THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

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

PROTECTION BOARD

President Clinton today announced the recess appointment of Beth S. Slavet to serve as Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Ms. Slavet was nominated on March 23, 2000.

Ms. Slavet, of Washington, D.C., is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and has served as the Acting Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board since March 3, 2000. She has held the position of Vice Chairman since August, 1995. From 1993 to 1995, she was Labor Counsel to the Labor and Human Resources Committee of the U.S. 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, as a solo practitioner from 1986 through 1992, as of Counsel to Newman & Newell from 1991 to 1992, and as an associate in the private law firm of Gromfine, Sternstein, Rosen, & Taylor from 1984 to 1986. She 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. from Brandeis University and a J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

The Merit Systems Protection Board is an independent quasi-judicial agency that protects the integrity of federal merit systems and the rights of federal employees. 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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