Late in the Term, an Exodus of Senior Officials

Among the most beleaguered agencies is Housing and Urban Development. The department has been reeling since the resignation of Secretary Alphonso Jackson in March after allegations of cronyism and inattention to the rising wave of mortgage failures.

The president's nominee for the job, Small Business Administration chief Steven C. Preston, appeared last week before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. But efforts to fast-track a confirmation vote fell through.

Other top vacancies at HUD include assistant secretary for community planning and development, assistant secretary for public and Indian housing assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental relations, and president of the Government National Mortgage Association.

"What we need is really strong leadership in these positions," said Linda Couch, deputy director of the nonpartisan National Low Income Housing Coalition. "The problems don't go away just because there is not someone there to fix them."

Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), a member of the housing committee, said the vacancies are "unacceptable."

"This committee must share blame," Allard said during the confirmation hearing for Preston. "These nominations have been languishing for months."

At the Justice Department, five of seven senior positions have been filled by acting officials since the departure of former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales, who resigned amid controversy over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, who argues cases before the Supreme Court, just announced his resignation, as well.

At the Treasury Department, vacancies exist for the deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis and the senior adviser to the assistant secretary for economic policy. The department has an acting inspector general who is awaiting Senate confirmation. Several top positions for career officials also are open.

Eileen Gilligan, a Treasury spokeswoman, said that the total number of vacancies is "low for us," and that "they are not affecting the department's work, because we have plenty of good people covering the work for those vacant positions."

Leonard E. Burman, a public finance expert at the Urban Institute who served as deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis in the Clinton administration, said unfilled positions do not go unnoticed.

"It's probably important for the morale of the staff, because if there are no replacements for senior-level positions and none in the wings, then it suggests that they are kind of irrelevant," Burman said. "It does kind of signal that the work of that office is kind of shutting down."

At the Department of Health and Human Services, the country has been without a permanent surgeon general since Richard H. Carmona's term expired in July 2006. Two men have held the post on an acting basis since then. The current occupant, Steven K. Galson, is a respected career public health official who has served in senior-level positions at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Food and Drug Administration.

Bush nominated former Kentucky state health director James W. Holsinger Jr. for the job in May 2007, but his nomination stalled in the Senate.

The lack of a permanent leader matters, said Jerry Farrell, executive director of the Commissioned Officers Association, a nonprofit group that represents more than 7,000 current and retired officers of the U.S. Public Health Service. "As the acting guy, he doesn't have the heft, the authority, that a permanent appointee would have," Farrell said.

HHS also lacks a permanent head of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which serves more than 94 million Americans and oversees $653 billion in entitlement spending annually. Kerry Weems, the acting administrator of the agency, was nominated by Bush in May 2007 but has never come up for a confirmation vote.

Even at the White House, the president's three-member Council of Economic Advisers has only one confirmed member, Chairman Edward P. Lazear. The nomination for acting member Donald Marron has stalled for nearly a year. The third seat remains empty after a nominee withdrew his name.

Staff researcher Madonna Lebling and staff writers Spencer S. Hsu, Carrie Johnson, Carol D. Leonnig and Lori Montgomery contributed to this report.