A second lawsuit challenges plans to put ICE agents near polling places

<article class="content js-article" data-ad-unit="/617/govexec.com/section_management/content/pid_416116" data-authors="Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom" data-browser-title="A second lawsuit challenges plans to put ICE agents near polling places - Government Executive" data-categories="defense,federal-news,management" data-full-url="https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/09/second-lawsuit-challenges-plans-put-ice-agents-near-polling-places/416116/" data-id="416116" data-primary-category="management" data-sailthru='{"url": "/management/2026/09/second-lawsuit-challenges-plans-put-ice-agents-near-polling-places/416116/", "track_url": true, "spider": true, "horizon_domain": "horizon.govexec.com", "tags": "justice-department,homeland-security,fbi,immigration-and-customs-enforcement,homeland-security-department,department-of-homeland-security,usdoj,polling-places,voting-rights-act,trump-administration,doj,midterm-elections,2026-midterm-elections,channel-management,type-story,length-medium,site-govexec"}' data-suppress-drop-cap="False" data-title="A second lawsuit challenges plans to put ICE agents near polling places" data-topics="elections,homeland-security,immigration" data-url="/management/2026/09/second-lawsuit-challenges-plans-put-ice-agents-near-polling-places/416116/" id="second-lawsuit-challenges-plans-put-ice-agents-near-polling-places-416116">
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<p>A coalition of civil rights groups and union organizations Friday sued the Trump administration to prevent the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling locations during November’s midterm elections.</p><p>The suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is the second this month, following comments from top Trump officials citing a federal policy to allow ICE officers to enter polling locations in certain circumstances to conduct immigration enforcement.</p><p>The groups argue the policy violates the federal law that prohibits “armed men” at election sites, and also causes voter intimidation, which is barred under the Voting Rights Act.</p><p>Under federal law, “troops” or “armed men” are allowed at polling locations only if “such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.” And the section of the Voting Rights Act the groups cite prohibits “intimidation,” “threats” or “coercion” against a person for voting or attempting to vote.</p><p>“The result is predictable: voters across the country — particularly Black, Latino and Asian voters, naturalized citizens, and members of mixed-status families — are afraid to vote, help others vote, and participate in civic life,” according to the suit.</p><p>Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin earlier this month noted that agents could conduct immigration enforcement at polling places. And before U.S. senators this week, FBI Director Kash Patel did not rule out sending FBI agents to polling locations, but said officers would “follow the law.”</p><p>The Department of Justice dismissed the idea that officers would be sent to polling locations.</p><p>“The DOJ has never said it would send federal law enforcement to polling locations,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement to States Newsroom. “Any suggestion otherwise is fearmongering.”</p><p>In a statement to States Newsroom, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said those “who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.”</p><p>“Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE,” the spokesperson said. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity.”</p><p>The DHS spokesperson added that ICE was not planning any operations that targeted polling locations.</p><p><strong>NAACP among groups suing</strong></p><p>“We reject this administration’s attempt to desecrate our polling sites by converting them into militarized zones through the unlawful deployment of ICE or any other federal agent,” Kristen Clarke, the NAACP’s general counsel, said in a statement.</p><p>NAACP is one of nine groups that filed suit. The rest are Mi Familia en Accion, Asian Pacific American Advocates, the National Urban League, Minnesota 8, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the International Union of Painters and the United Food and Commercial Workers International.</p><p>“Turning the fundamental right of exercising our vote into a high-stakes encounter with the militarized strong arm of the current administration isn't protection and it isn't oversight; it's disenfranchisement, period,” Clarke said. “The NAACP calls on the court to reject this blatant attempt by federal officials to obstruct our elections through tactics pulled straight from the Jim Crow playbook.”</p><p>The nine groups are represented by the Legal Defense Fund, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the National Immigration Law Center, Protect Democracy and the Democracy Defenders Fund.</p></div></div>
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Federal Movers & Shakers | September 18, 2026

