The Importance of Position: Agency Discretionary Budgets and PAS Appointments

Abstract

AbstractAgency budgets are recognized as strong conditioning influences on executive nominations and, by extension, bureaucratic politicization. Key is an appointed position with greater budgetary authority attached being more important. Yet, position importance has been measured broadly—for example, distinguishing among appointment tiers—without incorporating discretionary budgets as a more nuanced measure. We rectify this, assessing hypotheses about how a position's discretionary budget impacts the president's nomination choice and the Senate's responses. As expected, higher budgets are associated with presidents nominating those with whom they are more in tune ideologically, but this effect is mitigated for top‐tier appointments. Also as predicted, the Senate moves these high budget appointments through the process more smoothly with higher approval likelihoods. Budgets are a key element of position importance for department‐level agencies, structuring how presidents choose and the Senate reacts in politicizing the bureaucracy.