Interim Heads Increasingly Run Federal Agencies

INTERIM HEADS INCREASINGLY RUN FEDERAL AGENCIES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Philip Shenon]
Scholars and other researchers who study the federal bureaucracy say the Bush Administration's reliance on interim heads of government agencies is becoming increasingly common. With only 15 months left in office, President Bush has left whole agencies of the executive branch to be run largely by acting or interim appointees — jobs that would normally be filled by people whose nominations would have been reviewed and confirmed by the Senate. In many cases, there is no obvious sign of movement at the White House to find permanent nominees, suggesting that many important jobs will not be filled by Senate-confirmed officials for the remainder of the Bush administration. That would effectively circumvent the Senate’s right to review and approve the appointments. It also means that the jobs are filled by people who do not have the clout to make decisions that comes with a permanent appointment endorsed by the Senate, scholars say. While exact comparisons are difficult to come by, researchers say the vacancy rate for senior jobs in the executive branch is far higher at the end of the Bush administration than it was at the same point in the terms of Mr. Bush’s recent predecessors in the White House. The White House insists that when vacancies have occurred in executive branch agencies, it has filled them with talented acting replacements, often with the same officials who have been nominated — but not yet confirmed — for those jobs by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/washington/15interim.html?ref=todayspaper
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