“SES is pretty much just a pay scale ...”
kind of, and it should be, but...
we beat the SES question to death a few whiles ago on one of these “Q” threads.
Interesting document here.
https://aim4truth.org/2018/01/03/deep-state-shadow-government-revealed-senior-executive-service/
“The Senior Executive Service (SES) in 2016 had 8,156 members who were appointees. Obama appointed over 7,000 of them to these key positions”
If Pres. Trump is around for eight years, he will have appointed the vast majority of the SES. The SES turnover rate is about 10% per year.
Most members came through GS and are older, thus eligible for generous retirement. The $200k SES money can’t compete with the big law-lobbyist-management (hedge fund) pay, so SES capitalize on their experience and go to those places.
The problem for Pres. Trump with the SES is that there is no place to go that’s a training ground for conservative senior bureaucrats that can be brought in.
The only solution is severe punishment as a deterrent for politicized SES members, way beyond meaningless ‘firings’.
Note that everyone in the Administration appointed by the President and approved by the Senate becomes SES; it’s how they get paid.
They are more than a pay grade, virtually impossible to use standard procedures to get rid of them