Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998

Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998

Enacted by	the 105th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 105–277 (text) (PDF)
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as Sec. 151 of Division C of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999 (H.R. 4328) Passed the House on October 20, 1998 (333–95) Passed the Senate on October 21, 1998 (65–29) Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 21, 1998
United States Supreme Court cases
NLRB v. SW General, Inc., No. 15-1251, 580 U.S. ___ (2017)

Administrative law of the United States
General
Rulemaking Notice of proposed rulemaking Adjudication Administrative law judge Code of Federal Regulations Federal Register
Statutory framework
Administrative Procedure Act Freedom of Information Act NEPA GSA NEA IGA RFA PRA UMRA CRA FVRA
Regulatory coordination
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrative Conference Executive orders Cost–benefit analysis (Executive Order 12866)
Judicial review of agency action
Arbitrary and capricious State Farm Chevron deference Auer deference Committed to agency discretion Due process Londoner Bi-Metallic Goldberg Mathews Exhaustion Major questions doctrine Nationwide injunction Ripeness Abbott Labs Standing Lujan
Separation of powers
Appointments Clause Freytag Noel Canning Congressional oversight Authorization Organic statute Appropriation Hearings Senate confirmation Independent agencies Humphrey's Executor Seila Law Unitary executive theory Legislative veto Chadha Nondelegation
Related areas of law (and agencies)
Antitrust and competition FTC CPSC CFPB Banking Treasury OCC FDIC FRB Communication FCC Energy DOE FERC Environment EPA FWS Food FDA CDC Health care HHS Immigration DHS EOIR Labor DOL NLRB Patent/trademark PTO Securities SEC CFTC Taxation IRS TC Trade DOC ITC Transportation DOT STB NTSB Social Security SSA
Related topics
Constitutional law Statutory interpretation
v t e

The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (commonly called the Vacancies Act) (5 U.S.C. § 3345 et seq.^[1]) is a United States federal statute establishing the procedure for filling vacancies in an appointed office of an executive agency of the government before the appointment of a permanent replacement.

The Act allows an incoming President 300 days in which to temporarily and unilaterally fill positions with "acting" officers. After this initial extended period, the offices officially become vacant and the President has 210 days to fill the vacancies. However, provisions in the Act, described as a loophole, allow the president after these periods to assign the "nonexclusive duties" of a vacant position to a person to perform, provided they are not described as "acting". The de facto acting officers can be described as “performing the duties of...”, or similar description.^[2]