Regional boards for federal agency coordination officially disbanded

The Office of Personnel Management on Friday officially ended federal executive boards, which operated outside of Washington, D.C., to improve communication and coordination among regional government offices.

Their termination was caused by a Feb. 19 executive order from President Donald Trump that also canceled the Presidential Management Fellows program for recruiting graduate students to work for the federal government and directed agencies to axe certain advisory councils. 

“The elimination of FEBs will reduce administrative overhead by eliminating a bureaucratic organization the president has determined is unnecessary,” according to OPM’s final rule that revokes the regulations that established the boards. 

OPM said that unexpended funds for the boards have been returned to agencies and that staff are being laid off in accordance with reduction in force procedures or reassigned. Many FEB officials did not work exclusively for the boards, but rather served on them in addition to their day-to-day federal jobs. 

President John F. Kennedy created FEBs in 1961 and, prior to their termination, there were boards covering 26 metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. 

FEBs helped agencies respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by sharing guidance on telework flexibilities and facilitating the exchange of best practices, according to the Partnership for Public Service. 

Don Kettl, former dean of University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, previously told Government Executive that the Oklahoma FEB helped restart government services after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing partially destroyed the city’s federal building. 

The fiscal 2023 FEB National Network annual report found that the boards provided training to nearly 14,600 employees that saved agencies an estimated $7.8 million, offered emergency preparedness exercises to hundreds of civil servants and helped implement the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.