Presidential Appointments to Full-time Positions in Executive Departments During the 109th Congress, 2005-2006
Released: 2008-06-10T00:00:00

This report provides an overview of the process for filling positions to which the President makes appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate (PAS positions). It also identifies, for the 109 th Congress, all nominations to executive-level full-time positions in the 15 departments. Profiles of the departments provide basic information regarding their full-time PAS positions and related appointment activity during the 109 th Congress.

The Appointment Process for Advice and Consent Positions

The President and the Senate share the power to appoint the principal officers of the United States. The Constitution (Article II, Section 2, clause 2) empowers the President to nominate and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint the principal officers of the United States. Three distinct stages mark the appointment process: selection, clearance, and nomination by the President; consideration by the Senate; and appointment by the President.

Selection, Clearance, and Nomination

In the first stage, the White House selects and clears a prospective appointee before sending a formal nomination to the Senate. There are a number of steps in this stage of the process for most Senate-confirmed positions. First, with the assistance of, and preliminary vetting by, the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, the President selects a candidate for the position. Interested parties, including Members of Congress, have sometimes had input during this process. It has been argued that Senators are constitutionally entitled, by virtue of the advice and consent clause noted above, to provide advice to the President regarding his selection; the extent of this entitlement is a matter of some debate. As a practical matter, in instances where Senators perceive insufficient pre-nomination consultation has occurred, they have sometimes used holds to block Senate confirmation for those nominations.

During the clearance process, the candidate prepares and submits several forms: the "Public Financial Disclosure Report" (Standard Form (SF) 278), the "Questionnaire for National Security Positions" (SF 86), and the White House "Personal Data Statement Questionnaire." The Office of the Counsel to the President oversees the clearance process, which often includes the collection and review of background information by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Office of Government Ethics (OGE), and an ethics official for the agency to which the candidate is to be appointed. If conflicts are found during the background check, OGE and the agency ethics officer may work with the candidate to mitigate the conflicts. Once the Office of the Counsel to the President has cleared the candidate, the nomination is ready to be submitted to the Senate.

The selection and clearance stage has often been the longest part of the appointment process. There have been, at times, lengthy delays, particularly when many candidates have been processed simultaneously, such as at the beginning of an Administration, or where conflicts needed to be resolved. Candidates for higher-level positions have often been accorded priority in this process. In an effort to reduce the elapsed time between a new President's inauguration and the appointment of his or her national security team, amendments to the Presidential Transitions Act of 1963, enacted at the end of 2004, encourage a President-elect to submit, for security clearance, potential nominees to high-level national security positions as soon as possible after the election. A separate provision of law, enacted as part of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, lengthens, during presidential transitions, the potential duration of a temporary appointment by at least 90 days. Although this provision might give some additional flexibility to an incoming President, it might also lengthen the appointment process for some positions by, in effect, extending the deadline by which a permanent appointment must be completed.

For a position located within a state (e.g., U.S. attorney, U.S. marshal, and U.S. district judge), the President, by custom, normally has nominated an individual recommended by the Senator or Senators (if they are from the same party as the President) from that state. In instances where neither Senator is from the President's party, he usually has deferred to the recommendations of party leaders from the state. Occasionally, the President has solicited recommendations from Senators of the opposition party because of their positions in the Senate.

A nominee has no legal authority to assume the duties and responsibilities of the position; the authority comes with Senate confirmation and presidential appointment. A nominee who is hired by the agency as a consultant while awaiting confirmation may serve only in an advisory capacity. If circumstances permit and conditions are met, the President could give the nominee a recess appointment to the position (see below). Recess appointments have sometimes had political consequences, however, particularly where Senators perceived that such an appointment was an effort to circumvent their constitutional role. Some Senate-confirmed positions, such as many of those in the executive departments, may also be temporarily filled under the Vacancies Act.

Senate Consideration

In the second stage, the Senate alone determines whether or not to confirm a nomination. The way the Senate has acted on a nomination has depended largely on the importance of the position involved, existing political circumstances, and policy implications. Generally, the Senate has shown particular interest in the nominee's views and how they are likely to affect public policy. Two other factors have sometimes affected the scrutiny with which a nominee's personal and professional qualities have been examined: whether or not the President's party controlled the Senate and the degree to which the President became involved in supporting the nomination.

The Senate confirmation process has been centered at the committee level. Committee nomination activity has generally included investigation, hearing, and reporting stages. As part of investigatory work, committees have drawn on information provided by the White House, as well as information they themselves have collected. Some committees have held hearings on nearly all nominations; others have held hearings for only some. Hearings provide a public forum to discuss a nomination and any issues related to the program or agency for which the nominee would be responsible. Even where confirmation has been thought to be a virtual certainty, hearings have provided Senators and the nominee with opportunities to go on the record with particular views or commitments. Senators have used hearings to explore nominees' qualifications, articulate policy perspectives, or raise related oversight issues.

