Presidential Appointments: Agencies' Compliance With Provisions  
of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (31-MAY-01, 	 
GAO-01-701).							 
								 
The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 established new	 
requirements for the temporary filling of vacant executive agency
positions that require presidential appointment and Senate	 
confirmation (PAS). The act requires agencies to inform Congress 
and GAO whenever (1) a PAS position becomes vacant; (2) a vacant 
position is filled on a temporary basis; (3) a nomination is made
to the Senate to fill a vacancy; or (4) a nomination for the	 
position is rejected, withdrawn, or returned. The act also sets  
limits on the number of PAS positions that can be filled on an	 
acting basis. This report assesses the implementation of the	 
Vacancies Reform Act. GAO found that agencies did not promptly	 
report all vacancies and acting officials to Congress and GAO.	 
Federal agencies had not reported 17 vacancies and 21 acting	 
officials. Moreover, notification was not received for four weeks
after the date of their occurrence, although the act requires	 
that this information be reported immediately. GAO also found	 
that acting officials at four agencies exceeded the act's 210-day
time limit for temporary service. GAO reported these instances to
the President and Congress.					 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-01-701 					        
    ACCNO:   A01091						        
  TITLE:     Presidential Appointments: Agencies' Compliance With     
             Provisions of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998           
     DATE:   05/31/2001 
  SUBJECT:   Noncompliance					 
	     Presidential appointments				 
	     Reporting requirements				 
	     Temporary employment				 
	     Temporary promotions				 

******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO Testimony.                                               **
**                                                              **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced.  Tables are included, but    **
** may not resemble those in the printed version.               **
**                                                              **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when     **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed     **
** document's contents.                                         **
**                                                              **
******************************************************************
GAO-01-701
     
GAO United States General Accounting Office

Report to the Chairman, Committee on Governmental Affairs, U. S. Senate

May 2001 PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS

Agencies? Compliance With Provisions of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of
1998

GAO- 01- 701

Page i GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act Letter 1

Appendix I Scope and Methodology 12

Appendix II Federal Agencies That Reported Having PAS Positions Subject to
the Vacancies Reform Act 14

Appendix III Comments From the Counsel to the President 16

Appendix IV Comments From the Institute of Museum and Library Services 17

Tables

Table 1: Vacancies and Acting Officials For PAS Positions Between November
21, 1998, and June 30, 2000 6 Table 2: Vacancies and Acting Officials in PAS
Positions Subject to

the Vacancies Reform Act but Not Reported to GAO as of July 13, 2000 7

Abbreviations

GAO General Accounting Office IMLS Institute of Museum and Library Services
OMB Office of Management and Budget OPM Office of Personnel Management OPP
Office of Presidential Personnel PAS Presidential Appointments and Senate
Confirmation Contents

Page 1 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

May 31, 2001 The Honorable Fred Thompson Chairman, Committee on

Governmental Affairs United States Senate

Dear Mr. Chairman: The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (Vacancies
Reform Act), which took effect on November 21, 1998, established new
requirements for the temporary filling of vacant executive agency positions
that require presidential appointment and Senate confirmation (PAS
positions). The Vacancies Reform Act is intended to create a clear process
and a time limit for the temporary filling of PAS positions. It requires
agencies to inform the Congress and GAO whenever (1) a PAS position becomes
vacant, (2) a vacant position is filled on a temporary basis, (3) a
nomination is made to the Senate to fill a vacancy, or (4) a nomination for
the position is rejected, withdrawn, or returned. The act also specifies
limits on the time PAS positions can be filled on an acting basis. You asked
us to assess the Vacancies Reform Act?s implementation. Specifically, you
asked us to determine whether agencies were (1) promptly notifying the
Congress and GAO of all reportable vacancies and all temporary appointments,
and (2) adhering to the time limits for temporary service. On September 29,
2000, we sent an interim response to you with information on 11 large
agencies 1 that each had a substantial number of PAS positions. This report
provides the results of all our work.

In August 2000, we sent a questionnaire to 62 agencies that might have PAS
positions asking them to report on any of these positions they had. A total
of 44 agencies responded that they had PAS positions subject to the act and
the agencies are listed in appendix II. The questionnaire also asked
agencies to report all vacancies and acting officials in PAS positions from
the act?s effective date in November 1998 through June 30, 2000. Our results
rely on agency self reporting and it is possible that additional agencies
with PAS positions beyond those identified in our work are covered by the
act.

