 Seal of the U.S. Senior Executive Service | |
 Flag of the U.S. Senior Executive Service | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1979 |
The Senior Executive Service (SES) [1] 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. [2]
According to the Office of Personnel Management, the SES was designed to be a corps of executives selected for their leadership qualifications, serving in key positions just below the top presidential appointees as a link between them and the rest of the federal (civil service) workforce. SES positions are considered to be above the GS-15 level of the General Schedule, and below Level III of the Executive Schedule. Career members of the SES ranks are eligible for the Presidential Rank Awards program.[ citation needed ]
Up to 10% of SES positions can be filled as political appointments rather than by career employees. [3] About half of the SES is designated "Career Reserved", which can only be filled by career employees. The other half is designated "General", which can be filled by either career employees or political appointments as desired by the administration. Due to the 10% limitation, most General positions are still filled by career appointees. [4]
Senior level employees of several agencies are exempt from the SES but have their own senior executive positions; these include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, Government Accountability Office, Members of the Foreign Service, and government corporations.
SES career appointees have civil service protections; they may only be fired or suspended for more than 14 days for misconduct, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or failure to accept a directed reassignment or to accompany a position in a transfer of function. These adverse actions may be appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board. [5]
An SES career appointee can also be reassigned within the SES, or from the SES into a competitive service position, based on performance ratings. A single unsatisfactory performance rating makes them eligible for reassignment, though it is not mandatory. However, they must be removed from the SES if they receive two unsatisfactory ratings in a period of five consecutive years, or two less than fully successful ratings within three consecutive years. Reassignments may not be appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board. [5]
SES career appointees in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs have different procedures as a result of the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs has discretion to suspend, demote, remove, or take other actions against SES career appointees or other high-level executives if the Secretary determines that the individual’s misconduct or performance warrants such action, with abbreviated notice and appeals rights. [5]
By contrast, noncareer and limited-term SES appointees are generally not subject to removal protections and may be removed from the SES at any time. [5]
| Minimum | Maximum | |
| Agencies with a Certified SES Performance Appraisal System | $147,649 | $221,900 |
| Agencies without a Certified SES Performance Appraisal System | $147,649 | $204,000 |
Unlike the General Schedule (GS) grades, SES pay is determined at agency discretion within certain parameters, and there is no locality pay adjustment.
The minimum pay level for the SES is set at 120 percent of the basic pay for GS-15 Step 1 employees ($147,649 for 2024). [7] The maximum pay level depends on whether or not the employing agency has a "certified" SES performance appraisal system: [8]
Total aggregate pay is limited to the salary of the Vice President of the United States ($284,600 for 2024). [6]
Prior to 2004, the SES used a six-level system. It was replaced with the current open band system on January 1, 2004. [9]
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 competitive service is a part of the United States federal government civil service. Applicants for jobs in the competitive civil service must compete with other applicants in open competition under the merit system administered by the Office of Personnel Management, unlike applicants in the excepted service and Senior Executive Service. There are several hiring authorities for the competitive service, including "traditional" competitive examining, as well as expedited procedures such as Direct Hire Authority and the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act.
The General Schedule (GS) is the predominant pay scale within the United States civil service. The GS includes the majority of white collar personnel positions. As of September 2004, 71 percent of federal civilian employees were paid under the GS. The GG pay rates are identical to published GS pay rates.
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.
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, (CSRA), reformed the civil service of the United States federal government, partly in response to the Watergate scandal. The Act abolished the U.S. Civil Service Commission and distributed its functions primarily among three new agencies: the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).
The Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program is a two-year training and leadership development program at a United States government agency, administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), for advanced degree holders. After completing the program, agencies may convert PMFs to permanent federal civilian employees.
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.
The Presidential Rank Awards program is an individual award program granted by the United States government to career Senior Executive Service (SES) members and Senior Career Employees within the OPM-allocated Senior-Level (SL) or Scientific-Professional (ST) community. The awards have been given annually by the President of the United States since the establishment of the Senior Executive Service in 1978 except for a brief period of suspension from 2013 to 2014. The Presidential Rank Award honors high-performing senior career employees for "sustained extraordinary accomplishment." Executives from across government are nominated by their agency heads, evaluated by citizen panels, and designated by the president. Winners of these awards are deemed to be "strong leaders", professionals, or scientists who "achieve results" and "consistently demonstrate strength, integrity, industry, and a relentless commitment to excellence in public service".
Title 5 of the United States Code is a positive law title of the United States Code with the heading "Government Organization And Employees".
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.
The National Security Personnel System (NSPS) was a pay for performance pay system created in 2004-5 under authorization by Congress for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and implemented in mid-2006. NSPS replaced the General Schedule (GS) grade and step system for the DoD with a pay band system intended to provide more flexibility in establishing pay levels. NSPS had differing policies concerning tenure, hiring, reassignment, promotion, collective bargaining, pay, performance measurement and recognition, etc. It purportedly retained EEO and Veterans' Preference protections although the system was not in place long enough to tell whether or not this was true. There was a significant level of controversy as to whether or not the flexibility gained with the new system was at the expense of the Federal employees within DoD and whether or not the flexibility gained came at a bureaucratic price requiring significantly more effort on the part of managers to document performance and manage compensation. Pay increases that were automatic under the GS system did not exist under NSPS. On October 29, 2009, this pay system was repealed, restoring all DoD employees to the General Schedule by January 1, 2012.
The Federal Wage System (FWS) in the United States was developed to make the pay of federal blue-collar workers comparable to prevailing private sector rates in each local wage area. The FWS is a partnership worked out between the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), other Federal agencies, and labor organizations.
The Senior Foreign Service (SFS) comprises the top four ranks of the United States Foreign Service. These ranks were created by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and Executive Order 12293 in order to provide the Foreign Service with senior grades equivalent to general and flag ranks in the military and naval establishments, respectively, and to grades in the Senior Executive Service. Like military ranks and other Foreign Service ranks, the Senior Foreign Service grade system assigns rank in person, not rank in position.
Human resource management in public administration concerns human resource management as it applies specifically to the field of public administration. It is considered to be an in-house structure that ensures unbiased treatment, ethical standards, and promotes a value-based system.
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.
The Senior Executive Service Accountability Act is a bill that would make it less difficult to fire or suspend members of the Senior Executive Service (SES).
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.
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.
A Title 42 appointment is an excepted service employment category in the United States federal civil service. It allows scientists and special consultants to be hired as part of the Public Health Service or Environmental Protection Agency under a streamlined process "without regard to the civil-service laws". Courts have ruled that, although Title 42 appointments are exempt from hiring and compensation provisions of civil service laws, they are still entitled to protections relating to termination, including appeals to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
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 dismiss. It was never fully implemented, and no one was appointed to it before it was repealed at the beginning of the Biden administration.
