{"id":37401,"date":"2023-04-19T17:27:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T21:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/?p=37401"},"modified":"2023-04-26T09:55:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T13:55:19","slug":"the-plum-act-a-new-era-of-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/the-plum-act-a-new-era-of-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"The PLUM Act: A new era of transparency into senior leadership government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1952, President Dwight Eisenhower requested a list of positions he would be responsible for filling in his new administration. Thus began the tradition of the Plum Book, nicknamed for its listing of \u201cplum\u201d top jobs in the government and the plum-colored cover page of the printed version. Reflecting the size and scope of today\u2019s government, recent Plum Books list more than 4,000 political appointees \u2013 about 1,200 of whom are subject to Senate confirmation \u2013 along with thousands of other jobs filled by senior career officials in the federal civil service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Plum Book should be what President Eisenhower envisioned \u2013 a key tool for presidential transition planning. Moreover, as the information age increasingly raises expectations for government transparency and accessibility, the Plum Book should provide up-to-date information to the public on the leadership and organization of federal agencies. The Plum Book has failed on both counts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, a bipartisan group<\/a> in Congress last year took up the cause of modernizing the Plum Book in the cleverly named Periodically Listing Updates to Management (PLUM Act). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the passage of the PLUM Act, the Office of Personnel Management sent out a data call to federal agencies to collect Plum Book information every four years, in the summer of an election year. Unfortunately, the listing captured a moment in time that was already out of date by the time the Plum Book was published. On top of that, the information listed in the Plum Book was inconsistent across editions and contained numerous errors and omissions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021 congressional testimony<\/a>, a 2020 blog and a 2021 blog<\/a>, the Partnership for Public Service as well as others who have studied the Plum Book<\/a> have documented the many deficiencies of the traditional Plum Book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PLUM Act was signed into law in December 2022 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023<\/a> and made the following improvements to the Plum Book: <\/p>\n\n\n\n