Trump seeks to limit legal options for fired federal workers

The Trump administration is trying to make it harder for fired federal employees to get their jobs back, according to a government plan released on Monday, by limiting their right to appeal their dismissal to an independent board.

The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s HR office, proposed ending the right of fired federal employees to dispute their dismissal before the independent Merit Systems Protection Board, according to the plan. Instead, fired workers would need to appeal to OPM, an office whose director reports to U.S. President Donald Trump.

If implemented, the plan would build on Trump's earlier efforts to shrink the size of the federal government. Trump has made mass layoffs of government employees a centerpiece of his second term. At the same time, he has undermined avenues for those same workers to dispute their dismissals, including byfiringmembers of government offices that enforce job protections for federal employees.

The Trump administration pushed out 317,000 federal employees in 2025, OPM Director Scott Kupor said late last year. Kupor told Reuters that only a fraction of those who left were fired, with the majority opting to accept a buyout or leave on their own. Reuters could not independently verify the accuracy of Kupor's statement.

The Merit Systems Protection Board mediates disputes between federal workers and their employers.

-Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama/Reuters