The Cabinet of the United States is a body consisting of the vice president of the United States and the heads of the executive branch's departments in the federal government of the United States. It is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The president chairs the meetings but is not formally a member of the Cabinet. The heads of departments,appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate,are members of the Cabinet,and acting department heads also participate in Cabinet meetings whether or not they have been officially nominated for Senate confirmation. The president may designate heads of other agencies and non-Senate-confirmed members of the Executive Office of the President as members of the Cabinet.
The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security,the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the United States. The position was created by the Homeland Security Act following the attacks of September 11,2001.
The Hatch Act of 1939,An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities,is a United States federal law. Its main provision prohibits civil-service employees in the executive branch of the federal government,except the president and vice president,from engaging in some forms of political activity. It became law on August 2,1939. The law was named for Senator Carl Hatch of New Mexico. It was most recently amended in 2012.
The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is an independent agency of the United States government that manages the US civilian service. The agency provides federal human resources policy,oversight,and support,and tends to healthcare (FEHB),life insurance (FEGLI),and retirement benefits for federal government employees,retirees,and their dependents.
In the United States,Office of Inspector General (OIG) is a generic term for the oversight division of a federal or state agency aimed at preventing inefficient or unlawful operations within their parent agency. Such offices are attached to many federal executive departments,independent federal agencies,as well as state and local governments. Each office includes an inspector general and employees charged with identifying,auditing,and investigating fraud,waste,abuse,embezzlement and mismanagement of any kind within the executive department.
The United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is a permanent independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency whose basic legislative authority comes from four federal statutes:the Civil Service Reform Act,the Whistleblower Protection Act,the Hatch Act,and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). OSC's primary mission is the safeguarding of the merit system in federal employment by protecting employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices (PPPs),especially reprisal for "whistleblowing." The agency also operates a secure channel for federal whistleblower disclosures of violations of law,rule,or regulation;gross mismanagement;gross waste of funds;abuse of authority;and substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. In addition,OSC issues advice on the Hatch Act and enforces its restrictions on partisan political activity by government employees. Finally,OSC protects the civilian employment and reemployment rights of military service members under USERRA. OSC has around 140 staff,and the Special Counsel is an ex officio member of Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE),an association of inspectors general charged with the regulation of good governance within the federal government.
Andrew Marshall Saul is an American businessman and political candidate who served as commissioner of the United States Social Security Administration from 2019 to 2021. Saul was fired from the position by President Joe Biden on July 9,2021,after refusing to offer his requested resignation. Saul stated that his discharge was illegal.
John Michael "Mick" Mulvaney is an American politician who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from February 2017 until March 2020,and as acting White House Chief of Staff from January 2019 until March 2020. Prior to his appointments to the Trump administration,he served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks,credit unions,securities firms,payday lenders,mortgage-servicing operations,foreclosure relief services,debt collectors,and other financial companies operating in the United States. Since its founding,the CFPB has used technology tools to monitor how financial entities used social media and algorithms to target consumers.
The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 is a United States federal statute establishing the procedure for filling vacancies in an appointed office of an executive agency of the government before the appointment of a permanent replacement.
According to the United States Office of Government Ethics,a political appointee is "any employee who is appointed by the President,the Vice President,or agency head". As of 2016,there were around 4,000 political appointment positions which an incoming administration needs to review,and fill or confirm,of which about 1,200 require Senate confirmation. The White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO) is one of the offices most responsible for political appointees and for assessing candidates to work at or for the White House.
This is a list of political appointments of current officeholders made by the 45th president of the United States,Donald Trump.
The 2017 United States federal hiring freeze was instituted by the Presidential Memorandum signed by President Donald Trump on January 23,2017. Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney ordered the hiring freeze lifted on April 12,2017.
Kevin Kealoha McAleenan is an American attorney and government official who unlawfully served as the acting United States secretary of homeland security from April to November 2019.
Leandra English is an American political advisor serving as an advisor to the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. She formerly was the Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from 2017 until her resignation in 2018. She was the plaintiff in the lawsuit English v. Trump,in which she unsuccessfully sought to have herself acknowledged as Acting Director of the CFPB.
Leandra English v. Donald Trump,et al.,No. 1:17-cv-02534,was a lawsuit before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiff,Leandra English,alleged that the defendants,Donald Trump and Mick Mulvaney,violated 12 U.S.C. §5491(b)(5)(B),a component of the Dodd–Frank Act of 2010,when President Trump appointed Mulvaney to be Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Bonnie Glick is an American diplomat and businesswoman who served as the Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development from 2019 to 2020. Nominated for the post by President Donald Trump in April 2018,she was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent in January 2019. On September 21,2021,Glick was announced as the inaugural director of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue during the Concordia Summit on the margins of the UN General Assembly. She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) is an independent oversight committee within the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency,created by the Coronavirus Aid,Relief,and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 to ensure that the $2.2 trillion of the CARES act,plus 5 other pandemic-related pieces of legislation totaling over $5 trillion in government funds,were not misspent.
Beginning in 2019,multiple appointments of acting officials in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were questioned,on the basis of whether the appointments were legal under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. After the departure of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April 2019,the Trump administration did not formally nominate a new secretary to be confirmed by the Senate,relying on acting postings.
The Joe Biden administration pledged to pass government ethics reform. The Biden administration also pledged to pass legislation and enforce policies to enforce electoral reform,in response to the influence of special interests and gerrymandering in elections.
