Presidential Appointments to Full-Time Positions in Independent and Other Agencies During the 114th Congress
Released: 2017-11-28T00:00:00

Introduction

The President is responsible for appointing individuals to positions throughout the federal government. In some instances, the President makes these appointments using authorities granted by law to the President alone. Other appointments are made with the advice and consent of the Senate via the nomination and confirmation of appointees. Presidential appointments with Senate confirmation are often referred to with the abbreviation PAS. This report identifies, for the 114 th Congress, all nominations to full-time positions requiring Senate confirmation in 40 organizations in the executive branch (27 independent agencies, 6 agencies in the Executive Office of the President [EOP], and 7 multilateral organizations) and 4 agencies in the legislative branch. It excludes appointments to executive departments and to regulatory and other boards and commissions, which are covered in other Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports.

Information for this report was compiled using the Legislative Information System (LIS) Senate nominations database at http://www.lis.gov/nomis , the Congressional Record (daily edition), the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents , telephone discussions with agency officials, agency websites, the United States Code , and the 2016 Plum Book ( United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions ).

Related CRS reports regarding the presidential appointments process, nomination activity for other executive branch positions, recess appointments, and other appointment-related matters may be found at http://www.crs.gov .

Appointments During the 114th Congress

During the 114 th Congress, President Barack Obama submitted 43 nominations to the Senate for full-time positions in independent agencies, agencies in the EOP, multilateral agencies, and legislative branch agencies. Of these nominations, 22 were confirmed, 16 were returned to the President, and 5 were withdrawn. Table 1 summarizes the appointment activity.

Length of Time to Confirm a Nomination

The length of time a given nomination may be pending in the Senate varies widely. Some nominations are confirmed within a few days, others are not confirmed for several months, and some are never confirmed. This report provides, for each agency nomination confirmed in the 114 th Congress, the number of days between nomination and confirmation ("days to confirm").

Under Senate Rules, nominations not acted on by the Senate at the end of a session of Congress (or before a recess of 30 days) are returned to the President. The Senate, by unanimous consent, often waives this rule—although not always. In the case of nominations that are returned to the President and resubmitted, this report measures the days to confirm from the date of receipt of the resubmitted nomination, not the original.

For agency nominations confirmed in the 114 th Congress, a mean of 174.1 days elapsed between nomination and confirmation. The median number of days elapsed was 152.0.

Organization of this Report

Agency Profiles

Agency profiles in this report are organized in two parts. The first table lists the titles and pay levels of all the agency's full-time PAS positions as of the end of the 114 th Congress. For most presidentially appointed positions requiring Senate confirmation, pay levels fall under the Executive Schedule. As of the end of the 114 th Congress, these pay levels range from level I ($205,700) for Cabinet-level offices to level V ($150,200) for lower-ranked positions.

The second table lists appointment action for vacant positions during the 114 th Congress in chronological order. This table provides the name of the nominee, position title, date of nomination or appointment, date of confirmation, and number of days between receipt of a nomination and confirmation, and notes relevant actions other than confirmation (e.g., nominations returned to or withdrawn by the President).

When more than one nominee has had appointment action, the second table also provides statistics on the length of time between nomination and confirmation. The average days to confirm are provided in two ways: mean and median. The mean is a more familiar measure, though it may be influenced by outliers in the data. The median, by contrast, does not tend to be influenced by outliers. In other words, a nomination that took an extraordinarily long time to be confirmed might cause a significant change in the mean, but the median would be unaffected. Examining both numbers offers more information with which to assess the central tendency of the data.

Additional Appointment Information

Appendix A provides two tables. Table A-1 relists all appointment action identified in this report and is organized alphabetically by the appointee's last name. Table entries identify the agency to which each individual was appointed, position title, nomination date, date confirmed or other final action, and duration count for confirmed nominations. In the final two rows, the table includes the mean and median values for the "days to confirm" column.

Table A-2 provides summary data from the appointments identified in this report and is organized by agency type, including independent executive agencies, agencies in the EOP, multilateral organizations, and agencies in the legislative branch. The table summarizes the number of positions, nominations submitted, individual nominees, confirmations, nominations returned, and nominations withdrawn for each agency grouping. It also includes mean and median values for the number of days taken to confirm nominations in each category.

Appendix B provides a list of department abbreviations.

Nominations and Incumbents: Full-Time Positions in Independent Agencies

Appalachian Regional Commission

Broadcasting Board of Governors

Central Intelligence Agency

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Corporation for National and Community Service

Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency to the District of Columbia

Delta Regional Authority

Environmental Protection Agency

Federal Housing Finance Agency

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

General Services Administration

Millennium Challenge Corporation

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Archives and Records Administration

National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities

National Science Foundation

Northern Border Regional Commission

Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Office of Government Ethics

Office of Personnel Management

Office of Special Counsel

Overseas Private Investment Corporation

Peace Corps

Small Business Administration

Social Security Administration

Trade and Development Agency

U.S. Agency for International Development

Nominations and Incumbents: Full-Time Positions in the Executive Office of the President

Council of Economic Advisers

Council on Environmental Quality

Office of Management and Budget

Office of National Drug Control Policy

Office of Science and Technology Policy

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Nominations and Incumbents: Full-Time Positions in Multilateral Organizations

African Development Bank

Asian Development Bank

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Inter-American Development Bank

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank)

International Joint Commission, United States and Canada

International Monetary Fund

Nominations and Incumbents: Full-Time Positions in Legislative Branch Agencies

Architect of the Capitol

Government Accountability Office

Government Publishing Office

Library of Congress

Appendix A. Summary of All Nominations and Appointments to Independent and Other Agencies

Appendix B. Agency Abbreviations