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".[1] 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.[2][3] 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.[4]
According to a 2011 study, "The United States has significantly more political appointments than other developed democracies by a significant amount."[6] There are four basic categories of federal political appointments:
Non-career Senior Executive Service (NA): means an individual in a Senior Executive Service position who is not a career appointee, a limited term appointee, or a limited emergency appointee.[15]:¶(a)7 There were 680 NA positions as of 2016,[2] and 724 as of 2020.[5]:212
Schedule C appointments (SC): Schedule C appointees serve in confidential or policy roles immediately subordinate to other appointees.[13] As of 2016, there were 1,403 SC positions,[2] and as of 2020, there were 1,566 SC positions.[5]:212
Unlike the presidential appointments, the non-career SES and Schedule C appointments tend to be made within each agency and then approved by the White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO).[13]
Ethics restrictions
Political appointees are subject to stricter ethics restrictions than regular executive-branch employees. There are two categories of appointees, and each category is subject to additional and slightly different ethics restrictions:[16]
The spoils or patronage system is a practice where government jobs are given, usually after winning an election, to political party supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party.
The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job. A common conception of the federal government's merit system principles is that they are designed to ensure fair and open recruitment and competition and employment practices free of political influence or other non-merit factors. Although that is certainly true, a closer reading of those principles suggests a much broader policy objective that relates directly to managing the ongoing performance of the federal workforce.
Political appointees are required to take an ethics pledge not to accept gifts from lobbyists. This is because of Executive Order 13490. Under Section 102 of Executive Order 12674, political appointees who are appointed by the president are not allowed to receive any income from outside employment or activities.[16] Exceptions to the gift rule include:
Political appointees sometimes attempt to transfer to a career position in the competitive service, excepted service, or Senior Executive Service. This practice, known as "burrowing in", is desired by employees due to increased pay and job security, as career positions do not end when a presidential administration changes. As these appointed positions are selected noncompetitively, while career employees are supposed to be selected on the basis of merit and without political influence, these conversions are subject to extra scrutiny. Since 2010, such conversions require advance approval from OPM, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) periodically audits the conversions. In 2008, members of Congress criticized the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice for improperly allowing political employees to convert to career positions.[19]
History
In United States politics, the system of political appointments comes from a history of the spoils system (also known as a patronage system) which is a practice where a political party, after winning an election, would give government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory. The term was derived from the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils" by New York Senator William L. Marcy, referring to the victory of the Jackson Democrats in the election of 1828, with the term "spoils" meaning goods or benefits taken from the loser in a competition, election or military victory. Though it is commonly assumed that the patronage system in the United States first came into general use during Andrew Jackson's presidency, it actually has an older history. President Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, favored a policy of keeping rival Federalists out of government.
The patronage system thrived in the U.S. federal government until 1883. In 1820 Congress limited federal administrators to four-year terms, which led to constant turnover; by the 1860s and the Civil War, patronage had led to widespread inefficiency and political corruption. Although it used to be confined to cabinet positions, department heads, and foreign ambassadorships, by the 1860s patronage had spread to low-level government positions. This meant that when the incumbent political party lost a presidential election, the federal government underwent wholesale turnover.