1 Implementation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (GAO /GGD- 00-
210R, Sept. 29, 2000).

United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548

Page 2 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

To determine if agencies had promptly notified us of all vacancies and
acting officials, we compared the information agencies provided through the
questionnaire with the notifications sent by agencies to our Executive
Vacancies Act Tracking System which we had set up to receive the information
agencies are required to report to the Congress and us under the Vacancies
Reform Act. To determine whether the time limits on acting officials were
exceeded, we used data agencies provided to our tracking system and
information reported by the agencies during this review. We contacted agency
officials to obtain their explanations in instances where our analysis
indicated that agencies might not have complied with the Act?s vacancy and
acting official reporting requirements or the acting official time limit.
Our work was performed from August 2000 through April 2001 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards. Details on our
methodology are in appendix I.

Federal Agencies did not promptly report as required all vacancies and
acting officials to the Congress and GAO. By comparing the responses to our
questionnaire with information reported by agencies to our Executive
Vacancies Act Tracking System, we found that agencies had not reported 17
vacancies (19 percent) and 21 acting officials (24 percent). Moreover, for
about half of the instances that were reported to our tracking system,
notification was not received for over 4 weeks after the date of their
occurrence. The act requires that this information be reported immediately.
In March 2001, the Counsel to the President sent a memorandum to federal
executive branch departments and agencies that provided guidance to assist
agencies in understanding and meeting their responsibilities under the
Vacancies Reform Act. The memorandum streamlined the notification process by
requiring that agencies send notifications directly to the Congress and GAO.
Under the previous administration, agencies? notifications were required to
be sent through an indirect route which began with their submission to the
Office of Presidential Personnel (OPP) which then forwarded copies of the
submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB officials then
forwarded this information to the Congress and GAO. The new process should
reduce the time it takes agencies to notify the Congress and us.

We found four acting officials at four agencies who exceeded the act?s
210day time limit for temporary service. Generally, in such cases, actions
taken by the acting official after the time limit that cannot be delegated
have no force or effect under a provision of the Vacancies Reform Act.
However, three acting officials served in the positions of Inspector Results
in Brief

Page 3 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

General (two instances) or Chief Financial Officer (one instance) which are
specifically exempted from that provision. At the Institute of Museum and
Library Services (IMLS) we found that an individual served as the agency?s
Acting Director beyond the 210- day time limit by at least 5 months. We have
reported these instances to the President and the appropriate Committees of
the Congress as required by the Vacancies Reform Act. In the IMLS case, any
nondelegable actions made by this official after the time limit would have
no force or effect, but agency officials told us that no nondelegable
actions had been taken by the individual between the expiration of the
original time limit and January 20, 2001. Under the Vacancies Reform Act, at
the start of a new administration the time limit for acting officials begins
anew so as of January 20, 2001, it was permissible for the individual to
resume being Acting Director.

The Counsel to the President and IMLS reviewed a draft of the report. The
Counsel had no comments. IMLS essentially agreed with the facts we lay out
but disagreed that it violated the 210- day time limit for its Acting
Director. Because the Deputy Director for Museum Services used the title of
Acting Director after 210 days, we conclude that a violation did in fact
occur.

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a vacancy occurs if a presidential
appointee covered by the act resigns, dies, or is otherwise unable to
perform the functions and duties of the office. For covered PAS vacancies,
the act among other things,

 specifies who may serve as an acting officer;

 imposes time limits on how long vacancies can be filled by acting
officers; and

 requires agencies to immediately report to the Senate, the House of
Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States any
vacancy and the date it occurs; the name of any person serving in an acting
capacity and the date such service began; the name of any person nominated
to fill a vacancy and the date such nomination is submitted to the Senate;
and the date of any rejection, withdrawal, or return of a nomination. The
Vacancies Reform Act also requires us to inform specified congressional
committees, the President, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) if
an acting officer is serving longer than 210 days, a period which may be
extended through various provisions of the Vacancies Reform Act. Background

Page 4 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Generally, the Vacancies Reform Act applies to any office within an
executive agency to which appointment is required to be made by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Vacancies
Reform Act, however, excludes from its coverage certain officers. It does
not apply, for example, to any PAS position on a multimember board or
commission that governs an independent establishment or government
corporation, such as the commissioners of the Federal Election Commission.
The Vacancies Reform Act also recognizes that a number of PAS positions are
covered by other statutes that specifically address how the office is to be
filled on a temporary basis.

