GAO

United States General Accounting Office

Report to the Chairman, Committee on 

Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate

May 2001 PRESIDENTIAL 

APPOINTMENTS

Agencies’ Compliance 

With Provisions of the 

Federal Vacancies 

Reform Act of 1998

GAO-01-701
Page i GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Letter 1

Appendix I Scope and Methodology 12

Appendix II Federal Agencies That Reported Having PAS Positions

Subject to the Vacancies Reform Act 14

Appendix III Comments From the Counsel to the President 16

Appendix IV Comments From the Institute of Museum and Library

Services 17

Tables

Table 1: Vacancies and Acting Officials For PAS Positions Between

November 21, 1998, and June 30, 2000 6

Table 2: Vacancies and Acting Officials in PAS Positions Subject to

the Vacancies Reform Act but Not Reported to GAO as of

July 13, 2000 7

Abbreviations

GAO General Accounting Office

IMLS Institute of Museum and Library Services

OMB Office of Management and Budget

OPM Office of Personnel Management

OPP Office of Presidential Personnel

PAS Presidential Appointments and Senate Confirmation

Contents
Page 1 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

May 31, 2001

The Honorable Fred Thompson

Chairman, Committee on

 Governmental Affairs

United States Senate

Dear Mr. Chairman:

The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (Vacancies Reform Act), which

took effect on November 21, 1998, established new requirements for the

temporary filling of vacant executive agency positions that require

presidential appointment and Senate confirmation (PAS positions). The

Vacancies Reform Act is intended to create a clear process and a time limit

for the temporary filling of PAS positions. It requires agencies to inform

the Congress and GAO whenever (1) a PAS position becomes vacant, (2) a

vacant position is filled on a temporary basis, (3) a nomination is made to

the Senate to fill a vacancy, or (4) a nomination for the position is rejected,

withdrawn, or returned. The act also specifies limits on the time PAS

positions can be filled on an acting basis. You asked us to assess the

Vacancies Reform Act’s implementation. Specifically, you asked us to

determine whether agencies were (1) promptly notifying the Congress and

GAO of all reportable vacancies and all temporary appointments, and (2)

adhering to the time limits for temporary service. On September 29, 2000,

we sent an interim response to you with information on 11 large agencies1

that each had a substantial number of PAS positions. This report provides

the results of all our work.

In August 2000, we sent a questionnaire to 62 agencies that might have

PAS positions asking them to report on any of these positions they had. A

total of 44 agencies responded that they had PAS positions subject to the

act and the agencies are listed in appendix II. The questionnaire also asked

agencies to report all vacancies and acting officials in PAS positions from

the act’s effective date in November 1998 through June 30, 2000. Our

results rely on agency self reporting and it is possible that additional

agencies with PAS positions beyond those identified in our work are

covered by the act.

 1 Implementation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (GAO /GGD-00-210R, Sept.

29, 2000).

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548
Page 2 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

To determine if agencies had promptly notified us of all vacancies and

acting officials, we compared the information agencies provided through

the questionnaire with the notifications sent by agencies to our Executive

Vacancies Act Tracking System which we had set up to receive the

information agencies are required to report to the Congress and us under

the Vacancies Reform Act. To determine whether the time limits on acting

officials were exceeded, we used data agencies provided to our tracking

system and information reported by the agencies during this review. We

contacted agency officials to obtain their explanations in instances where

our analysis indicated that agencies might not have complied with the

Act’s vacancy and acting official reporting requirements or the acting

official time limit. Our work was performed from August 2000 through

April 2001 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing

standards. Details on our methodology are in appendix I.

