There are several types of political appointments that the White House Liaison is responsible for hiring to staff the agency. The most common type of appointments are Schedule C appointees, Senior Executive Service (SES) appointees, presidential appointments, and presidential Appointments with Senate confirmation. There are also Schedule A temporary appointments.
Schedule C appointments are the most common. Over 80% of the political appointments will be Schedule C. These appointees are tied to the General Schedule (GS) scale for pay. With political appointees, the GS scale ranges from GS7 to GS15. For the most part, appointees will start at Step 1 within the GS scale (i.e., GS 9, Step 1; GS 12, Step 1; GS 15, Step 1). However, there are some exceptions to starting at Step 1 of the GS scale. When a candidate requires a higher step (i.e., GS 13, Step 6), the White House Liaison must write an “Above the Minimum” (ATM) letter explaining why the candidate’s experience deserves to be given a higher step. Some of the reasons for beginning an appointee “above the minimum” include:
- Their previous salary is over Step 1, but doesn’t quite justify a grade increase
- They have another offer for the same salary and the agency would like that candidate
- They are retired and they require the max Schedule C salary (GS 15/15) to be appealing
Then, this ATM letter is signed by the White House Liaison and the Assistant or Under Secretary of the program office and included in the hiring package.
When the candidate is approved for hiring by the agency and the White House, a 1019 personnel form is generated for the Schedule C appointee. This form is signed by the White House Liaison and an officer of the agency (usually the Chief of Staff, the Deputy Secretary, or the Secretary). Once that form is signed and returned to the agency’s personnel department, the candidate can begin work.
SES employees are usually reserved for more senior-level roles for a few reasons. The first reason is that there is a federal limit on the number of people that can be hired as SES employees across all agencies. Each administration can set the number of SES appointees at each agency while they are in office.
SES appointees are not a part of the GS scale, and therefore they have more flexibility with pay. Since SES appointees are not on the GS scale, they are able to supervise employees who are on the scale. This is especially important when people are in temporary positions, such as acting Assistant Secretary. Once a 1652 Form is generated for the SES appointee, the appointee can start. In some cases, the 1652 Form will inform you how many SES appointees you have and how many you are allotted.
Schedule A appointees are very different from Schedule C and SES appointees. Schedule A appointees are temporary employees whose term lasts six months before termination. Schedule A appointees operate outside the political appointee process, so they can stay employed after an administration comes to an end. They are usually chosen by the political team of a given agency, and the White House Liaison has little to do with the onboarding of Schedule A appointees.
For the appointees requiring a Presidential Appointment without a Senate confirmation, they usually need to be approved by the agency Secretary and the White House. In most cases, PPO will put candidates forward for the agency to decide on, because these individuals will have a bigger influence in executing the president’s agenda.
For appointees requiring Presidential Appointments with Senate confirmation, the process is much different. In some cases, the candidate is hand-selected by the Secretary. In other cases, the candidate is selected by PPO.
Once the candidate is selected, they must fill out the required financial disclosure forms (Form SF-86) and their name must be submitted to the Senate.
The SF-86 Form is a disclosure of all financial resources including salary, savings, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, commodities, and retirement accounts. This is to ensure that the appointee does not have any financial holdings that they could impact in their important position.
It is the job of the White House Liaison to make sure these forms are completed in a timely manner. From there, the candidate is put on the appropriate Senate committee’s calendar and a hearing a scheduled.
The candidate must appear before the Senate committee assigned to their agency for a hearing. In these hearings, the nominee can either appear alone or on a panel with other nominees. Once the hearing is complete, the committee will vote on the nominee. If the candidate gets a majority of the committee vote, the vote is moved to the full Senate for final confirmation.
Once confirmed by the Senate, the candidate can start immediately after they are sworn in by the Agency head. It is imperative that the White House Liaison works closely with the agency staff and PPO to ensure that all the agency paperwork has been completed on time so the appointee can start in their position immediately.