The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 replaced an earlier Vacancies Act,
which the Justice Department and several other executive agencies had
maintained was not the exclusive authority for the temporary filling of
vacant PAS positions. These agencies said their enabling statute, which gave
their agency heads general authority to assign functions and delegate
authority within the agency, could override the earlier Vacancies Act. In
other words, the heads of these agencies could assign individuals to
temporarily fill vacant PAS positions without informing the Congress and for
longer than the 120 days established by the earlier Vacancies Act. In a long
line of cases concerning officials who were serving in acting capacities
without Senate approval, we found that the earlier Vacancies Act was the
exclusive authority for the temporary filling of vacant positions. The
question of whether agencies needed to follow the Vacancies Act, according
to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs in a 1998
hearing, went to the heart of one of the Senate?s most important powers, the
duty to advise and consent on presidential nominations.

As previously mentioned, the 1998 Vacancies Reform Act assigned GAO certain
responsibilities. We, together with the executive branch, developed a form,
Submission Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which the White House
instructed agencies to use beginning in July 1999 to notify the Congress and
GAO of vacancies, acting officials, and nominations. We also developed a
computerized Executive Vacancies Act Tracking System to collect and analyze
data submitted by agencies. Information from this system is accessible to
agencies and the public through our web page (http:// www. gao. gov). In
June 1999, concerned with having received only 23 vacancy reports, we sent a
letter to the heads of executive departments and agencies describing the
requirements that the Vacancies Reform Act imposes on agencies and providing
additional guidance for reporting information to us.

Page 5 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

In general, the Vacancies Reform Act permits vacancies to be filled for up
to 210 days by acting officials, beginning on the date the vacancy occurred.
At the end of the time limit, the position can no longer be filled on an
acting basis. The Vacancies Reform Act extends or resets the 210- day period
under certain circumstances, such as when a nomination is pending before
Congress and at the start of a new administration. Because of the latter
provision, all time limits began anew for PAS positions that were vacant on
January 20, 2001. The Vacancies Reform Act directs GAO to determine whether
acting officers have served beyond the time limit and to report any
violations to certain congressional committees, the President, and OPM.

In response to our survey, 44 agencies provided information on PAS
positions. Agencies must notify the Congress and us whenever a vacancy
occurs in a position covered by the Vacancies Reform Act. Agencies also must
report the name of any person carrying out the duties of the vacant position
in an acting capacity as well as certain other specific items of
information. While 21 agencies responded to our questionnaire that they had
vacancies or acting officials between the act?s November 21, 1998, effective
date and June 30, 2000, we were not notified of 17 (or 19 percent) of those
vacancies and 21 (or 24 percent) of the acting officials.

The 21 agencies told us that vacancies had occurred in a total of 90
positions and that 87 officials had served in an acting capacity in those
positions. Although we should have been notified of all 90 vacancies, 10
agencies did not notify us about 17 vacancies. We should also have been
notified of all 87 instances of the appointment of acting officials, but 12
agencies did not notify us about 21 of those instances. 2 Table 1 identifies
agencies with vacancies and acting officials along with the number of times
they did not report either event.

2 We used a July 13, 2000, cut off date for reporting vacancies and acting
officials to our Executive Vacancies Act Tracking System, which allowed 2
weeks after the June 30, 2000, ending date in our questionnaire. As of April
6, 2001, an additional 10 of the vacancies and an additional 12 of the
acting officials had been reported to us. Significant Percentage

of Vacancies and Acting Officials Not Reported by Agencies

Page 6 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Table 1: Vacancies and Acting Officials For PAS Positions Between November
21, 1998, and June 30, 2000

Vacancies Acting Agency Total Reported Not

Reported Total Reported Not Reported

AID a 6 51752 Agriculture a 1 10220 Commerce 8 71761 Defense 5 41541
Education 5 50541 Energy 4 22422 EPA 3 30321 HHS 2 20220 HUD 1 10000
Interior a 5 50660 Justice 10 4 6 10 5 5 Labor 5 50550 OMB a 3 30440 IMLS 1
01101 ONDCP 2 11101 Peace Corp 1 01101 OSTP 1 01000 State 6 42642
Transportation 6 60660 Treasury 13 13 0 9 6 3 Veterans Affairs 2 2 0 3 3 0