A DHS email raises new questions about the Trump administration's election plans

Democrats warn OPM’s health data collection plan goes too far

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<p>The Office of Personnel Management is, once again, being urged to walk back its plans to collect personal health data on up to 8 million federal employees, retirees and their family members.</p>
<p>Six Senate Democrats are doubling down on their concerns that the Trump administration’s unprecedented health data collection poses privacy and security risks for individuals, while also raising questions of legality and constitutionality.</p>
<p>“We support responsible efforts to protect the integrity of federal health-benefit programs,” a <a href="https://www.schiff.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Follow-up-Letter-from-Senate-Dems-to-OPM-on-Health-Data.pdf">letter</a> sent Wednesday to OPM Director Scott Kupor reads. “However, OPM’s proposals create an unnecessarily broad, decades-long, re-identifiable medical history of millions of workers, retirees, spouses, children and other family members.”</p>
<p>The letter, led by Sens. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), called on OPM to suspend the data collection effort and instead use “genuinely de-identified or aggregated data.”</p>

<p>The pressure from lawmakers comes after OPM, in December 2025, <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document/OPM-2025-0206-0049">outlined plans</a> to begin requiring federal health insurance carriers to submit claims-level data on enrollees in the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs — without expressly restricting carriers from including personal health information.</p>
<p>OPM, at the time, said the data would be used for “oversight activities,” and to ensure carriers are providing “competitive, quality and affordable plans.”</p>
<p>But in their letter, Democrats contended that OPM’s explanation lacks detail. They pushed for more information on why OPM needs to collect personal health data at such a granular level.</p>
<p>“OPM has failed to provide any justification for the collection of person-level data, instead relying on broad references to program integrity, fraud prevention or cost evaluation,” they wrote.</p>
<p>In response to Federal News Network’s request for details on the purpose of the data collection and plans for securing the sensitive health information, OPM spokesperson Kiki Nyoh said, “OPM is focused on eliminating fraud, waste and abuse in federal benefits plans, while ensuring personally identifiable information is protected.”</p>
<p>In June, OPM issued a revised <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/23/2026-12514/privacy-act-of-1974-system-of-records">notice</a> clarifying the measures the agency plans to take to secure federal employees’ health information under the data collection effort, “out of an abundance of caution, and in order to address privacy related concerns,” the notice states.</p>
<p>“Records in this system are protected from unauthorized access and misuse through layered administrative, technical and physical security measures,” OPM wrote.</p>

<p>OPM said it would pseudonymize federal employees’ health data by nullifying portions of medical records that contain personally identifiable information (PII) for beneficiaries — including their names, Social Security numbers, plan subscriber IDs and street addresses.</p>
<p>But lawmakers contended that those measures aren’t enough to fully protect sensitive health information from being exposed. According to OPM, the collected data would still include members’ birth year, sex, zip code, healthcare provider names, claim numbers, dates of service, health procedures, diagnoses, drug information and treatments.</p>
<p>“In combination, these features create an extraordinarily detailed longitudinal health history that remains linkable to a specific person,” Democrats wrote. “OPM itself maintains the mechanism needed to reconnect the pseudonymized history to the individual, negating any intended anonymization of data.”</p>
<p>OPM also noted its ability to “re-identify” federal employees’ personal health records when it’s “reasonably necessary to accomplish an authorized purpose.”</p>
<p>Various entities and personnel would be able to access the sensitive health information — including authorized OPM employees, contractors and “other personnel who have an official need for access in order to perform their duties,” OPM said.</p>
<p>Federal employees’ data could also be disclosed to “appropriate” law enforcement authorities if there’s indication of a legal violation by the enrollee, the notice states. The Department of Justice can access the data if OPM deems the information “relevant and necessary” to an ongoing lawsuit. And if OPM either “suspects or has confirmed” instances of fraud, waste or abuse connected to an enrollee’s information, other agencies across government could access the data.</p>
<p>“These overly broad allowances to share sensitive health information are extremely concerning, given this administration’s clearly stated goals of targeting vulnerable populations,” Democrats wrote.</p>
<p>The dispute over collecting personal health data comes as the military has been searching protected medical records to find transgender troops who have tried to continue serving amid the Trump administration’s ban on trans Americans in uniform, as Federal News Network exclusively <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2026/09/pentagon-searching-medical-records-to-identify-transgender-troops/">reported</a> earlier this month.</p>
<p>The lawmakers’ push on OPM this week builds on an <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay-benefits/2026/04/democrats-urge-opm-to-scrap-plans-for-unprecedented-access-to-feds-health-data/">initial letter sent in April</a>, which pointed to potential legal violations and the possibility of targeting enrollees across the FEHB and PSHB programs. In part, lawmakers questioned whether the collected personal health information would be used to inform hiring decisions, suitability actions, reductions in force or reasonable accommodations requests.</p>