Federal Agencies did not promptly report as required all vacancies and

acting officials to the Congress and GAO. By comparing the responses to

our questionnaire with information reported by agencies to our Executive

Vacancies Act Tracking System, we found that agencies had not reported

17 vacancies (19 percent) and 21 acting officials (24 percent). Moreover,

for about half of the instances that were reported to our tracking system,

notification was not received for over 4 weeks after the date of their

occurrence. The act requires that this information be reported

immediately. In March 2001, the Counsel to the President sent a

memorandum to federal executive branch departments and agencies that

provided guidance to assist agencies in understanding and meeting their

responsibilities under the Vacancies Reform Act. The memorandum

streamlined the notification process by requiring that agencies send

notifications directly to the Congress and GAO. Under the previous

administration, agencies’ notifications were required to be sent through an

indirect route which began with their submission to the Office of

Presidential Personnel (OPP) which then forwarded copies of the

submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB officials

then forwarded this information to the Congress and GAO. The new

process should reduce the time it takes agencies to notify the Congress

and us.

We found four acting officials at four agencies who exceeded the act’s 210-

day time limit for temporary service. Generally, in such cases, actions

taken by the acting official after the time limit that cannot be delegated

have no force or effect under a provision of the Vacancies Reform Act.

However, three acting officials served in the positions of Inspector

Results in Brief
Page 3 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

General (two instances) or Chief Financial Officer (one instance) which

are specifically exempted from that provision. At the Institute of Museum

and Library Services (IMLS) we found that an individual served as the

agency’s Acting Director beyond the 210-day time limit by at least 5

months. We have reported these instances to the President and the

appropriate Committees of the Congress as required by the Vacancies

Reform Act. In the IMLS case, any nondelegable actions made by this

official after the time limit would have no force or effect, but agency

officials told us that no nondelegable actions had been taken by the

individual between the expiration of the original time limit and January 20,

2001. Under the Vacancies Reform Act, at the start of a new administration

the time limit for acting officials begins anew so as of January 20, 2001, it

was permissible for the individual to resume being Acting Director.

The Counsel to the President and IMLS reviewed a draft of the report. The

Counsel had no comments. IMLS essentially agreed with the facts we lay

out but disagreed that it violated the 210-day time limit for its Acting

Director. Because the Deputy Director for Museum Services used the title

of Acting Director after 210 days, we conclude that a violation did in fact

occur.

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a vacancy occurs if a

presidential appointee covered by the act resigns, dies, or is otherwise

unable to perform the functions and duties of the office. For covered PAS

vacancies, the act among other things,

• specifies who may serve as an acting officer;

• imposes time limits on how long vacancies can be filled by acting officers;

and

• requires agencies to immediately report to the Senate, the House of

Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States any

vacancy and the date it occurs; the name of any person serving in an acting

capacity and the date such service began; the name of any person

nominated to fill a vacancy and the date such nomination is submitted to

the Senate; and the date of any rejection, withdrawal, or return of a

nomination.

The Vacancies Reform Act also requires us to inform specified

congressional committees, the President, and the Office of Personnel

Management (OPM) if an acting officer is serving longer than 210 days, a

period which may be extended through various provisions of the

Vacancies Reform Act.

Background
Page 4 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Generally, the Vacancies Reform Act applies to any office within an

executive agency to which appointment is required to be made by the

President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The

Vacancies Reform Act, however, excludes from its coverage certain

officers. It does not apply, for example, to any PAS position on a

multimember board or commission that governs an independent

establishment or government corporation, such as the commissioners of

the Federal Election Commission. The Vacancies Reform Act also

recognizes that a number of PAS positions are covered by other statutes

that specifically address how the office is to be filled on a temporary basis.

The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 replaced an earlier Vacancies

Act, which the Justice Department and several other executive agencies

had maintained was not the exclusive authority for the temporary filling of

vacant PAS positions. These agencies said their enabling statute, which

gave their agency heads general authority to assign functions and delegate

authority within the agency, could override the earlier Vacancies Act. In

other words, the heads of these agencies could assign individuals to

temporarily fill vacant PAS positions without informing the Congress and

for longer than the 120 days established by the earlier Vacancies Act. In a

long line of cases concerning officials who were serving in acting

capacities without Senate approval, we found that the earlier Vacancies

Act was the exclusive authority for the temporary filling of vacant

positions. The question of whether agencies needed to follow the

Vacancies Act, according to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on

Governmental Affairs in a 1998 hearing, went to the heart of one of the

Senate’s most important powers, the duty to advise and consent on

presidential nominations.

