House Oversight Committee Requests Records on Federal Employee Settlements and Mediation Payouts

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) sent a letter Monday to Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor demanding a sweeping review of taxpayer-funded settlement payouts to federal employees. The letter asks the OPM and several federal adjudicatory bodies to turn over extensive records related to settlements, mediation programs, attorney fee payouts, and internal performance metrics tied to case resolution.

Comer gave agencies until May 25 to comply with the records request.

The requested materials include settlement templates, nondisclosure agreements, internal communications discussing fiscal impacts, and documents showing whether settlement rates are considered in performance evaluations for administrative judges or enforcement personnel.

The letter requests records from the OPM, the MSPB, the EEOC, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and the Office of Special Counsel. These records cover the period from Jan.

1, 2020, through the present. Washington Examiner reported that Comer is seeking the documents to examine a federal "sue-and-settle" culture. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data showed the federal government secured more than $202 million in taxpayer-funded payouts to federal workers through mediation and settlements in fiscal 2023.

6 million through litigation judgments in fiscal 2023. 6 million during President Donald Trump’s first term. In MSPB adverse action cases that reach a decision, agencies win more than 80% of the time.

"Agencies may be quietly paying out millions of dollars to resolve workplace disputes they could otherwise win in court," Comer stated. He added that a federal sue-and-settle culture had ballooned under the Biden administration. "Congress cannot exercise meaningful oversight of the federal workforce when a supermajority of disputes are resolved through opaque, non-public agreements," Comer wrote.

The letter argued that nonmonetary settlement agreements can involve substantial operational costs such as restoring prior working conditions, rescinding disciplinary actions, or negotiating with unions before implementing operational changes. "These prospective obligations can effectively expand the scope of collective bargaining beyond what the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute authorizes," Comer wrote.

The settlement-heavy system has contributed to a culture in which federal managers are reluctant to discipline underperforming employees.

A Merit Systems Protection Board survey found that roughly 40% of supervisors believed they could remove employees for serious misconduct. Just 25% of supervisors felt confident they could terminate workers for poor performance according to the same MSPB survey.