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Home Page > Legislative
Branch > Plum Book > About
The Plum Book (United States Government Policy
and Supporting Positions): About
Published by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the House
Committee on Government Reform alternately after each Presidential election,
the Plum Book lists over 7,000 Federal civil service leadership and support
positions in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government
that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment, nationwide. Data covers
positions such as agency heads and their immediate subordinates, policy
executives and advisors, and aides who report to these officials. 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 or other key officials.
The major categories of positions listed in United States Government
Policy and Supporting Positions include:
- Executive Schedule and salary-equivalent positions paid at the rates
established for levels I through V of the Executive Schedule;
- Senior Executive Service "General" positions and Senior
Foreign Service positions;
- Schedule C positions excepted from the competitive service by the
President, or by the Director, Office of Personnel Management, and other
positions at the GS-14 and above level excepted from the competitive
civil service by law, because of the confidential or policy-determining
nature of the position duties.
The Plum Book is used to identify presidentially appointed positions
within the Federal Government. The list originate in 1952 during the Eisenhower
administration. For twenty-two years prior, the Democratic controlled
the Federal Government. 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.
GPO Access contains the 1996, 2000, and 2004 editions of the Plum Book.
Files are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) only. The
next version of the Plum Book will be prepared for publication immediately
following the November 2008 Presidential election.
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