Key MSPB vacancy closer to being filled

Mary Rose passed an important test Thursday when a Senate committee approved her to fill the third and final spot on the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved Rose's nomination on a voice vote, advancing her name for the full Senate's consideration. Members of the MSPB rule on appeals of federal employee workplace complaints.

"It is essential that the MSPB have three members in order to decide employee appeals effectively and efficiently," said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii.

The final board member will serve as a tie-breaker. The other two spots are held by MSPB Chairman Neil McPhie and Barbara Sapin. Both are Bush appointees, though Sapin is a Democrat.

Without a third member, the initial decision made by an administrative judge becomes final if McPhie and Sapin disagree on an appeal and issue a split-vote order.

The appointment is important in light of personnel reforms under way at the Defense and Homeland Security departments. Both sets of reforms put MSPB under tighter deadlines for ruling on cases, as part of efforts to make the departments more flexible.

They also make it harder for MSPB to lessen the severity of employee penalties. In DHS, the board can mitigate only if the penalty is "wholly without justification." Under the Pentagon's new rules, the board can do so if the punishment is "totally unwarranted in light of all pertinent circumstances."

Both of those standards are disputed in lawsuits filed by employee unions against DHS and the Pentagon.

Akaka said he plans to monitor the MSPB's activities as it adapts to the personnel reforms.

Rose was nominated by President Bush on June 23 to fill the remainder of the seat's 7-year term, ending March 1, 2011. The slot has been empty since Susanne Marshall's term expired on March 1, 2004.

Board members are appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and serve overlapping, one-time, 7-year terms.

Rose is vice chairman of the Federal Salary Council, an independent body of salary experts, employee representatives and federal officials that makes recommendations on locality pay for federal employees, according to the White House statement announcing her nomination. She also is chairman of the Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee, which advises the Office of Personnel Management on salaries for blue-collar workers.

Before taking those posts, Rose served as deputy associate director of the Office of Presidential Personnel at the White House and as deputy undersecretary of management at the Education Department. She is a graduate of the Bon Secours School of Nursing.