Dave Helling of The Kansas City Star found vacant positions at the highest levels of many government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services.
There are 19 subcabinet jobs at HHS that require presidential appointment and Senate confirmation — assistant secretaries, administrators, commissioners and directors, all key players at the $730 billion agency.
Fifteen of those jobs are open.
It isn’t just HHS. Nearly seven weeks after taking office, President Barack Obama has a Cabinet, but hundreds of other senior-level jobs across the executive branch lack permanent occupants.
Helling reports that empty spots at the highest levels are common during transitions between presidents of opposite parties, but that the resulting lack of policy direction still leaves legions of bureaucrats rudderless and trapped in a transitional purgatory.
At HHS, the list of important agencies lacking permanent leadership is long: The Food and Drug Administration. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The National Institutes of Health.