A committee may discontinue acting on a nomination at any point—upon referral, after investigation, or after a hearing. If the committee votes to report the nomination back to the full Senate, it has three options: it may report the nomination to the Senate favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation. If the committee elects not to report a nomination, the Senate may, under certain circumstances, discharge the committee from further consideration of the nomination in order to bring it to the floor.

The Senate historically has confirmed most, but not all, executive nominations. Rarely, however, has a rejection occurred on the Senate floor. Nearly all rejections have occurred in committee, either by committee vote or by committee inaction. Rejections in committee have occurred for a variety of reasons, including opposition to the nomination, inadequate amount of time for consideration of the nomination, or factors that may have nothing to do with the merits of the nomination. If a nomination is not acted upon by the Senate by the end of a Congress, it is returned to the President. Pending nominations also may be returned automatically to the President at the beginning of a recess of 30 days or longer, but the Senate rule providing for this return is often waived.

Appointment

In the final stage, the confirmed nominee is given a commission signed by the President, with the seal of the United States affixed thereto, and is sworn into office. The President may sign the commission at any time after confirmation or not at all. Once the appointee is given the commission and sworn in, he or she has full authority to carry out the responsibilities of the office.

Recess Appointments

The Constitution also empowers the President to make limited-term appointments without Senate confirmation when the Senate is in recess. Such recess appointments expire at the end of the next session of the Senate. Appendix C provides a table showing the dates of the Senate recesses for the 109 th Congress and the number of recess appointments to full-time departmental positions during each recess.

Presidents have occasionally used the recess appointment power to circumvent the confirmation process. In response, Congress has enacted provisions that restrict the pay of recess appointees under certain circumstances. Because most potential appointees to full-time positions cannot serve without a salary, the President has an incentive to use his recess appointment authority in ways that allow them to be paid. Under the provisions, if the position falls vacant while the Senate is in session and the President fills it by recess appointment, the appointee may not be paid from the Treasury until he or she is confirmed by the Senate. However, the salary prohibition does not apply (1) if the vacancy arose within 30 days before the end of the session; (2) if a nomination for the office (other than the nomination of someone given a recess appointment during the preceding recess) was pending when the Senate recessed; or (3) if a nomination was rejected within 30 days before the end of the session and another individual was given the recess appointment. A recess appointment falling under any one of these three exceptions must be followed by a nomination to the position not later than 40 days after the beginning of the next session of the Senate. For this reason, when a recess appointment is made, the President generally submits a new nomination for the nominee even when an old nomination is pending. These provisions have been interpreted by the Department of Justice to preclude payment of an appointee who is given successive recess appointments to the same position.

Although recess appointees whose nominations to a full term are subsequently rejected by the Senate may continue to serve until the end of their recess appointment, a recurring provision of the funding bill for the Department of the Treasury and other agencies may prevent them from being paid after their rejection.

Temporary Appointments

Congress has provided limited statutory authority for the temporary filling of vacant positions requiring Senate confirmation. It is expected that, in general, officials holding PAS positions who have been designated as "acting" are holding their offices under this authority or other statutory authority specific to their agencies. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, when an executive agency position requiring confirmation becomes vacant, it may be filled temporarily in one of three ways: (1) the first assistant to such a position may automatically assume the functions and duties of the office; (2) the President may direct an officer in any agency who is occupying a position requiring Senate confirmation to perform those tasks; or (3) the President may select any officer or employee of the subject agency who is occupying a position for which the rate of pay is equal to or greater than the minimum rate of pay at the GS-15 level, and who has been with the agency for at least 90 of the preceding 365 days. The temporary appointment is for 210 days, but the time restriction is suspended if a first or second nomination for the position is pending. In addition, during a presidential transition, the 210-day restriction period does not begin to run until either 90 days after the President assumes office, or 90 days after the vacancy occurs, if it is within the 90-day inauguration period. The act does not apply to positions on multi-headed regulatory boards and commissions and to certain other specific positions that may be filled temporarily under other statutory provisions.

Appointments During the 109 th Congress

Table 1 summarizes appointment activity, during the 109 th Congress, related to full-time positions in the 15 departments. President George W. Bush submitted to the Senate 283 nominations to executive department full-time positions. Of these 283 nominations, 233 were confirmed; nine were withdrawn; and 41 were returned to the President under the provisions of Senate rules.