Total 90 73 17 87 66 21

a Because more than one acting official was appointed to the same position
at these agencies, the sum of acting officials reported and not reported is
greater than the number of vacancies existing. AID is Agency for
International Development EPA is Environmental Protection Agency HHS is
Department of Health and Human Services HUD is Department of Housing and
Urban Development ONDCP is Office of National Drug Control Policy OSTP is
Office of Science and Technology Policy

The Vacancies Reform Act was signed into law on October 21, 1998, and
generally became effective 30 days later, and it is possible that some

Page 7 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

affected agencies were not aware of their responsibilities under the
Vacancies Reform Act shortly after it was passed. However, the instances of
nonreporting of vacancies and acting officials cannot all be attributed to
the newness of the Vacancies Reform Act. As shown in table 2, 11 of 17
instances of nonreporting of vacancies occurred in 2000, and 13 of 21
instances of nonreporting of acting officials occurred in that year.

Table 2: Vacancies and Acting Officials in PAS Positions Subject to the
Vacancies Reform Act but Not Reported to GAO as of July 13, 2000

Not notified of vacancy Not notified of acting official Agency PAS position
Date Position

became vacant PAS position Date official

began acting service

Assistant Administrator, Management

03/ 17/ 2000 AID Assistant Administrator, Management

03/ 17/ 2000 Inspector General 06/ 30/ 2000 Commerce Assistant Secretary

and Director General, U. S. and Foreign Commercial Service

01/ 10/ 2000 Assistant Secretary and Director General, U. S. and Foreign
Commercial Service

01/ 10/ 2000 Defense Under Secretary for

Personnel and Readiness 03/ 31/ 2000 Under Secretary for

Personnel and Readiness 04/ 01/ 2000

Education Under Secretary 03/ 13/ 2000 EPA Assistant Administrator,

Environmental Information 12/ 02/ 1999 IMLS Director 04/ 01/ 1999 Director
04/ 01/ 1999

Administrator, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 02/ 28/ 2000
Administrator, Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention 03/ 01/ 2000 Associate Attorney General 10/ 28/ 1999
Associate Attorney General 10/ 29/ 1999 Director, National Institute of
Justice 04/ 21/ 2000 Director, National Institute of Justice 04/ 21/ 2000
Deputy Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration 06/ 02/ 2000 Assistant
Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs

02/ 25/ 2000 Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs 02/ 26/
2000 Justice

Inspector General 08/ 15/ 1999 Inspector General 08/ 16/ 1999 Office of
National Drug Control Policy

Deputy Director, Supply Reduction 02/ 03/ 2000 Deputy Director, Supply
Reduction 02/ 03/ 2000 Office of Science and Technology Policy

Associate Director, National Security and International Affairs 01/ 31/ 1999

Peace Corps Director 08/ 12/ 1999 Director 08/ 12/ 1999 Director, Energy
Information Administration 06/ 02/ 2000 Director, Energy Information

Administration 06/ 03/ 2000 Energy

Director, Office of Science 01/ 02/ 2000 Director, Office of Science 01/ 02/
2000 Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control

11/ 23/ 1999 State Director General of Foreign Affairs 06/ 09/ 2000 Director
General of Foreign Affairs 06/ 09/ 2000

Page 8 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Not notified of vacancy Not notified of acting official Agency PAS position
Date Position

became vacant PAS position Date official

began acting service

Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs 06/ 15/ 2000 Assistant Secretary,
Financial Institutions 07/ 16/ 1999 Assistant Secretary, Public Affairs 08/
11/ 1999 Treasury

Director of the Mint 03/ 27/ 2000

For each vacancy and acting official identified through our questionnaire
that had not been reported to us by July 13, 2000, we contacted the
applicable agency to verify that notification should have occurred. Most
agencies offered no explanation for why vacancies and acting officials were
not reported. Officials at the Departments of Commerce and Defense said they
had reported one of the events in table 2, and an official at IMLS and an
Agency for International Development official each said two events had been
reported to OPP at the time of the events, but we found no evidence that the
reports had been forwarded to us.

