Every four years, just after the Presidential election, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (alternately) release a compilation called The United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, better known as the “Plum Book.” This compilation features a list of over 7,000 civil service leadership and support positions within the legislative and executive branches. Many of these positions are filled through a noncompetitive appointment process.
The book categorizes the positions by branch and department. For each position, you will find the position location; title; the name of the appointee; the type of appointment; the pay plan; the level, grade, or salary of the appointee; and the tenure and expiration of the appointment.The Plum Book is available online and in print.
A mobile device friendly version that provides enhanced sorting options is located here.
January 23, 2013 at 10:40 am
The Plum Book is at its most useful when it is make available to the public in formats that can be easily processed by computer programs (like in a spreadsheet). Fortunately, the New York Times went through the effort to transform the difficult-to-use PDFs into excel format. For more on why this matters, and a free copy of the Plum Book in excel format, visit the NY Times article here: http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/freeing-the-plum-book/