This report explains 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 111 th Congress, all nominations to full-time positions requiring Senate confirmation in 41 organizations in the executive branch (28 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 reports. A profile of each agency tracks the agency's nominations, providing information on Senate activity (confirmations, rejections, returns to the President, and elapsed time between nomination and confirmation) as well as further related presidential activity (including withdrawals and recess appointments). The profiles also identify, for each agency, positions requiring Senate confirmation, the incumbents in those positions as of the end of the 111 th Congress, and the pay levels of those officials. The Constitution (Article II, Section 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, as well as some subordinate officers. Officers of the United States are those individuals serving in high-ranking positions that have been established by Congress and "exercising significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States" (emphasis added). Three distinct stages mark the appointment process: selection and nomination, confirmation, and appointment. 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. Members of Congress and interest groups sometimes recommend candidates for specific PAS positions. They may offer their suggestions by letter, for example, or by contact with a White House liaison. In general, the White House is under no obligation to follow such recommendations. In the case of the Senate, however, 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 exercised their procedural prerogatives to delay or even effectively block consideration of a nomination. During the clearance process, the candidate prepares and submits several forms, including 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 background investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Office of Government Ethics (OGE), and an ethics official for the agency to which the candidate is to be appointed. If conflicts of interest are found during the background investigation, 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. At the end of 2004, in an effort to reduce the elapsed time between a new President's inauguration and the appointment of his or her national security team, Congress enacted amendments to the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. These amendments 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 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 positions located within a state (U.S. attorney, U.S. marshal, and U.S. district judge), the President, by custom, normally nominates an individual recommended by one or both Senators (if they are from the same party as the President) from that state. If neither Senator is from the President's party, he usually defers to the recommendations of party leaders from the state. Occasionally, the President solicits recommendations from Senators of the opposition party because of their positions in the Senate. Before making a nomination to a federal position at the state or national level, the President would likely consider how it will fare in the confirmation process. If circumstances permit and conditions are met, the President could give the nominee a recess appointment to the position (see section entitled " Recess Appointments " 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 may also be temporarily filled under the Vacancies Act. A nominee has no legal authority to assume the duties and responsibilities of the position; a nominee who is hired by the agency as a consultant while awaiting confirmation may serve only in an advisory capacity. Authority to act comes once there is Senate confirmation and presidential appointment, or if another method of appointment, such as a recess appointment or a temporary appointment, is utilized. (For further information on these methods, see section entitled " Recess Appointments " and " Temporary Appointments " below.) In the second stage, the Senate alone determines whether or not to confirm a nomination. The Senate's scrutiny of 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 examination of a nominee's personal and professional qualities: whether the President's party controlled the Senate, and the degree to which the President became involved in supporting the nomination. Much of the Senate confirmation process occurs at the committee level. Administratively, nominations are received by the Senate executive clerk, who arranges for the referral of the nominations to committee, according to the Senate rules and precedents. 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 by most 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 decline to act on a nomination at any point--upon referral, after investigation, or after a hearing. If the committee votes to report a nomination to the full Senate, it has three options: it may report the nomination favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation. A failure to obtain a majority on the motion to report means the nomination will not be reported to the Senate. If the committee declines 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 vote to confirm a nomination failed on the Senate floor. Usually, unsuccessful nominations fail to be reported or discharged from committee. Failure of a nomination to make it out of committee has occurred for a variety of reasons, including opposition to the nomination, inadequate amount of time for consideration of the nomination, or factors that may not be directly related to the merits of the nomination. Senate rules provide that "[n]ominations neither confirmed nor rejected during the session at which they are made shall not be acted upon at any succeeding session without being again made to the Senate by the President." In practice, such pending nominations have been returned to the President at the end of the session or Congress. Pending nominations also may be returned automatically to the President at the beginning of a recess of more than 30 days, but the Senate rule providing for this return is often waived. In the final stage, the confirmed nominee is given a commission, which bears the Great Seal of the United States and is signed by the President, and is sworn into office. The President may sign the commission at any time after confirmation, at which point the appointment becomes official. Once the appointee is given the commission and sworn in, he or she has full authority to carry out the responsibilities of the office. The Constitution also empowers the President to make a limited-term appointment without Senate confirmation when the Senate is in recess, either during a session (intrasession recess appointment) or between sessions (intersession recess appointment). Recess appointments expire at the end of the following session of Congress. 