(Commentary co-written by Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, practitioner senior fellow at UVA’s Miller Center) Since the early days of the republic, presidents have had the ability to temporarily fill federal roles that need Senate confirmation with acting officials, a vital practice in the transition from one leader to the next. But serious flaws with the law that governs federal vacancies, combined with Senate inaction, have enabled Donald Trump to fill numerous critical jobs with acting officials indefinitely, a practice that has destabilized the work of federal agencies and undermined the role of the S...