Cabinet System

The President nominates principal officers to cabinet positions. The Senate confirms or rejects each nomination. Confirmed members serve at the pleasure of the President and can be fired at any time.

Cabinet Positions#

15 principal officers, defined in src/lib/constants/cabinet.ts7d ago (CABINET_POSITIONS), ordered to match the presidential line of succession after the Vice President. Each position also carries a yearEnabled (some, like Homeland Security, don't exist in earlier eras) and an id used across nominations, members, and the UI.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services position is named Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare until secretary_of_education is enabled via renameOnDepartmentSplit (namesByYear in the same file tracks this). Education uses yearEnabled: 9999 and is carved out of HEW only when the Department of Education Act passes (legislation-gated, not calendar 1980).

There is no EPA Administrator, OMB Director, UN Ambassador, or USTR position in the cabinet; those are not implemented.

UK Cabinet Positions#

18 seats, defined in UK_CABINET_POSITIONS (src/lib/constants/ukCabinet.ts9d ago), in file order. agriculture_secretary and environment_secretary share order 12; agriculture retires in 2001 and hands off to environment via succeededBy since their eras never overlap.

Key UK difference: The Prime Minister appoints cabinet ministers directly, there is no parliamentary confirmation vote. Once the PM names a minister, they are immediately a confirmed cabinet member. This contrasts with the US system where every nomination requires a Senate majority vote before the member is seated.

Lifecycle#

US Path#

President nominates character
        ↓
Nomination created (status: active)
        ↓
Senate votes within 24 hours
(For / Against / Abstain)
        ↓
Simple majority of votes cast
    ↙         ↘
Confirmed    Rejected
(cabinetMembers)  (position vacant; re-nominate)
        ↓
President fires anytime         Government transition occurs
(member removed from            (new President/PM elected)
 cabinetMembers)                        ↓
                                ALL cabinet members dismissed
                                Pending nominations withdrawn

UK Path#

PM appoints character directly
        ↓
Minister immediately confirmed
(cabinetMembers, no vote required)
        ↓
PM fires anytime                Government transition occurs
(member removed from            (new PM appointed, or
 cabinetMembers)                 no-confidence vote passes)
                                        ↓
                                ALL cabinet members dismissed
                                (ministers serve at PM's pleasure;
                                 cabinet automatically falls when PM changes)

Nomination Rules#

• Only the President (character holding the president office) may nominate
• One active nomination per cabinet position at a time
• The nominee must be an existing character; NPPs are not eligible
• No party restriction, President may nominate anyone

Senate Confirmation#

• Who votes: Any character holding a senate office
• Window: 24 hours from nomination
• Threshold: Simple majority of votes cast (not of all 100 senators)
• Votes: For, Against, Abstain
• My vote tracking: Each senator's vote is stored and displayed on the ballot UI

Firing#

• Who can fire: Only the current President
• When: Any time; no Senate vote required to remove
• Effect: Member immediately removed from cabinetMembers; position becomes vacant

Government Transition (Automatic Dismissal)#

When a government changes hands, the entire cabinet is automatically cleared:

Triggers:

• A new US President is elected and takes office
• A new UK Prime Minister is appointed
• A UK no-confidence vote passes (government falls)

What happens:

1. All confirmed cabinet members for the affected country are deleted from cabinetMembers
2. All pending nominations with status proposed or active are set to withdrawn
3. Player characters who held cabinet seats receive an in-app notification, title: "Cabinet Resigned", message: "Your cabinet appointment has ended due to a change in government."
4. NPP cabinet members are dismissed silently (no notification sent)

Implementation: src/lib/cabinetTransition.ts10d ago → clearCabinetOnTransition(db, countryId)

The function accepts a CountryId and resolves the correct set of position IDs (CABINET_POSITIONS for US, UK_CABINET_POSITIONS for UK, plus per-country tables for JP, DE, IE, CN, NG, SCO, WAL) before performing the cleanup. Notification failures are non-fatal (best-effort).

UI#

Cabinet Page (/whitehouse/cabinet)#

• Hero header, Cabinet image with stats strip: Positions filled (X / Y) and Pending Votes count
• "Vote in Senate" banner, Shown when active nominations exist; links to Congress Senate tab
• Vote section, When the current player is a Senator and nominations are pending, inline vote UI appears (For / Against / Abstain buttons with current tallies)
• Positions grid, All 15 positions displayed as cards:
  • Filled positions show member name, party, and "Fire" button (President only)
  • Vacancies show "Nominate" button (President only)
  • Active nominations show vote status

Nomination Modal#

Accessible from the "Propose Nomination" button. President selects:

1. Cabinet position (from unfilled positions)
2. Nominee character (from all characters)

Senate / Congress Tab#

Active cabinet nominations also appear in the Congress page Senate tab so senators see pending votes without navigating to the White House.

Database Collections#

API Routes#

Related Documentation#

• Congress Leadership, Senate role in nominations
• Core Systems, Cabinet system overview
• Technical Architecture, Collections and API routes