<p>“We have yet to receive a response to that letter,” Democrats said.</p>
<div style="clear:both"></div><p><strong>If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email </strong><a href="mailto:drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com"><strong>drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com</strong></a><strong> or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11</strong></p>
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Beyond the town halls: Getting ready for CIRCIA before the clock starts ticking

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<p class="SingleSpace">The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) plans to release its final rule for the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA) this September. If that happens, infinite companies across 16 critical infrastructure sectors will suddenly be looking at enforceable reporting deadlines by late 2026 or early 2027.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace">On paper, the rule is simple enough: 72 hours to report a covered cyber incident, 24 hours to report a ransomware payment. The hard part isn’t the deadline itself — it’s everything that has to happen before a company even realizes the clock has started.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace">Too many organizations have treated CIRCIA as something to keep an eye on rather than something to actually build a program around. That’s a harder position to defend the closer we get to a final rule. Well before it shows up in the Federal Register, a company should already know who gets the first call when security spots something, who decides whether it’s reportable, and who’s responsible for pulling together every other notification that might also be required.</p>
<h3 class="SingleSpace">What came out of CISA’s June sessions</h3>
<p class="SingleSpace">CISA held virtual town halls in June, and industry mostly raised the same issues that have been floating around since the proposed rule dropped: How broadly “covered entity” is defined, what actually counts as a “substantial cyber incident,” how much information CISA might ask for, and how all of this overlaps with reporting rules that already exist.</p>

<p class="SingleSpace">The scope question is the big one. Under the proposed rule, CISA itself estimated over 300,000 entities could end up covered — largely because the criteria lean on sector categories and Small Business Administration size thresholds rather than anything more targeted.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace">Industry has been pushing back, asking CISA to think about this in more functional terms — less “How many employees do you have?” and more “How important is what you do to a critical service or supply chain?” Whether that argument moves the needle in the final rule is genuinely unclear. But no company should assume it’ll land outside the scope just because it doesn’t think of itself as critical infrastructure. Plenty of businesses that provide tech, operations support, logistics, cloud services, engineering, or communications to a critical infrastructure customer will get pulled in anyway.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace">The ransomware payment deadline is its own headache. Realistically, a company weighing whether to pay is usually in the middle of chaos — an active operational crisis, an insurer on the line, forensic advisers digging in, law enforcement involved, executives asking questions, maybe customers too. There needs to be a fast, clear path for that information to reach legal and the people who actually make the call.</p>
<h3 class="SingleSpace"><b>The real problem isn’t CIRCIA — it’s everything around it</b></h3>
<p class="SingleSpace">For most companies, CIRCIA won’t be the hard part on its own. The hard part is CIRCIA stacked on top of whatever reporting obligations already exist.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace">Take a defense contractor already working through the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) reporting — also 72 hours, plus evidence preservation duties — while gearing up for CMMC. Or an energy company juggling the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Energy Department’s form OE-417 process, and — if pipelines are involved — Transportation Security Administration directives. Sometimes the very first notification due isn’t a CIRCIA report at all; it’s a call to TSA or DOE.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace">Financial services has its own tangle: federal banking regulators’ 36-hour rule, New York Department of Financial Services’ 72-hour requirement under Part 500, and for public companies, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s four-business-day disclosure clock once materiality is determined.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace">None of these rules line up neatly — different definitions, different deadlines, different thresholds. Reporting to a regulator or an insurer doesn’t automatically satisfy CIRCIA, and vice versa. That’s exactly where companies stumble: IT is typically laser-focused on incident containment, business leadership is worried about staying operational, and legal is trying to determine what mandatory notifications must be provided and by when. Without coordination, different people end up telling different versions of the same story to different audiences, thereby perpetuating misrepresentations and increasing legal risk.</p>

