{"id":28151,"date":"2024-07-10T12:51:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T12:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/07\/10\/presidential-appointees-are-unconfirmed-for-longer-blame-the-senate\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:12:01","slug":"presidential-appointees-are-unconfirmed-for-longer-blame-the-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/leadership\/2024\/07\/10\/presidential-appointees-are-unconfirmed-for-longer-blame-the-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential appointees go unconfirmed for longer. Blame the Senate."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dozens of presidentially appointed positions in the U.S. government have been sitting empty for years, stymied by a slow Senate confirmation process that has become even less efficient in the years since the Obama administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new study by the nonpartisan nonprofit Partnership for Public Service identified more than 80 appointed positions spanning 15 cabinet agencies that were vacant for at least half the years between 2009 and 2023. These positions were without secretaries, chief financial officers, judicial experts and other critical leadership that require the advice and consent of the Senate via majority vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report sheds more light on a well-known truth in public administration: the Senate confirmation process is often where presidential appointments go to die. Today, the process takes almost twice as long as it did during President Reagan\u2019s term in the 1980s. The report indicates that the majority of extended vacancies are due to Senate inaction, as both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump nominated roughly the same amount of people to fill vacancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\t