As previously mentioned, the 1998 Vacancies Reform Act assigned GAO

certain responsibilities. We, together with the executive branch, developed

a form, Submission Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which the

White House instructed agencies to use beginning in July 1999 to notify the

Congress and GAO of vacancies, acting officials, and nominations. We also

developed a computerized Executive Vacancies Act Tracking System to

collect and analyze data submitted by agencies. Information from this

system is accessible to agencies and the public through our web page

(http://www.gao.gov). In June 1999, concerned with having received only

23 vacancy reports, we sent a letter to the heads of executive departments

and agencies describing the requirements that the Vacancies Reform Act

imposes on agencies and providing additional guidance for reporting

information to us.
Page 5 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

In general, the Vacancies Reform Act permits vacancies to be filled for up

to 210 days by acting officials, beginning on the date the vacancy occurred.

At the end of the time limit, the position can no longer be filled on an

acting basis. The Vacancies Reform Act extends or resets the 210-day

period under certain circumstances, such as when a nomination is pending

before Congress and at the start of a new administration. Because of the

latter provision, all time limits began anew for PAS positions that were

vacant on January 20, 2001. The Vacancies Reform Act directs GAO to

determine whether acting officers have served beyond the time limit and

to report any violations to certain congressional committees, the

President, and OPM.

In response to our survey, 44 agencies provided information on PAS

positions. Agencies must notify the Congress and us whenever a vacancy

occurs in a position covered by the Vacancies Reform Act. Agencies also

must report the name of any person carrying out the duties of the vacant

position in an acting capacity as well as certain other specific items of

information. While 21 agencies responded to our questionnaire that they

had vacancies or acting officials between the act’s November 21, 1998,

effective date and June 30, 2000, we were not notified of 17 (or 19 percent)

of those vacancies and 21 (or 24 percent) of the acting officials.

The 21 agencies told us that vacancies had occurred in a total of 90

positions and that 87 officials had served in an acting capacity in those

positions. Although we should have been notified of all 90 vacancies, 10

agencies did not notify us about 17 vacancies. We should also have been

notified of all 87 instances of the appointment of acting officials, but 12

agencies did not notify us about 21 of those instances.2

 Table 1 identifies

agencies with vacancies and acting officials along with the number of

times they did not report either event.

 2

 We used a July 13, 2000, cut off date for reporting vacancies and acting officials to our

Executive Vacancies Act Tracking System, which allowed 2 weeks after the June 30, 2000,

ending date in our questionnaire. As of April 6, 2001, an additional 10 of the vacancies and

an additional 12 of the acting officials had been reported to us.

Significant Percentage

of Vacancies and

Acting Officials Not

Reported by Agencies
Page 6 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Table 1: Vacancies and Acting Officials For PAS Positions Between November 21,

1998, and June 30, 2000

Vacancies Acting

Agency Total Reported

Not

Reported Total Reported

Not

Reported

AID a

6 5 17 5 2

Agriculture a

1 1 02 2 0

Commerce 8 7 17 6 1

Defense 5 4 15 4 1

Education 5 5 05 4 1

Energy 4 2 24 2 2

EPA 3 3 03 2 1

HHS 2 2 02 2 0

HUD 1 1 00 0 0

Interior a

5 5 06 6 0

Justice 10 4 6 10 5 5

Labor 5 5 05 5 0

OMB a

3 3 04 4 0

IMLS 1 0 11 0 1

ONDCP 2 1 11 0 1

Peace Corp 1 0 11 0 1

OSTP 1 0 10 0 0

State 6 4 26 4 2

Transportation 6 6 06 6 0

Treasury 13 13 0 9 6 3

Veterans

Affairs 2 2 0 3 3 0

Total 90 73 17 87 66 21

a

Because more than one acting official was appointed to the same position at these agencies, the

sum of acting officials reported and not reported is greater than the number of vacancies existing.

