Three Biden administration officials have exceeded the amount of time they can use the “acting” title and are currently serving in their positions unlawfully, a government watchdog group declared Wednesday.
The Government Accountability Office found that Deidre Harrison, the acting controller at the Office of Management and Budget; Allison Randall, the acting director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women; and Charlotte A. Dye, the acting general counsel at the Federal Labor Relations Authority were all in violation of the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
All three officials have been serving in an acting capacity since November 2021, exceeding the 210 day limit the law sets after the role becomes vacant, or 300 day limit after a presidential inauguration, according to the GAO. Officials can only stay in an acting role for a longer period of time if a permanent nomination is pending or if a nomination is withdrawn or rejected, the watchdog explains.
The GAO has notified President Biden and Congress of the violations, which open the agencies up to lawsuits from individuals or groups looking to invalidate decisions and policies issued by officials serving in their positions unlawfully.
The GAO also found that Tae D. Johnson, as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and three former acting assistant administrators of the Bureau of Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development were in violation of the law.
However, at ICE, Johnson’s job title is now deputy director and senior official performing the duties of the director for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and thus he is no longer in violation of the law. Likewise, GAO found that no one at USAID’s Asia bureau is currently using the acting title anymore.