In troduction 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 executive-level full-time positions in the 15 executive departments. It excludes appointments to regulatory boards and commissions and independent and other agencies, which are covered in other CRS reports. A profile of each agency tracks the appointments to positions within the agency, providing information on Senate activity (confirmations, rejections, returns to the President, and elapsed time between nominations and confirmation) as well as further related presidential activity (including withdrawals and recess appointments). The profiles also identify, for each agency, the executive-level positions in the agency 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, clearance, and nomination by the President; consideration by the Senate; and appointment by the President. 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" (Office of Government Ethics (OGE) 278), the "Questionnaire for National Security Positions" (Standard Form (SF) 86), a supplement to SF 86 ("86 Supplement"), and sometimes a White House Personal Data Statement. The vetting process often includes a background investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which prepares a report that is delivered to the White House. It also includes a review of financial disclosure materials by OGE and an ethics official for the agency to which the candidate is to be nominated. 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. At the completion of the vetting process, 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. For a position located within a state (e.g., U.S. attorney, U.S. marshal, and U.S. district judge), the President, by custom, frequently has nominated an individual recommended by one or both Senators from that state (if they are from the same party as the President). 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. 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, including many of those in the executive departments, 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. 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 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 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. Unsuccessful nominations usually do not make it past the committee stage. 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 "nominations 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 bearing the Great Seal of the United States and 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 limited-term appointments without Senate confirmation when the Senate is in recess, either during a session (intrasession recess appointment) or between sessions (intersession recess appointment). Such recess appointments expire at the end of the next session of the Senate. 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.