Every four years after the presidential election, the “United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions”—commonly referred to as the Plum Book – is published by the Congress. Copies can be retrieved from GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) at http://www.fdsys.gov. Since you have used FDsys for previous data exercises, you should recall how to search for and select documents from the site. Direct your browser to FDsys and search for the volume using the title. Multiple editions may be returned, but you should select the most recent one published in December 2016. Note: this volume is published once every four years (after the presidential election).

1. Take a look at the Foreword. Specifically, what committee(s) is responsible for publishing the Plum Book?

2. Approximately how many positions are included in the volume?

3. Why do you think that this document is published? Do you think that this is primarily for the public, for Congress, or the president? Why?

4. Locate at least two cabinet-level agencies of your choice (e.g., Department of Transportation and Department of Homeland Security). Create a table similar to the ones that you have created in the past that will allow you to report the count of the appointees for each agency. Remember from the Foreword that there are several types of appointees (e.g., presidential appointed-Senate confirmed and career appointment to name a few). You should preserve these designations in your table, which may look something like this:

How do you agencies differ? How are they similar? Do you have any ideas why this may be? Support your argument using budget data collected from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) using guidelines established in previous chapters’ data exercises. You may also wish to compare the Plum Book data with general employment data found on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s FedScope site, which you used in the previous chapter.