In addition, passage of the Hatch Act of 1939 forbade the intimidation or bribery of voters and restricted political campaign activities by federal employees. It prohibited using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes. It forbade officials paid with federal funds from using promises of jobs, promotion, financial assistance, contracts, or any other benefit to coerce campaign contributions or political support, which restricted most partisan political activities of federal employees. By 1980, 90% of federal positions had become part of the civil service system, which led state and local governments to employ large patronage systems. Big-city political machines in places such as New York City, Boston, and Chicago thrived in the late nineteenth century. Being as a patronage system not only rewarded political supporters for past support, it also encouraged future support, because persons who have a patronage job would try to retain it by campaigning for the party at the next election. Large-scale patronage systems declined steadily during the twentieth century. During the Progressive Era (1900–1920), "good government" reformers overthrew political machines and installed civil service systems. Chicago, under Mayor Richard J. Daley, remained the last bastion of patronage, existing in its purest form until the late 1970s.[21]
In October 2020, in the final months of his administration, President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating a new Schedule F category within the excepted service for employees "in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making and policy-advocating positions" and instructed agencies to identify and transfer competitive service employees that meet that description into the new job classification. The initiative would strip hundreds of thousands of federal workers of civil service protections, effectively making them at-will employees, and would have politicized a major portion of the civil service.[22] Trump's successor, President Joe Biden, rescinded this executive order in January 2021, shortly after taking office, repealing the "Schedule F" plan.[23]
Executive vacancies
A high rate of executive branch vacancies have long been a problem.[24] The issue of executive vacancies reached a height under President Donald Trump, who failed to fill many vacancies and relied, to a far greater extent than previous presidents, on "acting" officials.[25][26] For example, under Trump, as of mid-2020, 65% of Senate-confirmed positions at the Homeland Security Department, 55% of Senate-confirmed positions at the Justice Department, and 45% of Senate-confirmed positions of the Transportation Department were vacant; in those departments, 12%, 31%, and 14% of those positions, respectively, had been continuously vacant under Trump.[25] This practice diminished the Senate's advice and consent power, a check on the president's power to make appointments.[25][27] In some cases, Trump appointed an individual to a high-level "acting" post after the individual's nomination had been withdrawn due to lack of support from the Senate; this was the case in Trump's naming of Anthony Tata to a high-level Defense Department post ("official performing the duties of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy") and Ken Cuccinelli to a high-level Homeland Security post ("acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security").[25]
Efficacy
A 2011 study published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory by Nick Gallo and David Lewis evaluated more than 350 managers of federal agencies during the George W. Bush administration with a program assessment rating tool ("PART") to determine efficacy and found that programs run by political appointees from the campaign or party who won the most recent presidential election tended to be less effective than programs run by other political appointees or by career employees.[6] The study noted that factors other than managerial performance could account for some variances in PART scores, including the nature of the agency (some agencies are regulatory, others extend credit or issue grants, and some provide direct services).[6] The study showed that "programs experiencing more frequent executive turnover" are rated as having worse performance.[6] The study authors concluded that: "Although political skills are undoubtedly important, the evidence here suggests that appointees given jobs partly due to campaign or party work perform worse on average than other appointees and career managers. If persons are given jobs for reasons other than their ability to manage a program or agency well, this decreases the chances they will succeed in that task. The political skills and experience gained from work on the campaign or for the party do not translate into effective governance or management."[6]
A study by Matthew Auer, published in January 2008 in Public Administration Review, found that "Top-tier environmental appointees tend to stay longer in their appointed positions than do presidential appointees generally, and more than 40 percent have prior federal government management experience" but that "White House expectations for appointees' political loyalty" varies depending on the administration, with the Reagan and first-term G. W. Bush administrations having "the highest demands for political loyalty, with consequences for the policy–administration dichotomy in environmental agencies."[28]
Pay
The pay for political appointees varies according to the position, agency, and legal classification.[29] For purposes of pay rates, the Executive Schedule sets the pay rates for the highest-ranking presidential appointees at the Cabinet secretary, deputy secretary, undersecretary, and some assistant secretary levels, with five levels (Levels I through V).[29][lower-alpha 1] Pay for other political appointees is set in other ways: non-career SES appointees are paid according to the Pay Plan ES; "administratively determined pay positions" (such as U.S. Attorney posts) have their pay set by their agency, as set forth by Pay Plan AD; and most Schedule C appointees are paid according to the same General Schedule (or equivalent) as used for career employees in their agency.[29] Executive Schedule and non-career SES employees do not receive locality pay, but Schedule C appointees do receive locality pay.[29] For some roles, salary is negotiable depending upon qualifications and salary history; for other positions, salary is fixed.[29]
Pay for political appointees is generally lower than pay for positions of equivalent responsibility in the private sector; Jeffrey Neal, the former chief human capital officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, noted in an article for the Partnership for Public Service that a U.S. government official "may run a multi-billion-dollar program with thousands of employees and make less (sometimes much less) than $200,000 per year."[29]
The Cabinet of the United States is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The Cabinet generally meets with the president in a room adjacent to the Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House. The president chairs the meetings but is not formally a member of the Cabinet. The vice president of the United States serves in the Cabinet by statute. 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 the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters pertaining to economic and fiscal policy. The secretary is, by custom, a member of the president's cabinet and, by law, a member of the National Security Council, and high in the U.S. presidential line of succession.
