What is a Presidential Appointee?

The Four Types of Appointments

Word count: 2,456; twelve minutes to read.

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What Are Presidential Appointees?

Nearly all president appointees are individuals chosen either directly by the President of the United States, or his designated representatives, to help the president enact his governing agenda by serving in various executive branch positions.

The exceptions are those the president nominates to serve in positions outside the executive branch.

These include appointees at independent agencies, judicial branch appointments (i.e., the Supreme Court, federal judgeships, U.S. Sentencing Commission commissioners), and five positions in the legislative branch.*

The president may choose whoever he wants to serve as a presidential appointee.

This power is vested in the president by Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which describes how the president is elected, details his responsibilities, the scope of his powers, and how a president may be removed.

The very first sentence of Article II reads: “The executive Power shall be vested in the President of the United States of America.”

This is the “Vesting Clause” and it does not include the vice president, a cabinet secretary, a member of Congress, a justice on the Supreme Court, a general at the Pentagon, or some unnamed bureaucrat in a government office building.

Only one person is vested with the powers of the presidency: the president.

Now some appointments, about 1,100 per the Plum Book, require Senate confirmation. This requires the president to nominate someone, and then the Senate to confirm or deny the nomination (the Senate could also do nothing).

If the Senate confirms someone, the president signs a document known as a presidential commission and sends it to the State Department, where the Secretary of State signs and the Great Seal of the United States is affixed.

After that the individual takes the Oath of Office and begins fulfilling the role.

For every other appointment, it’s just a matter of the president wanting that person in the job, the White House processing the paperwork, and the person taking the Oath of Office and being onboarded.

This process can take as little as a few weeks.

No one in Congress, or the judicial branch, can deny someone a position that doesn’t require Senate confirmation if the president decides to put them there.

Get a paid subscription to learn more about the different types of appointments, the kinds of positions they include, and commentary plus advice on each . . .