For about half of the vacancies and acting officials of which we were
notified, the agencies took longer than 4 weeks to deliver reports to us,
even though the act requires that these reports be submitted immediately.
Between November 21, 1998, and July 13, 2000, a total of 21 agencies
notified us of 73 vacancies and 66 acting officials. The mean time between
the 73 vacancies occurring and the event being reported was 55 days and the
median time was 32 days. The mean time for the 66 acting official events was
51 days and the median was 28 days.

On March 21, 2001, the Counsel to the President sent a memorandum to the
heads of federal executive departments and agencies and units of the
Executive Office of the President providing guidance on reporting
requirements under the Vacancies Reform Act. The memorandum also streamlined
the process for how reports are to be sent to the Congress and us, and
specified that it is each agency?s responsibility to determine whether the
act covers any of its officials. Agencies were told to report directly to
the Congress and GAO rather than through OPP and OMB, as was the case in the
Clinton Administration. This more streamlined process should lead to more
current reporting of events and the memorandum itself should raise awareness
in agencies of their responsibility and hopefully increase timely compliance
with the reporting requirements. Recent Guidance Should

Reduce Reporting Time Lag

Page 9 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Four acting officials served beyond the time limits specified by the
Vacancies Reform Act. Three of these cases were discussed in our September
2000 interim response to you: the Acting Inspector Generals of the
Departments of Defense and Justice and the Chief Financial Officer at the
Environmental Protection Agency. We indicated that, while these officials
had exceeded the time limit, the act provides an exception to the provision
invalidating nondelegable actions for those persons serving in Inspector
General or Chief Financial Officer positions. We reported these instances to
President Clinton and the appropriate congressional committees on September
15, 2000. 3

We found one additional instance of an acting official exceeding the time
limit for temporary service. The Deputy Director for Museum Services of IMLS
served as Acting Director for substantially longer than the 210- day time
limit allows. We have also reported this situation to the President and the
appropriate congressional Committees as required by the Vacancies Reform
Act. 4 The position of Director became vacant on April 1, 1999, and the
Deputy Director for Museum Services became the Acting Director on this date.
According to IMLS officials, the Acting Director remained in this position
only until the 210th day at which time the individual ceased acting as
Director. At the end of the 210- day period, the Acting Director delegated
all delegable functions to the Deputy Director for Museum Services. However,
we found an instance where the individual used the Acting Director title at
the House Appropriations hearing for IMLS on April 4, 2000, 5 months after
the end of the 210 day time limit. The Vacancies Reform Act provides that
actions taken by acting officials after expiration of the time limit have no
force or effect if the functions and duties of the position necessary to
take those actions could not by law be delegated by a person confirmed by
the Senate to serve in the position. Any nondelegable decisions by the
Acting Director of the IMLS after 210 days in the acting capacity would have
no force or effect. IMLS officials told us that the individual had not taken
any nondelegable actions after 210 days had passed. Because the Vacancies
Reform Act restarts the clock on time limits for acting officials when a new
administration takes office, the individual could resume serving as Acting
Director on January 20, 2001.

3 Violations of the 210- Day Limit Imposed by the Vacancies Reform Act, B-
286265, Sept. 15, 2000. 4 Violation of the 210- Day Limit Imposed by the
Vacancies Reform Act, B- 287720, May 18, 2001. Four Acting Officials

Served Beyond the Time Limit

Page 10 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

We sent copies of a draft of the report for review and comment to the
Counsel to the President and to IMLS. The Counsel said that because the
matters discussed in the report dealt with compliance by the previous
administration, he and his staff did not have any knowledge about compliance
at that time with the Vacancy Reform Act and had no comments (see Appendix
III).

IMLS said that it had taken numerous steps to ensure that the agency was in
compliance with the Vacancies Reform Act (see Appendix IV). IMLS essentially
agreed with the facts presented in the report about the sequence of events
related to the Acting Director. However, IMLS commented that while there may
have been confusion about use of the Acting Director title after the 210-
day time limit expired, the Deputy Director for Museum Services acted solely
under delegated authority and took no unauthorized actions. However, as
discussed in the report, the Deputy Director for Museum Services continued
to use the title of Acting Director after expiration of the 210- day time
limit and we conclude that this action of holding herself out to be the
Acting Director constitutes a violation of the Vacancies Reform Act.

