Plum Book

The Plum Book, formally titled United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, is a directory of roughly 9,000 federal civil service leadership and support positions in the executive and legislative branches that may be filled through noncompetitive appointment by an incoming presidential administration. Its statutory foundation rests in 5 U.S.C. § 3349 and longstanding congressional practice: the publication is compiled and issued every four years, immediately after each presidential election, alternately by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. The volume's colloquial name derives from the plum-colored cover used since its first edition in 1952, and the "plum" pun on the political patronage tradition of awarding desirable posts to loyal supporters. The companion volume, the Prune Book, is an unofficial guide published periodically by the Partnership for Public Service describing the most demanding of these positions.

Procedurally, the Plum Book catalogues four principal categories of positions: Presidential Appointments requiring Senate confirmation (PAS); Presidential Appointments not requiring Senate confirmation (PA); Senior Executive Service positions designated as noncareer or limited-term (SES); and Schedule C excepted-service positions, which are confidential or policy-determining roles below the SES level. Each entry lists the position title, location, name of the incumbent, type of appointment, pay plan and grade, expiration date if any, and vacancy status. The Office of Personnel Management supplies the underlying data through its Executive and Schedule C System, and the General Services Administration's Government Publishing Office prints both hardcopy and electronic editions. Since 2020, OPM has maintained a searchable online Plum Book pursuant to the Periodically Listing Updates to Management (PLUM) Act of 2022, which mandates a continuously updated database rather than quadrennial snapshots alone.

The mechanics of using the Plum Book during a presidential transition begin well before Inauguration Day. Under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, as amended, the General Services Administration provides office space and resources to the president-elect's transition team, which uses the Plum Book in tandem with the White House Office of Presidential Personnel's vetting pipeline. Candidates identified for PAS positions undergo FBI background investigation, financial disclosure under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, and Senate committee questionnaires before formal nomination. Schedule C and noncareer SES appointments require OPM concurrence but no Senate vote. The Plum Book itself confers no appointment authority; it is a reference, not an instrument of designation.

Contemporary practice illustrates the document's operational role. The 2020 edition, released in December 2020 by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee under Chairman Ron Johnson, listed approximately 9,000 positions across the federal government, of which roughly 1,200 require Senate confirmation. The Biden-Harris transition relied on it to populate the State Department, Treasury, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where ambassadorial nominations and assistant secretary slots are concentrated. The 2024 edition, the first issued under the PLUM Act's continuous-update regime, was released by the House Oversight Committee in December 2024 ahead of the second Trump administration's transition. Foreign ministries in Ottawa, London, Berlin, and Tokyo routinely consult the Plum Book to map their counterpart structures in Washington and to anticipate which interlocutors will turn over.

The Plum Book is frequently confused with the Prune Book and with the State Department's Key Officers of Foreign Service Posts, but these serve distinct purposes. The Prune Book, published intermittently by the Partnership for Public Service, profiles the most managerially complex Senate-confirmed positions and offers narrative guidance to nominees; it is descriptive, not authoritative. Key Officers lists career and political officers at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad and is updated continuously by the Bureau of Administration. Career Senior Executive Service positions, which constitute the majority of SES billets, are excluded from the Plum Book because they are not available for political appointment. Ambassadorships, by contrast, appear in the Plum Book because all chiefs of mission are presidential appointees under 22 U.S.C. § 3942.

Recent controversies center on the scale and speed of political turnover. Schedule F, established by Executive Order 13957 in October 2020, would have reclassified tens of thousands of career policy positions as excepted service, dramatically expanding the Plum Book's effective scope; the order was revoked by Executive Order 14003 in January 2021 and reinstated in revised form in January 2025. The PLUM Act, enacted as part of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, responded to complaints that the quadrennial print edition rapidly became obsolete and obscured vacancies. Critics have also noted that the book's listing of incumbents creates a security and lobbying targeting risk, while defenders argue that transparency in patronage is preferable to opacity.

For the working practitioner — a desk officer in a foreign ministry, a think-tank analyst tracking U.S. policy turnover, or a journalist covering nominations — the Plum Book is the indispensable starting reference for understanding which positions are political and therefore subject to change with each administration, and which are career and likely to persist. It allows embassies to anticipate the departure of assistant secretaries and deputy assistant secretaries who serve as their principal interlocutors, to identify acting officials filling gaps during confirmation delays, and to distinguish the political appointee tier from the career civil service that ensures policy continuity. Mastery of the Plum Book is, in practical terms, a prerequisite for navigating the U.S. executive branch.