President Donald Trump holds the authority to fill roughly 4,000 politically appointed positions across the executive branch and independent agencies as his administration takes shape.
More than 1,300 of those positions require formal Senate confirmation, making the process one of the most consequential and closely watched in any new administration.
The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service are jointly tracking nominees for approximately 800 of those positions, providing ongoing public visibility into the appointments process.
Each nominee must pass through several distinct procedural steps before a position is officially filled, beginning with a formal nomination from the White House.
Following nomination, candidates are referred to at least one Senate committee, where they face a committee hearing before any full Senate floor vote can take place.
The tracker covers a broad range of senior government roles, including Cabinet secretaries, deputy and assistant secretaries, chief financial officers, and general counsels.
Heads of major federal departments, ambassadors, and other critical leadership positions across the government are also included in the tracking effort.
The tracker does not display officials serving in an acting capacity, meaning that positions listed as unfilled are not necessarily vacant in practice.
All presidents routinely designate temporary officials to fulfill the responsibilities of certain Senate-confirmed roles, ensuring continuity of government operations during transition periods.
The information feeding the tracker draws primarily from Congress.gov, the official website for U.S. federal legislative information, updated as close to real time as possible.
Historically, this kind of comprehensive government personnel data was only published every four years in what is known as the Plum Book, a document that sometimes contained errors.
A newer law now requires the federal government to maintain an online database called Periodically Listing Updates to Management, though that system only mandates yearly updates rather than continuous tracking.
Nominees who were confirmed during the Biden administration are presumed to have resigned unless they held termed positions or public information confirms they have continued serving under Trump.
The dual purpose of the tracker is to catalogue individuals serving in key leadership posts and to document the progress of nominations as they move through the Senate confirmation process.
