RELATED July 10, 2024 Persistently Vacant: Critical federal leadership positions go unfilled for years June 27, 2024 Making the Federal Government an Employer of Choice for Early Career Professionals June 10, 2024 The State of Public Trust in Government 2024 Back to Reports The Replacements: Why and How “Acting” Officials Are Making Senate Confirmation Obsolete By Paul Hitlin September 23, 2020 The Constitution vests responsibility for filling federal leadership positions in both the president and the Senate — the president nominates officials for key posts, and the Senate provides “advice and consent.” But in recent years, presidents have found it increasingly easy to sidestep this process altogether and to install temporary, “acting” officials in place of Senate-confirmed leaders. This report examines the prevalence of vacancies and temporary officials in Senate-confirmed positions, the use of acting officials and the reasons the nomination and confirmation process has broken down. This report also includes specific recommendations to address the prevalence of temporary officials, fix broken processes and improve accountability. Download (631k)