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 of the Senate; (2) if, at the end of the session, a nomination for the office, other than the nomination of an individual appointed during the preceding recess of the Senate, was pending before the Senate for its advice and consent; or (3) if a nomination for the office was rejected by the Senate within 30 days before the end of the session and an individual other than the one whose nomination was rejected thereafter receives a 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 provision of the FY2008 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act that is still in effect today may prevent them from being paid after their rejection. The provision reads, "Hereafter, no part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be paid to any person for the filling of any position for which he or she has been nominated after the Senate has voted not to approve the nomination of said person." Prior to this provision, similar wording was included in annual funding measures for most or all of the previous 50 years. Another recent congressional response to the President's use of recess appointments was the decision, during the latter part of the first session of the 110 th Congress, to restructure the Senate's longer recesses into a series of shorter recesses divided by pro forma sessions. Premised on the notion that the President can be restricted from making recess appointments during a recess that is no more than three days, the Senate sought to prevent recess appointments by holding pro forma sessions approximately every three days. Beginning in November 2007, the Senate agreed to regularly scheduled pro forma sessions during periods that would have otherwise been recesses of duration of a week or longer. The Senate did not use the pro forma session practices during the first session of the 111 th Congress. At the end of the second session, however, the Senate structured its 2010 pre-election break as a series of shorter recesses separated by pro forma sessions. In this case, the use of the practice reportedly stemmed from a lack of agreement between the Senate majority leader and the Senate minority leader regarding the disposition of pending nominations over the break: Under Senate rules, nominations must be returned to the White House if the Senate goes on recess for more than 30 days, forcing the president to resubmit nominations and committees to re-approve any nominees cleared for Senate confirmation. The chamber sometimes waives those rules, but just before the August recess, it returned 16 controversial nominees to the White House--including five judicial nominations--amid an ongoing tug-of-war between President Obama and Senate Republicans over confirmations. Because the two sides this week could not agree on which nominees to return to the White House and which to keep active, the Senate will instead officially avoid a lengthy recess by having short pro-forma sessions ... every few days.... Those pro-forma sessions will keep the White House's nominations alive but also block any recess appointments. Congress has provided limited statutory authority for the temporary filling of vacant positions requiring Senate confirmation. 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 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 or to certain other specific positions which may be filled temporarily under other statutory provisions. During the 111 th Congress, President Barack Obama submitted to the Senate 107 nominations to full-time positions in independent agencies, agencies in the Executive Office of the President (EOP), multilateral agencies, and legislative branch agencies. Of these nominations, 92 were confirmed, 14 were returned to the President, and 1 was withdrawn. The President made five recess appointments during this period to positions in organizations covered in this report. Table 1 summarizes the appointment activity. The length of time a given nomination may be pending in the Senate varies widely. Some nominations are confirmed within a few days, others may not be confirmed for several months, and some are never confirmed. This report provides, for each independent agency nomination confirmed in the 111 th Congress, the number of days between nomination and confirmation ("days to confirm"). The mean (average) number of days taken by the Senate to confirm a nomination to a position covered by this report was 93.1. The median number of days taken by the Senate to confirm a nominee was 65.5. The agency profiles provide data on presidential nominations and appointments to full-time positions requiring Senate confirmation, and Senate action on the nominations. Data on appointment actions during the 111 th Congress appear in two tables for each agency, "Incumbents in Full-time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress" and "Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress." As noted, some agencies had no nomination activity during this period of time. The first of these two tables identifies, as of the end of the 111 th Congress, each full-time PAS position in the department, its incumbent, and its pay level. For most presidentially appointed positions requiring Senate confirmation, the pay levels fall under the Executive Schedule, which, as of January 2011, ranged from level I ($199,700) for Cabinet-level offices to level V ($145,700) for the lowest-ranked positions. An incumbent's name followed by "(A)" indicates an official who was, at that time, serving in an acting capacity. Vacancies are also noted in the first table. The nomination action table provides, in chronological order, information concerning each nomination. It shows the name of the nominee, position involved, date of nomination, date of confirmation, and number of days between receipt of a nomination and confirmation. The numbers of days shown in the tables in this report include days during the longer recesses around August and between sessions of Congress. Some nominees identified in this report were nominated more than once for the same position. This was typically because the President submitted a nomination following a recess appointment (recess appointments are also included in the table). When a nominee is awaiting Senate action and he or she is given a recess appointment, a follow-up nomination is usually submitted to comply with the requirements of 5 U.S.C. SS5503(b) (see section entitled " Recess Appointments ," above). The nomination tables that have more than one nominee to a position also give statistics on the length of time between nomination and confirmation. Each nomination action table provides the average "days to confirm" in two ways: mean and median. While the mean is a more familiar measure, it may be influenced by outliers in the data, while the median does not tend to be influenced by outliers. In other words, a nomination that took an extraordinarily long time might cause a significant change in the mean, but the median would be unaffected. Presenting both numbers is a better way to look at the central tendency of the data. Appendix A presents a table of all nominations and recess appointments to positions in independent and other agencies, organized alphabetically by last name and following a similar format to that of the agency-by-agency nomination action tables. It identifies the agency involved and the dates of nomination. The table indicates if and when a nomination was confirmed, withdrawn, or returned. The mean and median numbers of days taken to confirm a nomination are also provided. Appendix B provides a table with summary information on appointments and nominations by four agency categories: independent executive agencies, agencies in the Executive Office of the President (EOP), multilateral organizations, and agencies in the legislative branch. For each of these categories, the table provides the number of positions, nominations, individual nominees, confirmations, nominations returned, and nominations withdrawn. The table also provides, for each of the four categories, the mean and median number of days to confirm a nomination. Appendix C provides a list of department abbreviations. Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress ARC Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress BBG Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress CIA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress CNCS Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress DRA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress EPA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress FHFA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress FMCS Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress GSA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress MCC Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress NASA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress NARA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress NFAH Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress NSF Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress NBRC Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress ODNI Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress OPM Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress OSC Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress OPIC Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress PC Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress SSS Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress SBA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress SSA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress TDA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress USAID Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress CEA Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress CEQ Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress OMB Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress ONDCP Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress OSTP Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress OUSTR Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress AfDB Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress AsDB Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress EBRD Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress IADB Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress IBRD Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress IJC Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress IMF Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress AOC Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress GAO Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress GPO Nomination Action During the 111 th Congress Incumbents in Full-Time PAS Positions, as of the End of the 111 th Congress Appendix A. Summary of All Nominations and Appointments to Independent and Other Agencies Appendix B. Nomination Action by Agency Type, 111 th Congress Appendix C. Agency Abbreviations Independent Agencies ARC--Appalachian Regional Commission BBG--Broadcasting Board of Governors CIA--Central Intelligence Agency CNCS--Corporation for National and Community Service CSOSA--Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia DRA--Delta Regional Authority EPA--Environmental Protection Agency FHFA--Federal Housing Finance Agency FMCS--Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service GSA--General Services Administration MCC--Millennium Challenge Corporation NARA--National Archives and Records Administration NASA--National Aeronautics and Space Administration NFAH--National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities NSF--National Science Foundation NBRC--Northern Border Regional Commission ODNI--Office of the Director of National Intelligence OGE--Office of Government Ethics ONHIR--Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation OPIC--Overseas Private Investment Corporation OPM--Office of Personnel Management OSC--Office of Special Counsel PC--Peace Corps SBA--Small Business Administration SSA--Social Security Administration SSS--Selective Service System TDA--Trade Development Agency USAID--United States Agency for International Development Executive Office of the President (EOP) CEA--Council of Economic Advisers CEQ--Council on Environmental Quality OMB--Office of Management and Budget ONDCP--Office of National Drug Control Policy OSTP--Office of Science and Technology Policy OUSTR--Office of U.S. Trade Representative Multilateral Banking Organizations AfDB--African Development Bank AsDB--Asian Development Bank EBRD--European Bank for Reconstruction and Development IADB--Inter-American Development Bank IBRD--International Bank for Reconstruction and Development IJC--International Joint Commission, U.S. and Canada IMF--International Monetary Fund Legislative Branch Agencies AC--Architect of the Capitol GAO--Government Accountability Office GPO--Government Printing Office LC--Library of Congress

Summary:
This report explains the process for filling positions to which the President makes appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate (also referred to as PAS positions). It also identifies, for the 111th Congress, all nominations to full-time positions requiring Senate confirmation in 41 organizations in the executive branch (28 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 reports. The appointment process for advice and consent positions consists of three main stages. The first stage is selection, clearance, and nomination by the President. This step includes preliminary vetting, background checks, and ethics checks of potential nominees. At this stage, the President may also consult with Senators who are from the same party if the position is located in a state. The second stage of the process is consideration of the nomination in the Senate, most of which takes place in committee. Finally, if a nomination is approved by the full Senate, the nominee is given a commission signed by the President and sworn into office. During the 111th Congress, President Barack Obama submitted to the Senate 107 nominations to full-time positions in independent agencies, agencies in the Executive Office of the President (EOP), multilateral agencies, and legislative branch agencies. Of these 107 nominations, 92 were confirmed, 1 was withdrawn, and 14 were returned to him in accordance with Senate rules. For those nominations that were confirmed, an average of 93.1 days elapsed between nomination and confirmation. The President made five recess appointments to full-time positions in independent agencies during the 111th Congress. Information for this report was compiled from data from the Senate nominations database of the Legislative Information System at http://www.congress.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 2008 "Plum Book" (United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions). This report will not be updated.