The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all legal matters. The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States.
The United States Secretary of Transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to transportation. The secretary is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States, and is fourteenth in the presidential line of succession.
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is a United States federal law passed by the 47th United States Congress and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on January 16, 1883. The act mandates that most positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political patronage.
In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the president is empowered to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the Senate, make appointments to high-level policy-making positions in federal departments, agencies, boards, and commissions, as well as to the federal judiciary. A recess appointment under Article II, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution is an alternative method of appointing officials that allows the temporary filling of offices during periods when the Senate is not in session. It was anticipated that the Senate would be away for months at a time, so the ability to fill vacancies in important positions when the Senate is in recess and unavailable to provide advice and consent was deemed essential to maintain government function, as described by Alexander Hamilton in No. 67 of The Federalist Papers.
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 excepted service is the part of the United States federal civil service that is not part of either the competitive service or the Senior Executive Service. It allows streamlined hiring processes to be used under certain circumstances.
The Senior Executive Service (SES) is a position classification in the United States federal civil service equivalent to general officer or flag officer rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. It was created in 1979 when the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 went into effect under President Jimmy Carter.
United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions is a book that lists positions in the United States government that are subject to political appointment. It lists around 8,000 federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment nationwide. It is a publication of the United States Senate's Committee on Governmental Affairs and the House of Representatives' Committee on Government Reform. A new edition is published every four years, just after each presidential election. All tenured positions commissioned by the president are published, including all officers of the United States, their immediate subordinates, policy executives and advisors, and aides who report to these officials. Some positions are kept secret and not published due to being classified via executive privilege.
The United States federal civil service is the civilian workforce of the United States federal government's departments and agencies. The federal civil service was established in 1871. U.S. state and local government entities often have comparable civil service systems that are modeled on the national system to varying degrees.
Executive Schedule is the system of salaries given to the highest-ranked appointed officials in the executive branch of the U.S. government. The president of the United States appoints individuals to these positions, most with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. They include members of the president's Cabinet, several top-ranking officials of each executive department, the directors of some of the more prominent departmental and independent agencies, and several members of the Executive Office of the President.
Civil service reform in the United States was a major issue in the late 19th century at the national level, and in the early 20th century at the state level. Proponents denounced the distribution of government offices—the "spoils"—by the winners of elections to their supporters as corrupt and inefficient. They demanded nonpartisan scientific methods and credential be used to select civil servants. The five important civil service reforms were the two Tenure of Office Acts of 1820 and 1867, Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, the Hatch Acts and the CSRA of 1978. In addition, the Civil Service Act of 1888 drastically expanded the civil service system.
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.
An officer of the United States is a functionary of the executive or judicial branches of the federal government of the United States to whom is delegated some part of the country's sovereign power. The term officer of the United States is not a title, but a term of classification for a certain type of official.
A Schedule C appointment is a type of political appointment in the United States for confidential or policy roles immediately subordinate to other appointees. As of 2016, there were 1,403 Schedule C appointees. Most of these are confidential assistants, policy experts, special counsels, and schedulers, although about 500 of them are non-policy support roles. Schedule C appointments were created in 1956 and are part of the excepted service.
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.
The White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), sometimes written as Office of Presidential Personnel, is the part of the White House Office tasked with vetting new appointees. Its offices are on the first floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. The PPO is one of the offices most responsible for assessing candidates to work at or for the White House.
A Schedule F appointment was a job classification in the excepted service of the United States federal civil service that existed briefly at the end of the Trump administration during 2020 and 2021. It would have contained policy-related positions, removing their civil service protections and making them easy to fire. It was never fully implemented, and no one was appointed to it before it was repealed at the beginning of the Biden administration.
References
↑ "Political Appointees". U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Washington, D.C. March 31, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
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