The Trump administration is abusing the law that allows the executive to name “acting directors” to federal agencies where there is a vacancy.
When the United States government is functioning normally, the President nominates people to fill important positions throughout the executive branch, and the Senate holds hearings and determines whether to confirm them. Donald Trump has failed to nominate anyone to fill innumerable government positions. So what happens when a president doesn’t nominate anyone?
The Federal Vacancies Reform Act authorizes “the President (and only the President)” to appoint someone “to perform the functions and duties of the vacant office temporarily in an acting capacity.” Trump has made liberal use of this provision, thereby completely avoiding Senate hearings and any possible obstacles to confirmation. One problem: the FVRA permits such temporary appointments only “for no longer than 210 days.” Congress assumed that would give any president ample time to nominate someone permanent.
Congress did not foresee someone like Trump, who just wants his hand-picked people to run everything and answer to no one but him. So when his “temporary” appointees’ time expires, they don’t leave; instead, they just change their titles and continue controlling all policy, just as they have been.
Former Acting Director Dan Simmons hit his 210-day time limit at the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The Trump administration removed Simmons’s title of acting director, while stating he would still “serve in a leadership capacity” as a principal deputy assistant secretary.
Former Acting Director Edward McGinnis hit his 210-day time limit at the Office of Nuclear Energy, so the Trump administration changed his title to principal deputy assistant secretary.
Former Acting Director Eric Rohlfing hit his 210-day time limit at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, so the Trump administration changed his title to deputy director.
Brian Steed was originally named acting director at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management. Two problems: first, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke appointed him, not Trump; second, Steed did not satisfy even the minimum qualifications of the FVRA. So Zinke said he was just granting Steed “the delegated functions, duties, responsibilities and authority of the BLM director,” rather than actually naming him acting director. Steed is now listed as deputy director of programs and policy, but still officially “exercising authority of the director.”
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross decided not to make Zinke’s mistake: He appointed Karen Kelley to “perform the nonexclusive duties and functions of the Deputy Secretary of Commerce,” without ever formally naming her acting deputy secretary.
Now Trump has named Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, as the “temporary” head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a supposedly independent body that Mulvaney has attacked repeatedly and once called a “sad, sick joke.” I’m sure that’ll go just fine.
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{ ⌛ } Sitting in a chair with a black cape wrapped around his shoulders, Luke’s expression was not one of amusement. It felt like his hair was a play toy for Fara lately and of course, there was no way he could tell her no. From blonde to black to brunette to blonde in the past 10 months, he was beginning to wonder how she kept hair on his head. And now, of all things, she was deadset on dying his hair lavender. He told her to go do it to Casper instead, but, sure enough, here he was sulking and waiting as she mixed the colours. What gave her the notion that this colour would work was beyond him, but, he had learned long ago to just let her have her way. It was just hair after all, even if he did like giving her a hard way to go. Meeting her gaze through the large mirror in front of him, he smirked slightly.
Kibum rolled his eyes as conspicuously as one possibly could, taking care to scoff for extra emphasis. This girl... seriously, talk about melodrama.
“At the rate you claim it, I’m about ready to turn you into one myself just to save you the time and trouble. I’ll pick up the crazy cat lady starter kit as soon as possible. How does that sound?”
