Congress passed the Administrative Leave Act to put tighter restrictions on how long agencies can put their employees on paid administrative or investigative leave. But OPM is more than seven years late in providing guidance to agencies on how to implement the legislation.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit against OPM this summer, urging the agency to complete the long-awaited Administrative Leave Act guidance.
PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse told Federal News Network that, absent OPM’s guidance, the Trump administration would have more latitude to put certain federal employees’ careers in limbo.
“I would expect that the Trump administration would use this tool as their first step in getting their people into civil service positions,” Whitehouse told Federal News Network.