<h3 class="SingleSpace">What in-house counsel should be doing now</h3>
<p class="SingleSpace">The window before the final rule lands is the time to stress-test the incident response process, not after.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace"><b>Build a reporting matrix.</b> Map out likely obligations, deadlines, decision-makers, and who gets notified — CIRCIA, sector rules, state breach laws, contracts, insurance requirements, all of it.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace"><b>Test the escalation path.</b> A security operations center (SOC) analyst might spot trouble long before legal or leadership grasps what it means. Know what triggers escalation, who makes the call, and how fast the right people can actually get in a room.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace"><b>Get vendor contracts in shape. </b>Managed security providers, forensic vendors, and outside cybersecurity counsel often hold the logs, technical analytics or Justice Department enforcement perspectives needed to figure out whether something’s reportable. Contracts should require prompt notice, evidence preservation and cooperation.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace"><b>Think about privilege early.</b> CIRCIA does offer real protections for reports and materials created for the reporting process, and filing a report doesn’t waive privilege on its own — but those protections work best when counsel is involved from the start and the investigation is run in an organized way.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace">The final rule may tweak some details. What won’t change is the operational reality: Once a serious incident hits, there’s very little time to figure out what happened, lock down the evidence, and decide who needs to know first.</p>
<p class="SingleSpace"><i>Michael Gruden is a partner at Steptoe LLP, where he leads the firm’s Cybersecurity &amp; Incident Response practice. A former Pentagon IT acquisition branch chief, he sits on the CMMC Appeals Board and chairs the American Bar Association Science &amp; Technology Section’s Homeland Security Committee. </i></p>
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Education Department faces scrutiny over slashes to workforce, programs

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<p>As the Education Department presses forward with handing off much of its remaining work portfolio and personnel to other agencies, former department secretaries and union officials are demanding greater transparency about the consequences of those efforts.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NrbtwmqelB_c-2xprWeY8GeozLNkTT2h/view" rel="noopener" target="_blank">letter</a> addressed to Education Acting Inspector General Mark Priebe, the American Federation of Government Employees — along with three former Education secretaries from the Biden and Obama administrations — called for a formal investigation into the costs of the Trump administration’s massive workforce and program cuts.</p>
<p>“This is waste. This is fraud. This is abuse,” the letter reads. “We ask for OIG to shed light where there has been vast darkness around the agency’s actions.”</p>
<p>The increasing pressure comes after the Education Department laid off <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/03/education-dept-announces-temporary-office-closures-citing-security-reasons/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">nearly half</a> of its career employees through a reduction in force (RIF) last year, combined with some voluntary separation incentives. The department’s headcount now stands around 2,000 compared to roughly 4,000 prior to the Trump administration.</p>

<p>AFGE Local 252, which represents Education Department employees, also assembled alongside House and Senate Democrats this week to urge the administration to halt the department’s dismantling.</p>
<p>“We may never be able to truly calculate the human cost of all of this, but we at least need to understand the financial cost to taxpayers,” Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, said Tuesday at a press conference outside the Capitol Building. “We know that behind every termination, every forced retirement or resignation, every dollar slashed, every office or program relocated, every policy decision is a story of a real human who is being harmed right now.”</p>
<p>Gittleman, one of the Education employees who received a RIF notice last year, pointed to hundreds of current Education Department job postings that seek to fill “the exact jobs our fired members were doing,” while accusing the department of refusing to hire former employees who were laid off in 2025.</p>
<p>“One of our fired members has been rejected multiple times from Education Department job postings that are identical to the job that she did while at the department. She was finally hired by a contractor to do the exact same job she did at the department for $15 an hour and without benefits,” Gittleman said. “She’s facing foreclosure on her home.”</p>
<p>Democrats who spoke at Tuesday’s press conference vowed that after the midterm elections, they would push forward with reversing the massive cuts to the Education Department.</p>
<p>“The next Congress, where I chair the Education and Labor Committee, we’ll get even more done,” Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), currently the committee’s ranking member, said Tuesday. “We’ll conduct vigorous oversight into the Department of Education. We’ll pass legislation to address equity in education and rebuild America’s schools. And we’ll be able to overcome this because we will be united.”</p>
<p>“We cannot just rely on good faith and handshakes. We have to codify legislation that makes sure the department is protected,” Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) added. “This will be the only agency that is gone if we don’t do something about it … We have to make the entire caucus and country understand the work of the department, the people who facilitate that work and what it means to children, to communities and to our future.”</p>

