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Trump Announces Judicial Nominees; September 6, 2019
NOMINATIONS & APPOINTMENTS
President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees
Issued on: September 6, 2019
Today, President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to nominate:
Rahkel Bouchet of the District of Columbia, to serve as an Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Rahkel Bouchet currently serves as a Magistrate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where her docket includes civil, family, and juvenile cases. Before taking the bench in 2016, Judge Bouchet was a Supervising Attorney for the Child Welfare Clinic at Howard University School of Law and a Principal at the Bouchet Law Firm, where her practice focused on child abuse, neglect, and family law. Judge Bouchet received her B.A., cum laude, from Howard University and J.D. from Howard University School of Law.
Mark Allen Robbins of the District of Columbia, to serve as an Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Mark Robbins is General Counsel of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), a position he also held from 2001 to 2006. Before working as OPM General Counsel, he served as Member and Acting Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Mr. Robbins has previously served as General Counsel of the United States Election Assistance Commission, Senior Rule of Law Advisor for the Department of State in Iraq, and Executive Director of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Mr. Robbins earned his B.A from George Washington University and J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees
Issued on: September 6, 2019
Today, President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to nominate:
Rahkel Bouchet of the District of Columbia, to serve as an Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Rahkel Bouchet currently serves as a Magistrate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where her docket includes civil, family, and juvenile cases. Before taking the bench in 2016, Judge Bouchet was a Supervising Attorney for the Child Welfare Clinic at Howard University School of Law and a Principal at the Bouchet Law Firm, where her practice focused on child abuse, neglect, and family law. Judge Bouchet received her B.A., cum laude, from Howard University and J.D. from Howard University School of Law.
Mark Allen Robbins of the District of Columbia, to serve as an Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Mark Robbins is General Counsel of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), a position he also held from 2001 to 2006. Before working as OPM General Counsel, he served as Member and Acting Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Mr. Robbins has previously served as General Counsel of the United States Election Assistance Commission, Senior Rule of Law Advisor for the Department of State in Iraq, and Executive Director of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Mr. Robbins earned his B.A from George Washington University and J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Mark Robbins has been GC at OPM only since December:
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 21, 2018 | Contact: Office of Communications
Tel: 202-606-2165
Mark A. Robbins appointed OPM General Counsel
WASHINGTON – Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Margaret Weichert announced today that Mark A. Robbins will serve as OPM’s new General Counsel. Consistent with 5 USC § 1201, President Trump has issued a memorandum directing Mr. Robbins, current Acting Chairman of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), to serve concurrently as OPM General Counsel.
Mr. Robbins previously served as OPM General Counsel from 2001 to 2006. He has also served as the General Counsel of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and as a Senior Rule of Law Advisor for the State Department in Babil Province, Iraq, where he was awarded the U.S. Army’s Commander’s Award for Civilian Service. Mr. Robbins was Executive Director of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board between 2006 and 2008. He worked in private practice as a litigation attorney in Los Angeles, California between 1988 and 2000, and in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel from 1984 to 1988. Mr. Robbins began his career as a Legislative Assistant to two Los Angeles area Members of Congress, covering, among other things, civil service and federal human resources management issues.
“I’m very excited that Mark is returning to OPM,” said Acting Director Margaret Weichert. “Mark brings extensive professional experience that will help OPM deliver mission outcomes that will help advance the President’s Management Agenda.”
Mr. Robbins earned his undergraduate and law degrees from George Washington University. He is a member of the California and District of Columbia bars. In recognition of his extensive professional involvement and continued leadership in public administration, in 2013 Mr. Robbins was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
- end -
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 21, 2018 | Contact: Office of Communications
Tel: 202-606-2165
Mark A. Robbins appointed OPM General Counsel
WASHINGTON – Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Margaret Weichert announced today that Mark A. Robbins will serve as OPM’s new General Counsel. Consistent with 5 USC § 1201, President Trump has issued a memorandum directing Mr. Robbins, current Acting Chairman of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), to serve concurrently as OPM General Counsel.
Mr. Robbins previously served as OPM General Counsel from 2001 to 2006. He has also served as the General Counsel of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and as a Senior Rule of Law Advisor for the State Department in Babil Province, Iraq, where he was awarded the U.S. Army’s Commander’s Award for Civilian Service. Mr. Robbins was Executive Director of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board between 2006 and 2008. He worked in private practice as a litigation attorney in Los Angeles, California between 1988 and 2000, and in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel from 1984 to 1988. Mr. Robbins began his career as a Legislative Assistant to two Los Angeles area Members of Congress, covering, among other things, civil service and federal human resources management issues.