AID is Agency for International Development

EPA is Environmental Protection Agency

HHS is Department of Health and Human Services

HUD is Department of Housing and Urban Development

ONDCP is Office of National Drug Control Policy

OSTP is Office of Science and Technology Policy

The Vacancies Reform Act was signed into law on October 21, 1998, and

generally became effective 30 days later, and it is possible that some
Page 7 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

affected agencies were not aware of their responsibilities under the

Vacancies Reform Act shortly after it was passed. However, the instances

of nonreporting of vacancies and acting officials cannot all be attributed to

the newness of the Vacancies Reform Act. As shown in table 2, 11 of 17

instances of nonreporting of vacancies occurred in 2000, and 13 of 21

instances of nonreporting of acting officials occurred in that year.

Table 2: Vacancies and Acting Officials in PAS Positions Subject to the Vacancies Reform Act but Not Reported to GAO as of

July 13, 2000

Not notified of vacancy Not notified of acting official

Agency PAS position

Date Position

became vacant PAS position

Date official

began acting

service

Assistant Administrator,

Management

AID Assistant Administrator, 03/17/2000

Management

03/17/2000

Inspector General 06/30/2000

Commerce Assistant Secretary

and Director General, U.S. and

Foreign Commercial Service

01/10/2000 Assistant Secretary

and Director General, U.S. and

Foreign Commercial Service

01/10/2000

Defense Under Secretary for

Personnel and Readiness

03/31/2000 Under Secretary for

Personnel and Readiness

04/01/2000

Education Under Secretary 03/13/2000

EPA Assistant Administrator,

Environmental Information

12/02/1999

IMLS Director 04/01/1999 Director 04/01/1999

Administrator, Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention

02/28/2000 Administrator, Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention

03/01/2000

Associate Attorney General 10/28/1999 Associate Attorney General 10/29/1999

Director, National Institute of Justice 04/21/2000 Director, National Institute of Justice 04/21/2000

Deputy Administrator, Drug

Enforcement Administration

06/02/2000

Assistant Attorney General, Office of

Justice Programs

02/25/2000 Assistant Attorney General, Office of

Justice Programs

02/26/2000

Justice

Inspector General 08/15/1999 Inspector General 08/16/1999

Office of National

Drug Control

Policy

Deputy Director, Supply Reduction 02/03/2000 Deputy Director, Supply Reduction 02/03/2000

Office of Science

and Technology

Policy

Associate Director, National Security

and International Affairs

01/31/1999

Peace Corps Director 08/12/1999 Director 08/12/1999

Director, Energy Information

Administration

06/02/2000 Director, Energy Information

Administration

Energy 06/03/2000

Director, Office of Science 01/02/2000 Director, Office of Science 01/02/2000

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms

Control

State 11/23/1999

Director General of Foreign Affairs 06/09/2000 Director General of Foreign Affairs 06/09/2000
Page 8 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Not notified of vacancy Not notified of acting official

Agency PAS position

Date Position

became vacant PAS position

Date official

began acting

service

Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs 06/15/2000

Assistant Secretary, Financial

Institutions

07/16/1999

Assistant Secretary, Public Affairs 08/11/1999

Treasury

Director of the Mint 03/27/2000

For each vacancy and acting official identified through our questionnaire

that had not been reported to us by July 13, 2000, we contacted the

applicable agency to verify that notification should have occurred. Most

agencies offered no explanation for why vacancies and acting officials

were not reported. Officials at the Departments of Commerce and Defense

said they had reported one of the events in table 2, and an official at IMLS

and an Agency for International Development official each said two events

had been reported to OPP at the time of the events, but we found no

evidence that the reports had been forwarded to us.