<p>It would require congressional approval to fully dismantle the Education Department. But the department is <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/initiatives/returning-education-states" rel="noopener" target="_blank">already in the process</a> of implementing more than a dozen interagency agreements to <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reorganization/2025/11/education-department-offloads-some-work-to-other-agencies-as-trump-presses-for-its-closure/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">transfer major federal programs</a> and personnel to other agencies across government.</p>
<p>The Justice Department will take on enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education, administration officials <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reorganization/2026/06/trump-moves-oversight-of-special-education-and-civil-rights-from-the-education-department/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">announced in June</a>. With those moves, the Education Department has now carved away the vast majority of its functions for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/student-loans-debt-education-treasury-department-014f9b51100226048335d053cc21e9f1" rel="noopener" target="_blank">other agencies</a> to handle.</p>
<p>An Education Department spokesperson said the department’s RIF “was implemented carefully and in compliance with all applicable regulations and laws.”</p>
<p>“We will continue our work to return education to the states and improve outcomes for our nation’s students,” the spokesperson said in an email.</p>
<p>Education Secretary Linda McMahon is also facing an ongoing <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69732750/state-of-new-york-v-mcmahon/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> from 21 state attorneys general over the Education Department RIF and efforts to shutter or transfer large portions of the agency’s work. After a preliminary injunction was issued in the case early last year, the Supreme Court later allowed the department to move forward with the mass layoffs.</p>
<p>On Monday, the plaintiffs <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.281941/gov.uscourts.mad.281941.224.0.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank">filed a request</a> calling for the Education Department to turn over about 1,300 documents related to the RIF that the administration has been withholding.</p>
<p>“These materials are central to understanding the decision-making behind defendants’ unlawful dismantling of the department,” plaintiffs wrote in their court filing.</p>
<p>The Education Department’s inspector general office <a href="https://oig.ed.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-06/FY26%20F25DC0245%20%286.22.26%29v100_508_SECURED.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank">reported</a> in June that the workforce reduction efforts, as well as transfers and eliminations of agency programs, have led to the shuttering of some statutory, oversight and monitoring functions of the department.</p>
<p>“They are gutting the department. They are slashing funding. They’re driving out expertise,” Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) said at Tuesday’s press conference. “They’ve moved major responsibilities to other agencies under so-called interagency agreements without the support of Congress. They’ve diluted the expertise. That’s not more efficient.”</p>

<p>In July, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5046" rel="noopener" target="_blank">advanced a bill</a>, with bipartisan support, that would prohibit the Trump administration from shuttering or transferring functions of the Education Department. A pair of bipartisan House lawmakers <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10232" rel="noopener" target="_blank">introduced a companion bill</a> earlier this month, which has been referred to the House Education and Workforce Committee for further consideration.</p>
<p>“You cannot sign an agreement that teaches the Department of Labor how to enforce a student’s civil rights. You cannot repost a job and get back 30 years of knowing how the money actually reaches the classroom — that’s expertise that walked out of the door, and every day it stays gone,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said. “Until Congress gets it right, until Congress brings these workers back … we are going to continue to fight.”</p>
<p><em>The Associated Press contributed reporting.</em></p>
<div style="clear:both"></div><p><strong>If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email </strong><a href="mailto:drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com"><strong>drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com</strong></a><strong> or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11</strong></p>
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Decides which products and services federal agencies must buy from nonprofit agencies that employ people who are blind or have significant disabilities: it maintains the Procurement List published in the Federal Register and sets the fair market price for everything on it. Orders are distributed through two designated central nonprofit agencies.

AbilityOne Commission

Chairperson of the AbilityOne Commission

The Administration for Children and Families is an operating division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It administers federal programs that promote the economic and social well-being of children, youth, families, and communities, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Head Start, child care, child support enforcement, foster care and adoption assistance, refugee resettlement, and services for Native Americans. It was established in 1991 through a reorganization of the Department.

Administration for Children and Families

Alex J. Adams

The Administration for Community Living is an operating division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It administers programs that help older adults and people with disabilities live independently and participate in their communities, coordinating aging and disability services authorized largely by the Older Americans Act. It was created in 2012 by consolidating the Administration on Aging with offices serving people with disabilities.

Administration for Community Living

Administrator of the Administration for Community Living

Runs the aging services network created by the Older Americans Act: it funds state and area agencies on aging, which pay for congregate and home-delivered meals, in-home services and caregiver support. It also houses the long-term care ombudsman program and elder-rights protection work.

