To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide for an alternative removal for performance or misconduct for Federal employees.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill overhauls how federal agencies can discipline, demote, or fire federal employees. It repeals existing performance improvement procedures (Chapter 43), shortens appeal timelines, and gives agency heads more authority to take quick action against employees for performance or misconduct issues.
Who Benefits and How
- Federal agency management and political appointees benefit from streamlined authority to remove or discipline employees with fewer procedural hurdles and shorter timelines (7-15 business days instead of longer periods).
- Taxpayers may benefit if agencies can more efficiently remove genuinely poor performers or misconduct cases.
Who Bears the Burden and How
- Federal employees face reduced job protections, shorter response windows (7 business days to respond to notices), immediate pay cuts upon demotion (even during appeals), and potential annuity reductions for felony convictions.
- Federal employee unions lose bargaining power as new procedures supersede collective bargaining agreements.
- New federal hires face extended 2-year probationary periods instead of the previous 1-year period.
Key Provisions
- Repeals Section 4303 performance-based action procedures that required performance improvement plans
- Shortens employee response time to 7 business days and agency decision time to 15 business days
- Reduces standard of review from preponderance of evidence to substantial evidence for agency decisions
- Allows agencies to recoup bonuses from employees with adverse findings for up to 5 years
- Reduces retirement annuities for employees convicted of job-related felonies
- Extends probationary period for new hires from 1 year to 2 years
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
This bill reforms federal employee discipline and removal procedures to make it easier and faster for agencies to take adverse actions against employees for performance or misconduct issues.
Key Policy Areas
Civil Service, Federal Employment, Government Administration
Primary Purpose
This bill reforms federal employee discipline and removal procedures to make it easier and faster for agencies to take adverse actions against employees for performance or misconduct issues.
Policy Domains
General - Federal Civil Service Reform
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Federal agency management
- Political appointees
- Agency heads
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Federal employees
- Federal employee unions
- Senior Executive Service members
- Federal supervisors
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Sheehy (for himself, Mr. Cramer, and Mrs. Hyde-Smith) introduced …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Federal agency heads, Federal agency hiring managers, Federal agency leadership
Positive-direction: Federal agency heads, Federal agency hiring managers, Federal agency leadership, Federal agency management, Federal retirement system
Negative-direction: Federal employees convicted of job-related felonies, Federal employees facing performance-based actions, Federal employees receiving bonuses, Federal employees subject to adverse actions, Federal employees subject to emergency furlough, Federal employees subject to furlough, Federal employees subject to non-furlough adverse actions, Federal employees with misconduct findings, Federal supervisors, New federal employees in competitive service, Senior Executive Service career appointees
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_board"
- → Merit Systems Protection Board
- "the_office"
- → Office of Personnel Management
- "the_head_of_agency"
- → Head of the employing federal agency
- "the_inspector_general"
- → Inspector General or senior ethics official of an agency
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Any day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or legal public holiday under section 6103(a) of title 5
A determination by the head of the agency that employee conduct violated agency policy (removable/suspendable offense) or violated a law punishable by more than 1 year imprisonment
Any performance award or cash award under sections 4505a, 5384, or 5754
Has the meaning given that term in section 7103(a) of title 5, U.S.C.
An individual in the competitive service not serving a probationary period or who has completed 1 year of current continuous employment; or a career appointee in the Senior Executive Service who has completed probationary period
The placing of an employee in a temporary status without duties and pay because of lack of work or funds or other nondisciplinary reasons
A furlough that is not due to a lapse in appropriations
A furlough due to a lapse in appropriations
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology