New Rules for ALJs

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued proposed new rules for Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). Since SSA employs something like 90% of all federal ALJs, this affects SSA far more than any other agency. At first glance this proposal does not look significant. It is unclear whether this proposal puts OPM closer to creating a new register from which SSA and other agencies can select new ALJs. There has been no new register in many years due to a long running dispute over the methods for ranking ALJ candidates on the register. Agencies have had to hire off a very old register. No new applications to become ALJs have been taken in many years.