Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, MSPB NEWS—Board issues updated FAQ about lack of quorum period, (Nov 17, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

The Board currently has two members, so the quorum is “currently intact,” it explains.

With a second member sworn into his duties on October 28, 2025, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board now has a quorum again following Cathy Harris’s contested removal several months ago. Between April 10, 2025, and October 27, 2025, a newly revised Frequently Asked Questions document explains, the Board had only one member—Acting Chairman Henry J. Kerner—and could not issue final decisions on petitions for review and other cases requiring the Board to vote. Member James J. Woodruff II was sworn in on October 28, 2025.

In the FAQ, MSPB explains that administrative judges could issue initial decisions during lack of quorum periods and, absent a petition for review by either party, those decisions became final decisions of the Board. However, if either party filed a petition, the FAQ explains, the Board decision could not be issued without the quorum’s restoration.

Petitions waiting. According to the FAQ, “[t]he 2025 lack of quorum period was relatively brief and did not result in an excessive inventory of petitions for review.”

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