Administration on Aging

Mary Lazare

Sets policy and oversight for the federal child welfare and youth programs run by its two bureaus: the Children's Bureau, which administers foster care, adoption and child abuse prevention funding to states and tribes, and the Family and Youth Services Bureau, which funds runaway and homeless youth services and adolescent pregnancy prevention.

Administration on Children, Youth and Families

Cody Inman

The Administrative Conference of the United States is an independent federal agency that studies the administrative procedures of federal agencies and develops recommendations to improve the fairness, efficiency, and transparency of regulatory, benefit, and other government programs. Its members are drawn from federal agencies, academia, and private practice. It was established by the Administrative Conference Act of 1964 and operates under 5 U.S.C. 591 and following.

Administrative Conference of the United States

Presides over the Administrative Conference of the United States and is its chief executive, hiring and supervising the staff, preparing the Conference's budget estimates and serving as its official spokesman to the other branches. Appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate for a five-year term (5 U.S.C. 593(b), 595(c)).

Chairman of Administrative Conference of the United States

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts is the central administrative and support agency for the federal judiciary. It provides budget, human resources, technology, statistical, program, and management support to the United States courts and serves as the staff for the Judicial Conference of the United States. It was established by the Act of August 7, 1939, and operates under Chapter 41 of Title 28 of the United States Code, headed by a Director appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States.

Administrative Office of the United States Courts

Robert J. Conrad Jr.

Issues the government-wide procurement policies that bind executive agencies and oversees how agencies buy and the federal acquisition workforce. Appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy

Kevin Rhodes

Has authority over and responsibility for all NNSA programs, including the weapons laboratories, production plants and nonproliferation work. The office is held by the Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security, appointed by the President with Senate confirmation.

Administrator for Nuclear Security

Brandon Williams

Administrator of General Services, the institutional head of General Services Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C. 301); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of General Services

Edward C. Forst

Administrator of the Administration for Community Living, the institutional head of Administration for Community Living. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Department of Health and Human Services reorganization (2012); programs under the Older Americans Act of 1965; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Directs the agency's national research programs and its network of laboratories and research centers, and decides which lines of in-house science USDA pursues. Selected within the Department rather than appointed by the President, reporting through the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics.

Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service

Joon Park

Administrator of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the institutional head of Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Appointed under Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-296), 116 Stat. 2135; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

Mary G. Ryan

Directs BPA's power marketing, transmission operations and rate-setting, and makes the arrangements for the sale and disposition of the federal power the agency sells to Northwest utilities. Appointed by, and responsible to, the Secretary of Energy.

Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration

John L. Hairston

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the institutional head of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Social Security Act, Titles XVIII and XIX (42 U.S.C. 1395, 1396); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Mehmet Oz

Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the institutional head of Drug Enforcement Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1973; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration

Terrance C. Cole

Directs the government's central energy data and forecasting program and, by statute, publishes its statistical and forecasting reports without any other official's approval. Appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, from people specially qualified to manage an energy information system.

Administrator of the Energy Information Administration

Tristan Abbey

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the institutional head of Environmental Protection Agency. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

Lee M. Zeldin

Runs the agency's commodity, farm loan, disaster and conservation programs and its state and county office network. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture; the post is not Senate-confirmed.

Administrator of the Farm Service Agency

William Beam

Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, the institutional head of Federal Aviation Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (72 Stat. 731); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration

Bryan Bedford

Runs FEMA and is the principal advisor to the President, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Homeland Security on emergency management. Appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, from candidates with demonstrated emergency management ability and at least five years of executive leadership experience.

Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency

Cameron Hamilton

Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, the institutional head of Federal Highway Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Department of Transportation Act (49 U.S.C. 104); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration

Sean McMaster

Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the institutional head of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (113 Stat. 1748; 49 U.S.C. 113); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Derek D. Barrs

Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, the institutional head of Federal Railroad Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Department of Transportation Act of 1966 (49 U.S.C. 103); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration

David Fink

Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, the institutional head of Federal Transit Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1968 (5 U.S.C. app.; 49 U.S.C. ch. 53); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration

Exercises the Secretary's authority under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, Poultry Products Inspection Act, Egg Products Inspection Act and Humane Slaughter Act, and directs the inspection workforce. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture and reporting through the Under Secretary for Food Safety.

Administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service

Justin Ransom

Runs the Foreign Agricultural Service and, by statute, also oversees the General Sales Manager and the Agricultural Attache Service, making the Administrator USDA's senior official on agricultural trade. The post is filled by the Secretary of Agriculture and is not Senate-confirmed.

Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service

Daniel Whitley

Administrator of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the institutional head of Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. Appointed by the President under Saint Lawrence Seaway Act of May 13, 1954 (33 U.S.C. 981-990); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation

J. M. (Mike) McCoshen

Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, the institutional head of Health Resources and Services Administration. Appointed under Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration

Thomas J. Engels

Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the institutional head of National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Public Law 85-568); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Jared Isaacman

Awards and administers the office's grants and judges whether states comply with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act's core protections. The Administrator is appointed by the President from among people with experience in juvenile justice programs.

Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Eileen M. Garry

Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the institutional head of Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Norman Y. Mineta Research and Special Programs Improvement Act of 2004 (49 U.S.C. 108); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

Paul J. Roberti

Directs the federal crop insurance program and also serves as Manager of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture; no Senate confirmation required.

Administrator of the Risk Management Agency

Patricia Swanson

Directs the agency's rural business loan, loan guarantee and grant programs under the Under Secretary for Rural Development. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture; no Senate confirmation required.

Administrator of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service

J.R. Claeys

Directs the agency's rural housing and community facilities loan, guarantee and grant programs under the Under Secretary for Rural Development. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture; no Senate confirmation required.

Administrator of the Rural Housing Service

George Kelly

Directs the agency's electric, telecommunications and water and waste lending programs. Appointed by the President; no Senate confirmation required.

Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service

Karl Elmshaeuser

Administrator of the Small Business Administration, the institutional head of Small Business Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Small Business Act of 1953 (15 U.S.C. 631 et seq.); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Small Business Administration

Kelly Loeffler

Runs the power marketing administration: negotiates its wholesale sales contracts, sets rates that repay the federal investment in the dams, and directs generation scheduling with the Corps. Appointed by the Secretary of Energy.

Administrator of the Southeastern Power Administration

Virgil G. Hobbs III

Runs the power marketing administration: negotiates its wholesale contracts, sets rates that repay the federal investment in the dams, and oversees its transmission system. Appointed by the Secretary of Energy.

Administrator of the Southwestern Power Administration

Mike Wech

Directs federal security screening at airports and security regulation across all transportation modes, and receives and distributes transportation security intelligence. Appointed by the President with Senate confirmation for a five-year term; the statute requires experience in transportation or security.

Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration

David P. Cummins

Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, the institutional head of Wage and Hour Division. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 204); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division

Andrew Rogers

Runs WAPA's power marketing, rate setting and transmission operations, exercising on the Secretary's behalf the power marketing functions transferred from the Bureau of Reclamation. Appointed by the Secretary of Energy.

Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration

Tracey A. LeBeau

Funds high-risk energy research that industry will not finance on its own, awarding cost-shared projects to companies, universities and national laboratories and cutting them off when technical milestones are missed. Its targets are set by statute: energy imports, emissions, efficiency, nuclear waste, and the resilience of energy infrastructure.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy

Conner Prochaska

Runs the Section 106 process, under which a federal agency must consider how a project it funds, permits or carries out would affect historic properties and consult states and tribes before proceeding. It writes the regulations for that review, joins the hardest cases itself, and advises the President and Congress.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is an operating division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services within the Public Health Service. It produces evidence and funds research to make health care safer, higher in quality, more accessible, and more affordable, and works to ensure that the evidence is understood and used. It was established in 1999 under the Healthcare Research and Quality Act, succeeding the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, and is codified at 42 U.S.C. 299.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Roger D. Klein

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is a public health agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It evaluates and works to reduce human exposure to hazardous substances from waste sites, spills, and other releases, conducts public health assessments, and studies the health effects of toxic exposures. It was authorized by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Aaron Bernstein

Runs the Department of Agriculture's own laboratories: its scientists work on crop and livestock production, plant and animal disease, food safety, human nutrition and natural resource management. Results are published for public use rather than sold, and much of the work is done with land-grant universities.

Agricultural Research Service

Flies the aircraft and crews the vessels that Customs and Border Protection uses to detect, track and interdict smuggling and other unlawful cross-border activity. It is CBP's air and sea arm: the Border Patrol covers the land between ports of entry and the Office of Field Operations staffs the ports.

