Edwin Meese III Institute · Tom Jipping
How fast is the Senate confirming the President’s judicial and executive-branch nominees? The latest data, updated with every new tracker edition.
Judicial Appointments · Latest Edition
Data as of October 22, 2026
Percent of Article III Nominees Opposed by Average Other-Party Senators
Read this memo → All judicial editions →
Political Appointments · Latest Edition
Data as of July 21, 2026
Executive Branch Appointments
Read this memo → All political editions →
Article II of the Constitution gives the President authority to nominate and, with the Senate’s advice and consent, to appoint “Officers of the United States” — from federal judges to the senior executive-branch officials listed in the Plum Book, which is published after each presidential election. The number of executive-branch positions requiring Senate confirmation has varied little over the period these trackers cover.
The Senate traditionally confirmed the vast majority of nominees without a cloture vote or a time-consuming recorded vote. Tom Jipping’s tracker memos document how those norms have eroded across recent administrations — and compare each president’s vacancies, nominations, and confirmations at the same point in their terms, so the pace can be judged apples-to-apples.
Each edition above is the most recent in its series; the charts in the embedded PDFs carry the full historical comparison. For every past edition, visit the Appointments Trackers library, or request an interview with Tom Jipping.
