Cerin Lindgrensavage and Liz Hempowicz at The Hill:
This week the House Oversight Committee is scheduled to mark up the Accountability for Acting Officials Act, which would close some of the loopholes and ambiguities in the Vacancies Act and give presidents more incentive to nominate officials to be approved by the Senate. That bill would clarify existing rules governing acting officials and put in place stricter limits on who can serve as an acting leader.
The bill is an important step forward in ensuring qualified, experienced personnel serve as acting officials, and in giving businesses that interact with federal agencies greater certainty that the decisions by those officials won’t be invalidated down the line.