‘Acting’ appointees rife in Washington

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- A growing number of U.S. federal departments and agencies are being run by interim appointees, The New York Times reported Sunday.

For example, the Department of Justice is being led by acting Attorney General Peter D. Keisler, at least until the U.S. Senate confirms a replacement for Alberto Gonzales, who resigned The second- and third-top ranking officials at Justice are also interim appointments.

The Department of Homeland Security has an acting general counsel, acting under secretary for national protection and acting assistant secretary for strategic plans -- and Medicare and Medicaid have been led by an acting administrator for about a year.

In many cases, the newspaper said, there is no apparent indication the White House plans to find permanent nominees.

White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said the administration fills vacancies with able acting replacements.

“We encourage members of the Senate to confirm the nominees we’ve already sent to the Hill as soon as possible,” she said.

Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University, told the Times he’s never before seen a vacancy rate like this in 25 years of studying the subject.

“You’ve got more vacancies now than a hotel in hurricane season,” said Light.