The Senate on March 7 confirmed the nomination of Cathy Ann Harris as chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). The nomination cleared the Senate on a 51-48 vote.
The MSPB is an independent, quasi-judicial agency in the executive branch that serves as the guardian of Federal merit systems to protect against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices.
Harris has served on the board since 2022 and has been MSPB’s acting chair while her latest nomination – and a previous one – languished in the Senate.
She was confirmed by the Senate on a 48-46 vote in 2022 to become a member of MSPB, but a separate nomination to appoint her as chair was not acted upon.
The Senate this year has yet to act on the separate nomination of Henry Kerner to the MSPB for a term expiring in 2030. President Biden renominated Kerner in January after the Senate took no action by the end of 2023 on his earlier nomination submitted last year.
The board currently has only two of its three allotted members, which is enough to constitute a quorum and issue decisions. From 2017 to March 2022, however, the board did not have enough members to constitute a quorum, and during that time accumulated a backlog of several thousand cases.
