THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                            (Jaipur, India)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                     March 23, 2000

PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES BETH S. SLAVET AS CHAIRMAN OF THE MERIT SYSTEMS

PROTECTION BOARD

The President announced today his intent to nominate Beth S. Slavet as Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Ms. Beth S. Slavet, of Washington, D.C., and a native of Boston, Massachusetts, currently serves on the Merit Systems Protection Board as Vice Chair, a post she has held since August 1995. From 1993 to 1995, she was Labor Counsel to the Labor and Human Resources Committee of the United States Senate. Ms. Slavet also served as Legislative Counsel and Staff Director to Congressman Chet Atkins (D-MA) from 1992 to 1993. She practiced labor and employment law, primarily as a solo practitioner from 1986 through 1992. In addition, she was of counsel to Newman & Newell from 1991 to 1992, and an associate in the private law firm of Gramophone, Sternstein, Rosen, & Taylor from 1984 to 1986. Ms. Slavet was counsel to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1812 in Washington, D.C. from 1979 to 1984. AFGE Local 1812 was the exclusive bargaining representative for civil and foreign service employees of the United States Information Agency.

Ms. Slavet received a B.A. degree from Brandeis University and a J.D. degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

The Merit Systems Protection Board protects the integrity of Federal merit systems and the rights of Federal employees working in the systems. In overseeing the personnel practices of the Federal Government, the Board adjudicates employee appeals from agency actions and conducts special studies of the civil service and other merit systems in the Executive branch to determine whether they are free of prohibited personnel practices.

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