The Excepted Service: A Research Profile

GAO provided information on the excepted service, focusing on: (1) the distribution of excepted service employees across government organizations; (2) the composition of the excepted service in terms of the various legal bases under which employees were appointed; (3) policy concerns and study focuses that have guided some prior studies; (4) the coverage of agencies and employees, as well as data elements, in two data sources that were useful for studying the excepted service; and (5) research issues and methodological difficulties associated with each of these objectives.