[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 19, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO CLARIFY CERTAIN DUE PROCESS RIGHTS OF FEDERAL 
                EMPLOYEES SERVING IN SENSITIVE POSITIONS

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 19, 2024

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce a bill to clarify certain 
due process rights of federal employees serving in sensitive positions. 
This bill would overturn an unprecedented federal court decision, 
Kaplan v. Conyers and MSPB, that stripped many federal employees of the 
light to independent review of an agency decision removing them from 
their jobs on grounds of ineligibility. The case was brought by two 
Department of Defense (DOD) employees, Rhonda Conyers, an accounting 
technician, and Devon Northover, a commissary management specialist, 
who were permanently demoted and suspended from their jobs after they 
were found to be no longer eligible to serve in noncritical sensitive 
positions. In 2014, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, which 
allowed the decision to stand. This bill is cosponsored by 
Representative Andre Carson.
  Specifically, the decision prevents federal employees who are 
designated as ``noncritical sensitive'' from appealing to the Merit 
Systems Protection Board if they are removed from their jobs. 
Noncritical sensitive jobs include those that do not have access to 
classified information. The decision affects at least 200,000 DOD 
employees who are designated as noncritical sensitive. Even more 
concerning is that most federal employees could potentially lose the 
right to an independent review of an agency's decision because of a 
rule issued by the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of the 
Director of National Intelligence that permits agency heads to 
designate most jobs in the federal government as noncritical sensitive, 
which went into effect in July 2015.
  The decision undercuts Title 5, section 7701 of the Civil Service 
Act, which ensures due process rights for federal workers, as required 
by the Constitution. Stripping employees whose work does not involve 
classified matters of the right to an independent 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. 
This bill would stop the use of ``national security'' to undo a vital 
component of civil service protection and of due process.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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