Limon as his choice for MSPB vice chair, and his nomination was sent to the Senate along with his nomination of Cathy Harris as board chair. The Harris nomination was first announced back in April.
The MSPB is an independent, quasi-judicial agency in the executive branch that serves as the guardian of Federal merit systems to protect against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices.
Limon is the current deputy assistant secretary for Human Capital and Diversity and the Chief Human Capital Officer. He has spent his career in the Senior Executive Service at the Department of the Interior. Limon, if confirmed, would take over the seven-year term vacated when the former vice chair’s term expired. His term would run until 2025.
The MSPB has lacked a quorum since 2017 and has been entirely devoid of members since 2019. The running lack of a quorum concerned members on both sides of the aisle, and Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Jody Hice, R-Ga., urged the administration to nominate members to the MSPB in April in their roles as chair and ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations. With a few cases working their way through the Federal court system, the fear was that the MSPB administrative judges would have to stop their work without a board of directors.