For about half of the vacancies and acting officials of which we were

notified, the agencies took longer than 4 weeks to deliver reports to us,

even though the act requires that these reports be submitted immediately.

Between November 21, 1998, and July 13, 2000, a total of 21 agencies

notified us of 73 vacancies and 66 acting officials. The mean time between

the 73 vacancies occurring and the event being reported was 55 days and

the median time was 32 days. The mean time for the 66 acting official

events was 51 days and the median was 28 days.

On March 21, 2001, the Counsel to the President sent a memorandum to

the heads of federal executive departments and agencies and units of the

Executive Office of the President providing guidance on reporting

requirements under the Vacancies Reform Act. The memorandum also

streamlined the process for how reports are to be sent to the Congress and

us, and specified that it is each agency’s responsibility to determine

whether the act covers any of its officials. Agencies were told to report

directly to the Congress and GAO rather than through OPP and OMB, as

was the case in the Clinton Administration. This more streamlined process

should lead to more current reporting of events and the memorandum

itself should raise awareness in agencies of their responsibility and

hopefully increase timely compliance with the reporting requirements.

Recent Guidance Should

Reduce Reporting Time

Lag
Page 9 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Four acting officials served beyond the time limits specified by the

Vacancies Reform Act. Three of these cases were discussed in our

September 2000 interim response to you: the Acting Inspector Generals of

the Departments of Defense and Justice and the Chief Financial Officer at

the Environmental Protection Agency. We indicated that, while these

officials had exceeded the time limit, the act provides an exception to the

provision invalidating nondelegable actions for those persons serving in

Inspector General or Chief Financial Officer positions. We reported these

instances to President Clinton and the appropriate congressional

committees on September 15, 2000.3

We found one additional instance of an acting official exceeding the time

limit for temporary service. The Deputy Director for Museum Services of

IMLS served as Acting Director for substantially longer than the 210-day

time limit allows. We have also reported this situation to the President and

the appropriate congressional Committees as required by the Vacancies

Reform Act.4

 The position of Director became vacant on April 1, 1999, and

the Deputy Director for Museum Services became the Acting Director on

this date. According to IMLS officials, the Acting Director remained in this

position only until the 210th day at which time the individual ceased acting

as Director. At the end of the 210-day period, the Acting Director delegated

all delegable functions to the Deputy Director for Museum Services.

However, we found an instance where the individual used the Acting

Director title at the House Appropriations hearing for IMLS on April 4,

2000, 5 months after the end of the 210 day time limit. The Vacancies

Reform Act provides that actions taken by acting officials after expiration

of the time limit have no force or effect if the functions and duties of the

position necessary to take those actions could not by law be delegated by

a person confirmed by the Senate to serve in the position. Any

nondelegable decisions by the Acting Director of the IMLS after 210 days

in the acting capacity would have no force or effect. IMLS officials told us

that the individual had not taken any nondelegable actions after 210 days

had passed. Because the Vacancies Reform Act restarts the clock on time

limits for acting officials when a new administration takes office, the

individual could resume serving as Acting Director on January 20, 2001.

 3 Violations of the 210-Day Limit Imposed by the Vacancies Reform Act, B-286265, Sept.

15, 2000.

4 Violation of the 210-Day Limit Imposed by the Vacancies Reform Act, B-287720, May 18,

2001.

Four Acting Officials

Served Beyond the

Time Limit
Page 10 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

We sent copies of a draft of the report for review and comment to the

Counsel to the President and to IMLS. The Counsel said that because the

matters discussed in the report dealt with compliance by the previous

administration, he and his staff did not have any knowledge about

compliance at that time with the Vacancy Reform Act and had no

comments (see Appendix III).

