If the proposal is implemented, workers would not be able to seek redress through an independent review board.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has made it harder for fired federal employees to return to work by limiting their right to appeal to an independent review board.

The change is part of a government plan released Monday by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Under the proposal, federal employees seeking to challenge their terminations would be required to appeal directly to OPM, which reports to the president, rather than to an independent agency called the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB).

The MSPB serves as a mediator between federal workers and the government and has been in existence since 1978. After Trump took office, the commission’s caseload surged 266% between October 2024 and September 2025. Federal workers who were laid off and accepted buyouts in early 2025 received their final paychecks in late September.

If enacted, the proposal would build on Trump’s broader push to shrink the size of the federal government and limit workers’ ability to challenge those decisions. Last year, the government laid off approximately 317,000 federal employees.

The move comes amid another proposal announced last week that would reclassify senior career civil servants as “at will” employees. The change would give the government broader authority to fire career officials who don’t align with the current president’s agenda, affecting about 50,000 workers at the nation’s largest employer.

The directive is outlined in a document of more than 250 pages, Allow workers to be laid off If they “deliberately subvert presidential directives.”

“Congress gave OPM the authority to decide how to handle force reduction appeals, and this rule puts that responsibility to work,” an OPM spokesperson told Al Jazeera in a statement. “It replaces a slow, expensive process with a single, streamlined review led by OPM experts. That means the agency can reorganize without years of litigation, and if something goes wrong, employees can get a faster, fairer resolution.”

The proposal comes as the administration seeks to fire political appointees from the previous administration without just cause. The White House has been trying to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook since last year over alleged mortgage fraud.

Cook challenged the decision in federal court, which ruled that the president did not have the authority to fire her. The White House appealed, and the case is now before the Supreme Court.

Although the court No ruling has been issued yetdecisions that benefit the president will make it easier to remove political appointees who don’t fit a particular administration’s agenda.