The Office of Personnel Management has finalized a sweeping set of rules that hands the agency direct control over how federal employees appeal layoffs, firings, and other adverse personnel actions — stripping that authority from the independent Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) in the process. Across four regulations published in the Federal Register, OPM will now adjudicate appeals involving reductions-in-force (RIFs), employee suitability determinations, and probationa