IMLS said that it had taken numerous steps to ensure that the agency was

in compliance with the Vacancies Reform Act (see Appendix IV). IMLS

essentially agreed with the facts presented in the report about the

sequence of events related to the Acting Director. However, IMLS

commented that while there may have been confusion about use of the

Acting Director title after the 210-day time limit expired, the Deputy

Director for Museum Services acted solely under delegated authority and

took no unauthorized actions. However, as discussed in the report, the

Deputy Director for Museum Services continued to use the title of Acting

Director after expiration of the 210-day time limit and we conclude that

this action of holding herself out to be the Acting Director constitutes a

violation of the Vacancies Reform Act.

Even though we have been informed that no non-delegable functions and

duties were performed by the Acting Director and thus the Act’s provision

invalidating improperly performed functions and duties would not apply in

IMLS’s situation, we still had a duty to report the 210-day violation to the

President, the Congress, and OPM. The statute makes clear that the

Congress is interested not only in prohibiting improperly exercised

functions, but also in identifying situations where an office is vacant for an

extended period of time and an acting official is serving in violation of the

time limit. When an acting official serves past the allowed time period,

such action raises issues of executive accountability and the performance

of the leadership function. The Congress needs to be made aware of

vacant positions for which the Senate has a role in consenting to their

being filled. Because, as noted earlier, a report of the vacancy never

reached the Congress or GAO, we believe it is important that we alert the

Congress about the 210-day violation and the extended lapse in properly

filling this leadership position.

As agreed with your office, we will make no further distribution of this

report for 14 days. After that time, we wiil send copies of this letter to

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on

Governmental Affairs; Senators Thad Cochran, Chairman, and Daniel K.

Agency Comments

And Our Evaluation
Page 11 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Akaka, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on International Security,

Proliferation, and Federal Services, Senate Committee on Governmental

Affairs; Senators George V. Voinovich, Chairman, and Richard J. Durbin,

Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government

Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia, Senate

Committee on Governmental Affairs; Representatives Dan Burton,

Chairman, and Henry A. Waxman, Ranking Minority Member, House

Committee on Government Reform; Representatives Joe Scarborough,

Chairman, and Danny Davis, Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on

Civil Service and Agency Organization, House Committee on Government

Reform; Mr. Clay S. Johnson, Assistant to the President for Presidential

Personnel; Mr. Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President; Mr. Steven

R. Cohen, Acting Director, Office of Personnel Management; and, the

Honorable Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., Director, Office of Management and

Budget. In addition, copies will be sent to other congressional committees,

the heads of the agencies discussed in this report, and other interested

parties. We will also make copies available to others on request.

Please contact me or Mr. Thomas Dowdal, Assistant Director, on (202)

512-6806 if you have any questions.

In addition, Jeffrey Dawson, Terry Draver, Clifton Douglas, Jr., V. Bruce

Goddard, and Michael Volpe made key contributions to this report.

Sincerely yours,

Victor S. Rezendes

Managing Director, Strategic Issues
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 12 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

To determine whether the Congress and GAO had been notified of all

vacant PAS positions between November 21, 1998, and June 30, 2000,1

 and

any acting officials serving in those positions, we obtained from the White

House Office of Presidential Personnel a list of PAS positions that was the

best available approximation of those subject to the Vacancies Reform

Act. The then Associate Counsel to the President said that the list of 62

agencies with 484 PAS positions was a working list based primarily on

Vacancies Reform Act submissions prepared by agency officials and was

not intended to represent a final legal determination on the coverage of

the Vacancies Reform Act.

We sent each agency on the White House list the names of its PAS

positions and asked the agencies to complete a questionnaire for (1) each

position identified and (2) any PAS position they considered subject to the

Vacancies Reform Act that was not on the list we sent. The questionnaire

also requested the name of any individual who filled a vacant position on

an acting (temporary) basis and the dates of that service. Based on the

responses, 44 agencies indicated they had positions covered by the

Vacancies Reform Act.