Even though we have been informed that no non- delegable functions and
duties were performed by the Acting Director and thus the Act?s provision
invalidating improperly performed functions and duties would not apply in
IMLS?s situation, we still had a duty to report the 210- day violation to
the President, the Congress, and OPM. The statute makes clear that the
Congress is interested not only in prohibiting improperly exercised
functions, but also in identifying situations where an office is vacant for
an extended period of time and an acting official is serving in violation of
the time limit. When an acting official serves past the allowed time period,
such action raises issues of executive accountability and the performance of
the leadership function. The Congress needs to be made aware of vacant
positions for which the Senate has a role in consenting to their being
filled. Because, as noted earlier, a report of the vacancy never reached the
Congress or GAO, we believe it is important that we alert the Congress about
the 210- day violation and the extended lapse in properly filling this
leadership position.

As agreed with your office, we will make no further distribution of this
report for 14 days. After that time, we wiil send copies of this letter to
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on
Governmental Affairs; Senators Thad Cochran, Chairman, and Daniel K. Agency
Comments

And Our Evaluation

Page 11 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Akaka, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on International Security,
Proliferation, and Federal Services, Senate Committee on Governmental
Affairs; Senators George V. Voinovich, Chairman, and Richard J. Durbin,
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management,
Restructuring, and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on
Governmental Affairs; Representatives Dan Burton, Chairman, and Henry A.
Waxman, Ranking Minority Member, House Committee on Government Reform;
Representatives Joe Scarborough, Chairman, and Danny Davis, Ranking Minority
Member, Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization, House
Committee on Government Reform; Mr. Clay S. Johnson, Assistant to the
President for Presidential Personnel; Mr. Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to
the President; Mr. Steven R. Cohen, Acting Director, Office of Personnel
Management; and, the Honorable Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., Director, Office of
Management and Budget. In addition, copies will be sent to other
congressional committees, the heads of the agencies discussed in this
report, and other interested parties. We will also make copies available to
others on request.

Please contact me or Mr. Thomas Dowdal, Assistant Director, on (202) 512-
6806 if you have any questions.

In addition, Jeffrey Dawson, Terry Draver, Clifton Douglas, Jr., V. Bruce
Goddard, and Michael Volpe made key contributions to this report.

Sincerely yours, Victor S. Rezendes Managing Director, Strategic Issues

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology Page 12 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies
Reform Act

To determine whether the Congress and GAO had been notified of all vacant
PAS positions between November 21, 1998, and June 30, 2000, 1 and any acting
officials serving in those positions, we obtained from the White House
Office of Presidential Personnel a list of PAS positions that was the best
available approximation of those subject to the Vacancies Reform Act. The
then Associate Counsel to the President said that the list of 62 agencies
with 484 PAS positions was a working list based primarily on Vacancies
Reform Act submissions prepared by agency officials and was not intended to
represent a final legal determination on the coverage of the Vacancies
Reform Act.

We sent each agency on the White House list the names of its PAS positions
and asked the agencies to complete a questionnaire for (1) each position
identified and (2) any PAS position they considered subject to the Vacancies
Reform Act that was not on the list we sent. The questionnaire also
requested the name of any individual who filled a vacant position on an
acting (temporary) basis and the dates of that service. Based on the
responses, 44 agencies indicated they had positions covered by the Vacancies
Reform Act.

We compared the vacancy and acting service information submitted by 44
agencies with the notifications GAO had received from them, as accumulated
in our Executive Vacancies Reform Act Tracking System. The tracking system
information was used for various analyses. When information we received
through the questionnaire was not in the tracking system, we rechecked the
source information for our tracking data and contacted the responsible
agency to verify the information.

To determine whether vacancies were filled by acting officials for longer
than the time limits under the act, we used data from our Executive
Vacancies Act Tracking System and information that agencies submitted for
this review. Our Executive Vacancies Act Tracking System is programmed to
count 210 days from the dates vacancies occur, as reported by the respective
agencies. The tracking system also is programmed to make adjustments
provided for by the Vacancies Reform Act, such as temporarily suspending the
210- day count if a vacancy occurs during the adjournment of Congress or if
a nomination has been sent to the Senate. We obtained tracking system
information on how long acting

1 June 30, 2000, was the end date because we asked the agencies for
information at the beginning of August 2000. Appendix I: Scope and
Methodology

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology Page 13 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies
Reform Act

officials filled PAS positions that had become vacant before as well as
since November 21, 1998. The 210- day limit is the only provision of the
Vacancies Reform Act that also applied to vacancies that existed on November
20, 1998. We tracked how long an acting official occupied a vacant position
through August 2000. We stopped tracking at that point so we could include
the analysis in our September 2000 interim report to you.

