Nominations Update: Over 400 Positions Filled, Several Hundred to Go
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President Biden has to fill roughly 4,000 politically appointed positions in the executive branch and independent agencies. Of these, roughly 1,200 require Senate confirmation. According to a tracker led by the Partnership for Public Service and Washington Post, which monitors the progress on 800 of the position requiring Senate confirmation, 465 have been filled thus far.
At the Cabinet level, all major positions have been filled, including most secretaries, the Attorney General, director of the Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Trade Representative, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Conversely, 77 positions requiring Senate confirmation have no nominee at all. Among these positions are the Chief Financial Officer for the Department of State, the Assistant Secretary for Acquisition at the Department of Defense (DOD), the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Treasury. Overall, the Department of State is leading the list with the largest number of vacancies requiring Senate-confirmation without a nominee at 16.
President Biden has announced nominees for at least three positions that have not been formally submitted to the Senate yet.
The Senate is still considering nominees with close connection to the federal workforce. For example, Robert Shriver, the nominee for Deputy Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and Richard Revesz, the nominee for Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), both had a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in September but have not yet advanced.
Like Shriver and Revesz, 130 nominees are awaiting Senate action at various steps in the process. For example, the Department of Defense Inspector General was discharged from Committee in March but has not yet been voted on by the full Senate. The Inspector General for the Department of Treasury was referred to Committee but has not yet been considered. The General Counsel for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) had a hearing held in their respective Senate Committee in July but has not received a vote and the General Counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is in a similar posture.
Nominees for a Member seat on the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and the Authority’s General Counsel position were referred to their Senate Committee in January but have not yet had hearings or a vote.
Additionally, 140 appointees are currently serving in termed positions or are being held over from the previous administration.
