The Merit Systems Protection Board has said that the new personnel appeals rules that the Department of Homeland Security is putting in place could change the disciplinary system in several significant ways. For example, MSBP chairman Neil A. G. McPhie said at a House hearing, under the rules an employee could be charged twice for the same offense, since the rules allow the agency to bring a second action if a “mandatory removal offense”-based disciplinary action is overturned on appeal. In addition, he noted that the rules allow for a hearing officer to decide a case on “summary judgment”—a mechanism that federal courts commonly use to dismiss cases that they find totally lacking in merit, but a procedure not used currently in federal employee appeals. The right to a hearing—virtually no matter what—is a basic provision of federal employee appeals and also is a staple of appeals rights among state government employees, he said.