In today’s news and commentary, new Trump administration rules will remove the Merit Systems Protection Board’s independence, a suspended CFPB union leader alleges retaliation, and the National Treasury Employees Union requires its members to pay dues as it battles to stay financially afloat.

First, new rules from the Trump administration set to take effect next month will strip the Merit Systems Protection Board of its independence. Under the new rules, the Office of Personnel Management will take over MSPB appeals involving probationary terminations, suitability determinations, and reduction-in-force layoffs, and will bar workers from appealing those decisions to federal court. The Trump administration has eroded the authority of the MSPB, the independent agency created after Watergate to shield civil servants from political reprisal, through technical changes, legal reinterpretations, and court decisions. The MSPB quietly removed the word “independent” from its website following the Supreme Court’s Trump v. Slaughter decision, and the White House’s new Schedule Policy/Career reclassification took away 4,800 workers’ rights bring a challenge before the board. “Through different means, the prior jurisdiction of the MSPB is being chipped away,” said Cathy Harris, the former Democratic MSPB chair fired in February 2025. “Pretty soon you’re left with a block of melted ice.” 

Next, the Trump administration is being accused of retaliation after placing Stephen Wheeler, a data scientist and chair of the CFPB union organizing committee, on administrative leave with no stated violations. NTEU Chapter 335 noted that Wheeler had been a visible union presence, sitting behind CFPB Director Russell Vought during his congressional testimony and speaking publicly about forced staff relocations. “An investigation with no stated scope or scale is no investigation—it’s a fishing expedition,” Wheeler said. “This will be seen for what it is: bullying and intimidation for union activity and protected speech.” 

Finally, the National Treasury Employees Union has set a September 5 deadline for workers to begin paying dues voluntarily or lose their representation benefits, an uncharted legal tactic motivated by financial necessity. NTEU argues that because President Trump’s executive orders canceled its collective bargaining agreements, it has no legal obligation to represent non-paying workers, sidestepping the free-rider problem that normally requires public sector unions to represent all covered employees regardless of dues. The union told a federal court in 2025 it stood to lose $25 million, more than half its annual revenue, in the year following the President’s mass cancellation of collective bargaining agreements with public sector unions.