We compared the vacancy and acting service information submitted by 44

agencies with the notifications GAO had received from them, as

accumulated in our Executive Vacancies Reform Act Tracking System. The

tracking system information was used for various analyses. When

information we received through the questionnaire was not in the tracking

system, we rechecked the source information for our tracking data and

contacted the responsible agency to verify the information.

To determine whether vacancies were filled by acting officials for longer

than the time limits under the act, we used data from our Executive

Vacancies Act Tracking System and information that agencies submitted

for this review. Our Executive Vacancies Act Tracking System is

programmed to count 210 days from the dates vacancies occur, as

reported by the respective agencies. The tracking system also is

programmed to make adjustments provided for by the Vacancies Reform

Act, such as temporarily suspending the 210-day count if a vacancy occurs

during the adjournment of Congress or if a nomination has been sent to

the Senate. We obtained tracking system information on how long acting

 1

 June 30, 2000, was the end date because we asked the agencies for information at the

beginning of August 2000.

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 13 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

officials filled PAS positions that had become vacant before as well as

since November 21, 1998. The 210-day limit is the only provision of the

Vacancies Reform Act that also applied to vacancies that existed on

November 20, 1998. We tracked how long an acting official occupied a

vacant position through August 2000. We stopped tracking at that point so

we could include the analysis in our September 2000 interim report to you.

We compared the information agencies submitted in the questionnaire

with information from GAO’s tracking system. In a significant percentage

of cases, GAO was not previously notified of a vacancy or acting official.

As a result, the tracking system could not monitor those vacancies to

determine whether acting officials served longer than 210 days. In other

instances, the tracking system contained information about the vacancies

and acting officials, but the dates recorded did not match the dates the

agencies provided for this review. For differences greater than 1 day, we

first tried to resolve the difference by using data that we had available.

Where differences still remained, we asked the affected agencies to

explain why there were differences, to tell us which dates were correct,

and to explain why those dates were correct. With this corrected

information, we determined, as appropriate, whether the 210 days had

elapsed.
Appendix II: Federal Agencies

That Reported Having PAS

Positions Subject to the

Vacancies Reform Act

Page 14 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform 

Agency for International Development

Archives and Records Administration

Central Intelligence Agency

Corporation for National and Community Service

Council of Environmental Quality

Department of Agriculture

Department of Commerce

Department of Defense

Department of Education

Department of Energy

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Department of Interior

Department of Justice

Department of Labor

Department of State

Department of Transportation

Department of Treasury

Department of Veterans Affairs

District of Columbia Offender Supervision, Defender, and Courts Services Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Federal Labor Relations Authority

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

General Services Administration

Institute of Museum and Library Services

International Joint Commission on U.S. and Canada

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Navaho and Hopi Indian Relocation Commission

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Government Ethics

Office of Management and Budget

Office of National Drug Control Policy

Office of Personnel Management

Office of Science and Technology Policy

Office of Special Counsel

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Peace Corps

Railroad Retirement Board

Selective Service System

Small Business Administration

Appendix II: Federal Agencies That Reported

Having PAS Positions Subject to the

Vacancies Reform Act
Appendix II: Federal Agencies

That Reported Having PAS

Positions Subject to the

Vacancies Reform Act

Page 15 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform 

Social Security Administration

Trade and Development Agency

Note: Listing may not be all inclusive. Additional agencies may have PAS positions that fall under the

Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998
Appendix III: Comments From the Counsel to

the President

Page 16 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

.

Appendix III: Comments From the Counsel

to the President
Appendix IV: Comments From the Institute of Museum and

Library Services

Page 17 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Appendix IV: Comments From the Institute

of Museum and Library Services
Appendix IV: Comments From the Institute of Museum and

Library Services

Page 18 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

(450024)
Appendix IV: Comments From the Institute of Museum and

Library Services

Page 19 GAO-01-701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

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