Norton Introduces Bill to Overturn Court Decision Stripping Federal Workers of Due Process Rights

WASHINGTON, DC – As hundreds of thousands of federal employees face furloughs and a third year of pay freezes, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a bill to bring a measure of fairness back to federal workers by overturning an unprecedented federal court decision that strips many of them of due process rights to independent review of an agency decision removing them from a job on national security grounds. A recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision, Kaplan v. Conyers and MSPB, prevents workers who are designated as "noncritical sensitive" from appealing to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) if they are removed from their job. The case was brought by two Department of Defense (DOD) employees, Rhonda Conyers, an accounting technician, and Devon Northover, commissary management specialist, who were permanently demoted and suspended from their jobs after they were found to no longer be eligible to serve in noncritical sensitive positions. The decision would affect at least 200,000 DOD employees who are designated as noncritical sensitive. Moreover, most federal employees could potentially lose the same rights to an independent review of an agency's decision because of a pending rule by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's (ODNI) that would permit agency heads to designate most jobs in the federal government as noncritical sensitive. Noncritical sensitive positions include jobs that do not have access to classified information.

"Federal employees have been continually and increasingly punished with furloughs and pay freezes through no fault of their own," said Norton. "The Kaplan v. Conyers and MSPB decision makes matters worse for federal workers by undercutting Title 5, section 7701 of the Civil Service Act, which ensures due process rights for federal workers required by the United States Constitution. Stripping employees whose work does not involve classified matters of the right of review of an agency decision that removes them from their jobs opens entirely new avenues for unreviewable, arbitrary action or retaliation by an agency head and, in addition, makes a mockery of whistleblower protections enacted in the 112th Congress. My bill would stop the use of ‘national security' to repeal a vital component of civil service protection and of due process."

Published: October 8, 2013