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 specifies, for the 108 th Congress, all nominations to full-time positions in the 15 executive departments, including the then-new Department of Homeland Security, which came into existence on January 24, 2003. A profile of each department identifies full-time positions requiring Senate confirmation and, if applicable, their pay levels. The profiles also track nominations to these positions during the 108 th Congress, providing information on Senate activity (i.e., confirmations, rejections (of which there were none), returns to the President, and elapsed time between nomination and confirmation) as well as further related presidential activity (i.e., withdrawals and recess appointments). 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. In the first stage, the White House selects and clears a nominee before sending the 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, may have input during this process. It could be 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 general, a nomination is likely to fare better if the Administration has first consulted Senators on the committee of jurisdiction. 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 background investigations conducted 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 is often the longest part of the appointment process. There can be lengthy delays, particularly if many candidates are being processed, as they are at the beginning of an Administration, or if conflicts need to be resolved. Candidates for higher-level positions are often 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 length 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 positions located within a state (e.g., U.S. attorney, U.S. marshal, and U.S. district judge), the President, by custom, normally nominates an individual recommended by the Senator or 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 must consider how it will fare in the confirmation process. 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 may give the nominee a recess appointment to the position (see below). Recess appointments may have political consequences, however, particularly if Senators perceive that an appointment is 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. In the confirmation or second stage, the Senate alone determines whether or not to confirm a nomination. The way the Senate acts on a nomination depends largely on the importance of the position involved, existing political circumstances, and policy implications. Generally, the Senate shows particular interest in the nominee's views and how they are likely to affect public policy. Two other factors may also affect the scrutiny with which a nominee's personal and professional qualities are examined: whether or not the President's party controls the Senate and the degree to which the President becomes involved in supporting the nomination. The Senate confirmation process is centered at the committee level. Committee nomination activity generally includes investigation, hearing, and reporting stages. As part of investigatory work, committees may draw on information provided by the White House as well as information collected by the committees. 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 if confirmation is thought to be a virtual certainty, hearings may provide Senators and the nominee with an opportunity to go on the record with particular views or commitments. Senators may use hearings to explore a nominee's qualifications, articulate a policy perspective, or raise related oversight issues. Some committees hold hearings on nearly all nominations; others hold hearings for only some. The 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, does a rejection occur on the Senate floor. Nearly all rejections occur in committee, either by committee vote or by committee inaction. Rejections in committee occur 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. 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. 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. Such recess appointments expire at the end of the next session of Congress. Appendix C provides a table showing the dates of the Senate recesses for the 108 th Congress and the number of recess appointments during each recess. Presidents have occasionally used the recess appointment power to circumvent the confirmation process. In response, Congress has placed restrictions on the President's authority to make a recess appointment. Under 5 U.S.C. § 5503(a), 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. 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. Section 5503 of Title 5 has 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.