The President selects many senior federal officials and federal judges, but many of those choices require Senate review. A nomination is the formal request for the Senate to consider a person for an office. Appointment is the legal step that places a person in office after the required process is complete.

Cabinet secretaries, many agency leaders, ambassadors, federal judges, U.S. attorneys, marshals, inspectors general, board members, and commission members can shape public policy. Some offices run programs; others enforce law, regulate industries, manage budgets, represent the United States abroad, or decide cases.

Senate committees usually collect questionnaires, ethics documents, background information, written answers, and testimony. A committee may hold a hearing and vote on whether to report the nomination. The full Senate may then debate and vote. Some nominations move quickly; others stall because of policy disputes, ethics questions, workload, holds, or election-year conflict.

Confirmed officials can steer agencies, set enforcement priorities, issue rules, manage grants and contracts, represent the country, and make legal decisions. For judges, lifetime tenure makes nomination and confirmation especially consequential because a confirmed judge may shape federal law for decades.