President Bush made a total of 13 recess appointments to the departments during this period. All 13 were made during recesses within the first or second session of the 109 th Congress ( intrasession recess appointments). None were made during the recess between the first and second sessions of the 109 th Congress ( intersession recess appointments).

Length of Time to Confirm a Nomination

The length of time a given nomination may be pending in the Senate has varied widely. Some nominations have been confirmed within a few days; others have been confirmed within several months; and some have never been confirmed. This report provides, for each executive department nomination that was confirmed in the 109 th Congress, the number of days between nomination and confirmation ("days to confirm"). For those nominations that were confirmed, an average of 75 days elapsed between nomination and confirmation. The median number of days elapsed was 57. These statistics exclude days during summer recesses and between sessions of Congress. This cutoff point is suggested by the Senate rules, which provide that "if the Senate shall adjourn or take recess for more than thirty days, all nominations pending and not finally acted upon" shall be returned to the President, although this rule is often waived. The 33 days during the summer 2005 recess, the 11 days between the first and second sessions of the 109 th Congress, and the 31 days during the summer 2006 recess were subtracted from the "days to confirm" for those nominations that spanned one or more of these recesses. The sole exception was a 39-day recess during October and November 2004. In order to maintain consistency with similar reports for previous Congresses, no days were subtracted for this recess.

Organization of This Report

Executive Department Profiles

Each of the 15 executive department profiles provided in this report is organized into two parts: a table providing information, as of the end of the 109 th Congress, regarding the organization's full-time PAS positions, and a table listing nominations and appointments to these positions during the 109 th Congress. Data for these tables were collected from several authoritative sources.

The first of these two tables identifies, as of the end of the 109 th Congress, each full-time PAS position in the department, its incumbent, and its pay level. An incumbent's name followed by "(A)" indicates an official who was, at that time, serving in an acting capacity. A blank space indicates either that the position was vacant or that information about the position-holder was not available. For most presidentially appointed positions requiring Senate confirmation, the pay levels fall under the Executive Schedule, which, as of January 2007, ranged from level I ($186,600) for cabinet level offices to level V ($136,200) for the lowest-ranked positions.

The appointment action table provides, in chronological order, information concerning each nomination and recess appointment. It shows the name of the nominee, position involved, date of nomination or appointment, date of confirmation, and number of days between receipt of a nomination and confirmation. Actions other than confirmation (i.e., nominations returned to or withdrawn by the President) are also noted. Some individuals were nominated more than once for the same position, either because the first nomination was returned to the President or because of a recess appointment. When a nominee is awaiting Senate action and he or she is given a recess appointment, a second, follow-up, nomination is usually submitted to comply with the requirements of 5 U.S.C. § 5503(b), as discussed above, under "Recess Appointments."

Each appointment action table provides the average "days to confirm" in two ways: mean and median. The mean is determined by calculating, for each confirmed nomination, the number of days between the nomination and confirmation dates, determining the cumulative total of these days, and dividing the result by the number of nominations confirmed. The median is the middle number when the "days to confirm" data for all the confirmed nominations are arranged in numerical order.

Additional Appointment Information

Appendix A presents a table of all nominations and recess appointments to positions in executive departments, alphabetically organized, by last name, and following a similar format to that of the department appointment action tables. It identifies the agency involved and the dates of nomination and confirmation. The table also indicates if a nomination was confirmed, withdrawn, or returned. The mean and median numbers of days taken to confirm a nomination are also provided, calculated as described above.

Appendix B provides a table with summary information on appointments and nominations, by department. For each of the 15 executive departments discussed in this report, the table provides the number of positions, nominations, individual nominees, confirmations, nominations returned, nominations withdrawn, and recess appointments. The table also provides the mean and median numbers of days to confirm a nomination.

Appendix C provides a table showing the dates of the Senate recesses for the 109 th Congress and the number of recess appointments during each recess.

A list of department abbreviations can be found in Appendix D .

Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Department of Commerce (DOC)

Department of Defense (DOD)

Department of Education (ED)

Department of Energy (DOE)

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Department of the Interior (DOI)

Department of Justice (DOJ)

Department of Labor (DOL)

Department of State (DOS)

Department of Transportation (DOT)

Department of the Treasury (TREAS)

Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)

Appendix A. Nominations and Recess Appointments, 109 th Congress

Appendix B. Appointment Action, 109 th Congress

Appendix C. Senate Intersession Recesses, Intrasession Recesses of Four or More Days, and Numbers of Recess Appointments to Departmental Positions, 109 th Congress

Appendix D. Abbreviations of Departments