Air and Marine Operations

Jonathan P. Miller

Reviews court-martial convictions from the Air Force and Space Force, sitting in panels of at least three appellate military judges. It can affirm, modify or set aside findings and sentences, may hold a sentence inappropriately severe, and its decisions can be taken on to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals

Provides graduate and professional education to Air Force and Space Force members and Department of the Air Force civilians: its graduate school awards master's and doctoral degrees in engineering, science and management, and its continuing-education schools train civil engineers, logisticians and strategic-force specialists.

Air Force Institute of Technology

James C. Bowers

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury. It collects federal excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and ammunition and regulates the production, labeling, advertising, and importation of alcohol and tobacco products. It was established on January 24, 2003, under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which split the former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and retained the tax and trade functions in the Treasury.

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

Serves as the principal cyberspace policy official within State Department senior management and as the Secretary's adviser on cyber and digital issues, leading the Department's cyber diplomacy. Appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, with the rank and status of ambassador.

Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy

Adam Cassady

Designs, builds and maintains the permanent American military cemeteries and memorials outside the United States - the graves, chapels, monuments and grounds where American war dead are buried or commemorated. It also controls the erection of other United States war memorials and monuments on foreign soil.

American Battle Monuments Commission

Chairman of the American Battle Monuments Commission

The American Printing House for the Blind is a private nonprofit corporation that holds a federal charter and serves as the official national source of educational materials for students who are legally blind and enrolled in programs below the college level. It produces and distributes braille and large-print textbooks, educational aids, and assistive technology, funded through an annual federal appropriation administered by the Department of Education. It was chartered by Congress in 1879.

American Printing House for the Blind

Craig Meador

The President of the American Printing House for the Blind leads the Louisville nonprofit that manufactures and furnishes braille, large-print and tactile materials for the instruction of blind students, distributed to schools each year under a federal per-pupil quota (20 U.S.C. 101, 102). Its Board of Trustees selects the president.

President

Funds economic development in the Appalachian counties of thirteen states, approving grants for broadband and water infrastructure, workforce training and business development, mostly delivered through local development districts. It is run jointly by the governors of the member states and a federal co-chair.

Appalachian Regional Commission

Gayle Conelly Manchin

The Architect of the Capitol is a legislative branch agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol, the congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress buildings, the Supreme Court building, the United States Botanic Garden, and the grounds of the Capitol campus. The title refers to both the agency and the official who heads it. Permanent statutory authority for the office dates to the Act of August 15, 1876.

Architect of the Capitol

Thomas E. Austin

The Architect of the Capitol has the care and superintendence of the Capitol and maintains the buildings and grounds of the Capitol campus (2 U.S.C. 1812). A commission of congressional leaders and appropriations and administration committee members appoints the Architect to a renewable 10-year term and can remove the holder at any time (2 U.S.C. 1801a).

Archivist of the United States, the institutional head of National Archives and Records Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-497); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Archivist of the United States

Bradford Pentony Wilson

Arctic Research Commission

Chairman of the Arctic Research Commission

Operates the two homes for retired and former enlisted members of the armed forces, Armed Forces Retirement Home-Washington and Armed Forces Retirement Home-Gulfport, providing residences, meals and graduated levels of health and long-term care. Eligibility is statutory, turning on length of service or wartime service.

Armed Forces Retirement Home

Stephen T. Rippe

Hears and decides contractors' appeals from the final decisions of Department of Defense and NASA contracting officers - disputes over payment, delay, termination and contract interpretation. Its full-time judges must have at least five years of experience in public contract law and are selected the way administrative law judges are.

Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals

Reviews court-martial convictions from the Army, sitting in panels of at least three appellate military judges. It can affirm, modify or set aside findings and sentences, may hold a sentence inappropriately severe, and its decisions can be taken on to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Army Court of Criminal Appeals

Heads the National Security Division and is the Justice Department's primary liaison to the Director of National Intelligence. One of the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorneys General, designated for the role by the President (28 U.S.C. 507A).

Assistant Attorney General for National Security

John A. Eisenberg

Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, the institutional head of Office of Justice Programs. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Justice Assistance Act of 1984; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs

Maureen A. Henneberg

Heads CBP's intelligence office and reports directly to the Commissioner, with responsibility for the agency's intelligence enterprise, its counterintelligence operations and its intelligence-sharing agreements. A career official, not a presidential appointee.