5 CFR §451.301

1. (a)The circumstances under which the President may award the rank of Distinguished Executive and Meritorious Executive to a Senior Executive Service (SES) career appointee are set forth in 5 U.S.C. 4507.
2. (b)To be eligible for a rank award, a senior executive must:
   1. (1)Hold a career appointment in the SES, as defined at 5 U.S.C. 3132(a)(4), on the nomination deadline set by OPM;
   2. (2)Be an employee of the agency, as defined at 5 U.S.C. 3132(a)(1), on the nomination deadline set by OPM; and
   3. (3)Have at least 3 years of career or career-type Federal civilian service at the SES level. Service need not be continuous.
      1. (i)Qualifying service includes appointments in the SES, the Senior Foreign Service, the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, and similar senior executive systems.
      2. (ii)Qualifying service does not include noncareer, limited term, or limited emergency appointments in the SES or their equivalent, Scientific and Professional (ST) appointments, and Senior-Level (SL) appointments.
3. (c)Each agency may nominate up to 9 percent of its SES career appointees for rank awards.