“I’m very excited that Mark is returning to OPM,” said Acting Director Margaret Weichert. “Mark brings extensive professional experience that will help OPM deliver mission outcomes that will help advance the President’s Management Agenda.”
Mr. Robbins earned his undergraduate and law degrees from George Washington University. He is a member of the California and District of Columbia bars. In recognition of his extensive professional involvement and continued leadership in public administration, in 2013 Mr. Robbins was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
- end -
Board that handles federal worker disputes is now vacant
ByJuliet Linderman | March 3, 2019
In this Aug. 7, 2018, photo, Mark Robbins, the sole member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, walks through the supply closet, pointing to boxes full of cases, in his office in Washington. Robbins reads through federal workplace disputes, analyzes the cases, marks them with notes and logs his legal opinions. He then passes them along to nobody. He’s the only member of a three-member board that legally can’t operate until the president and Congress give him at least one colleague. (Juliet Linderman/AP Photo)
The Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial government body tasked with settling workplace disputes for millions of federal workers, is officially vacant for the first time in its 40-year history. ... The board became empty at midnight Thursday, after the Senate failed to act on a measure to extend the term of the board’s sole remaining member and acting chairman, Mark Robbins. The House approved the extension Monday.
The three-member board needs at least two members to decide appeals from civil servants. All three members are presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed for staggered seven-year terms, with no more than two affiliated with the same political party. After one member termed out in 2015 and a second did so in January 2017, both without replacements, Robbins became the board’s sole member. His term expired at midnight on Feb. 28.
President Donald Trump nominated two members to the board, including Robbins’ replacement, after one year in office, and nominated a third months later. But the nominees were not approved by the Senate before the end of the last Congress. One of those nominees withdrew his name from consideration, and the other two are still under consideration.
Robbins has been by himself on the board for more than two years. He’s diligently reviewed the nearly 2,000 cases that have come across his desk, but without a second member to cast a vote on a resolution, those cases have sat idle in a fast- growing backlog. With no members on the board, that backlog will keep growing. ... Without a quorum, Robbins hasn’t been able to fulfill other MSPB duties, including releasing studies on the civil service and conducting reviews of the rules and regulations at OPM, over which the MSPB has oversight. ... Robbins on Thursday told a House Committee on Oversight and Reform subcommittee that he expects it would take three years to clear the backlog.
....
ByJuliet Linderman | March 3, 2019
In this Aug. 7, 2018, photo, Mark Robbins, the sole member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, walks through the supply closet, pointing to boxes full of cases, in his office in Washington. Robbins reads through federal workplace disputes, analyzes the cases, marks them with notes and logs his legal opinions. He then passes them along to nobody. He’s the only member of a three-member board that legally can’t operate until the president and Congress give him at least one colleague. (Juliet Linderman/AP Photo)
The Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial government body tasked with settling workplace disputes for millions of federal workers, is officially vacant for the first time in its 40-year history. ... The board became empty at midnight Thursday, after the Senate failed to act on a measure to extend the term of the board’s sole remaining member and acting chairman, Mark Robbins. The House approved the extension Monday.
The three-member board needs at least two members to decide appeals from civil servants. All three members are presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed for staggered seven-year terms, with no more than two affiliated with the same political party. After one member termed out in 2015 and a second did so in January 2017, both without replacements, Robbins became the board’s sole member. His term expired at midnight on Feb. 28.
President Donald Trump nominated two members to the board, including Robbins’ replacement, after one year in office, and nominated a third months later. But the nominees were not approved by the Senate before the end of the last Congress. One of those nominees withdrew his name from consideration, and the other two are still under consideration.
Robbins has been by himself on the board for more than two years. He’s diligently reviewed the nearly 2,000 cases that have come across his desk, but without a second member to cast a vote on a resolution, those cases have sat idle in a fast- growing backlog. With no members on the board, that backlog will keep growing. ... Without a quorum, Robbins hasn’t been able to fulfill other MSPB duties, including releasing studies on the civil service and conducting reviews of the rules and regulations at OPM, over which the MSPB has oversight. ... Robbins on Thursday told a House Committee on Oversight and Reform subcommittee that he expects it would take three years to clear the backlog.
....
