MSPB has said in its annual report that it faces operational challenges including the impact of appeals challenging the 2013 sequestration-triggered furloughs and the 2014 law shortening appeal rights for senior execs at the VA.
It notes that a budgetary boost for 2014 and 2015 allowed it to increase staff by 12 percent, but that 20 percent of all employees and 30 percent of administrative judges will be eligible to retire within two years.
It said the staff increase was especially valuable because in fiscal 2014, MSPB continued to work through a backlog created by the filing of some 32,000 furlough appeals, saying that as of April 2015, it has issued initial decisions in almost 70 percent of them, many of them in consolidated cases, and the full board has ruled on nearly 1,000 appeals of those decisions.
Regarding the VA appeal law, MSPB noted that it provides only 21 days for the administrative judge to reach a decision—otherwise the agency will win by default. “In our experience, the MSPB AJs assigned to the VA SES appeals we have received so far, and a team of other MSPB legal staff members, have had to delay other adjudication work in order to meet the 21-day deadline,” the report says.
“Despite our successful year, MSPB faces external challenges including smaller federal budgets, the return of sequestration, and increasing federal retirements that may increase the number of appeals we receive in FY 2016 and beyond,” it said.
