Published: December 29, 2020
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has made the 2020 United States Policy and Supporting Positions, or the “The Plum Book”, available on govinfo. Users can search the publication by agency, position title, location, appointment type, pay plan and level, tenure and term expiration, and vacancy. The data for The Plum Book was composed in XPub, GPO’s new digital technology for XML-based publishing.
About the Plum Book
The Plum Book is published by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and House Committee on Oversight and Reform alternately after each Presidential election. The Plum Book is used to identify Presidential appointed and other positions within the Federal Government. The publication lists over 9,000 Federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment. The duties of many such positions may involve advocacy of Administration policies and programs and the incumbents usually have a close and confidential working relationship with the agency head or other key officials.
The Plum Book was first published in 1952 during the Eisenhower administration. When President Eisenhower took office, the Republican Party requested a list of government positions that President Eisenhower could fill. The next edition of the Plum Book appeared in 1960 and has since been published every four years, just after the Presidential election.