We compared the information agencies submitted in the questionnaire with
information from GAO?s tracking system. In a significant percentage of
cases, GAO was not previously notified of a vacancy or acting official. As a
result, the tracking system could not monitor those vacancies to determine
whether acting officials served longer than 210 days. In other instances,
the tracking system contained information about the vacancies and acting
officials, but the dates recorded did not match the dates the agencies
provided for this review. For differences greater than 1 day, we first tried
to resolve the difference by using data that we had available. Where
differences still remained, we asked the affected agencies to explain why
there were differences, to tell us which dates were correct, and to explain
why those dates were correct. With this corrected information, we
determined, as appropriate, whether the 210 days had elapsed.

Appendix II: Federal Agencies That Reported Having PAS Positions Subject to
the Vacancies Reform Act

Page 14 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Agency for International
Development Archives and Records Administration

Central Intelligence Agency Corporation for National and Community Service
Council of Environmental Quality Department of Agriculture Department of
Commerce Department of Defense Department of Education Department of Energy
Department of Health and Human Services Department of Housing and Urban
Development Department of Interior Department of Justice Department of Labor
Department of State Department of Transportation Department of Treasury
Department of Veterans Affairs District of Columbia Offender Supervision,
Defender, and Courts Services Agency Environmental Protection Agency Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation Federal Emergency Management Agency Federal
Labor Relations Authority Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service General
Services Administration Institute of Museum and Library Services
International Joint Commission on U. S. and Canada National Aeronautics and
Space Administration Navaho and Hopi Indian Relocation Commission Nuclear
Regulatory Commission Office of Government Ethics Office of Management and
Budget Office of National Drug Control Policy Office of Personnel Management
Office of Science and Technology Policy Office of Special Counsel Office of
the U. S. Trade Representative Peace Corps Railroad Retirement Board
Selective Service System Small Business Administration

Appendix II: Federal Agencies That Reported Having PAS Positions Subject to
the Vacancies Reform Act

Appendix II: Federal Agencies That Reported Having PAS Positions Subject to
the Vacancies Reform Act

Page 15 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Social Security Administration
Trade and Development Agency

Note: Listing may not be all inclusive. Additional agencies may have PAS
positions that fall under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998

Appendix III: Comments From the Counsel to the President

Page 16 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

.

Appendix III: Comments From the Counsel to the President

Appendix IV: Comments From the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Page 17 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

Appendix IV: Comments From the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Appendix IV: Comments From the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Page 18 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act (450024)

Appendix IV: Comments From the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Page 19 GAO- 01- 701 Federal Vacancies Reform Act

The first copy of each GAO report is free. Additional copies of reports are
$2 each. A check or money order should be made out to the Superintendent of
Documents. VISA and MasterCard credit cards are also accepted.

Orders for 100 or more copies to be mailed to a single address are
discounted 25 percent.

Orders by mail:

U. S. General Accounting Office P. O. Box 37050 Washington, DC 20013

Orders by visiting:

Room 1100 700 4 th St., NW (corner of 4 th and G Sts. NW) Washington, DC
20013

Orders by phone:

(202) 512- 6000 fax: (202) 512- 6061 TDD (202) 512- 2537

Each day, GAO issues a list of newly available reports and testimony. To
receive facsimile copies of the daily list or any list from the past 30
days, please call (202) 512- 6000 using a touchtone phone. A recorded menu
will provide information on how to obtain these lists.

Orders by Internet

For information on how to access GAO reports on the Internet, send an email
message with ?info? in the body to:

Info@ www. gao. gov or visit GAO?s World Wide Web home page at: http:// www.
gao. gov

Contact one:

 Web site: http:// www. gao. gov/ fraudnet/ fraudnet. htm

 E- mail: fraudnet@ gao. gov

 1- 800- 424- 5454 (automated answering system) Ordering Information

To Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Federal Programs
*** End of document. ***