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Ex-appointees push ‘bill of rights’ for nominees

June 15, 2001

Executive Editor

"The Nominee's Bill of Rights does not ask for a lowering of standards, it asks for a quickening of pace," Light said. "The White House and Congress should make the process simple, fast and as fair as possible." Jacques Gansler, a former Defense Department undersecretary who is currently a professor at the University of Maryland, compared his nomination process, which took seven months, to a hostage situation. "Twice during that process, I almost dropped out," Gansler said. "I didn't seek out this job…I took an 80 percent salary cut, I worked three times as hard and I took constant abuse," he said. Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner agreed that the current process discourages good people from joining government. "Asking an individual to put their life on hold…is totally unfair," said Browner, who now serves as a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute. "I fear that without some changes we will lose the best and brightest."

Hundreds of former presidential appointees on Wednesday sent Congress and the Bush administration a document listing ways the appointments process can be improved. "We have to think about what it takes to get a qualified American to step up and take the job," said Paul Light, director of governmental studies at Brookings, which released the document, called the "Nominee's Bill of Rights," which was signed by 354 former appointees. The appointments process involves a maze of requirements, including financial reports, FBI checks and intense congressional scrutiny. Through the years the process has grown increasingly laborious, and has drawn increasing criticism. More than half of appointees confirmed between 1984 and 1999 had to wait five or more months before taking office. By comparison, only one-sixth of appointees confirmed between 1964 and 1984 had to wait that long. As of last Friday, only 117 Bush administration nominees had been confirmed. The Nominee's Bill of Rights is a product of the Presidential Appointee Initiative, a project Brookings launched in 1999 to push for an overhaul of the appointments process and provide information and advice to nominees. Brookings introduced a reform agenda in April, which offered recommendations for improving the financial disclosure system for appointees and listed ways to reduce the reams of duplicative paperwork involved in appointments. The Nominee's Bill of Rights includes eight points:

The Presidential Personnel Office will provide all persons whose nominations await clearance and confirmation with bimonthly status reports.
Senate committees will assess allegations about a nominee's personal character in executive session before such allegations are discussed in public hearings.
All nominees shall have the right of "discovery," enabling them to see and respond to any criticism of their appointment or their past performance or activities before such topics are discussed in any official public forum.
All nominees shall be provided with a formal orientation to the federal government and the department or agency in which they will serve.
All nominees will be provided with clear and complete guidance to assist them in meeting all reporting requirements and in responding to information demands during the appointments process.
All nominees will receive a thorough, prior explanation of the procedures followed in the FBI full-field investigation and all other investigations to which they are subjected.
All nominees will receive a timely review and action on their nominations in the Senate, with a confirmation decision normally occurring within 45 days of Senate receipt of a nomination.
No nominee shall be subjected to any post-employment conflict-of-interest regulation not in effect at the time of his or her confirmation.

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