Agency Vacancy ‘Loophole’ Ruling Could Echo Across Government

A statutory “loophole” for keeping temporary government leaders in place was validated last week, as a federal appeals court ruled the application of a law intended to limit the time a temporary official can serve in a Senate-confirmed position is “vanishingly small.”

The ruling, which stemmed from a surgical device patent dispute involving Arthrex Inc., confirmed the power of interim agency directors, with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit saying the scope of the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act is extremely limited. The Federal Circuit accepted a workaround the government often uses to keep agencies running with ...