How to Get Government Moving

"Our Tottering Confirmation Process" by Paul C. Light, in The Public Interest (Spring 2002), 1112 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

When George W. Bush took office in January 2001, he had some 500 cabinet and subcabinet positions requiring Senate confirmation to fill. A year later, about one-third of the posts remained vacant. The problem? An appointments process that includes too many nominees and subjects them to too much screening, contends Light, director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made do with 51 Senate-confirmed appointees: 10 cabinet secretaries, three under secretaries, and 38 assistant secretaries. Bush’s 500 include 14 cabinet secretaries, 23 deputy secretaries, 41 under secretaries, 212 assistant secretaries, and some 200 others. "Presidents seem to have embraced the notion that more leaders equals more leadership," Light quips.

Extensive Federal Bureau of Investigation background investigations have added to the delays. Seeking to avoid embarrassment, the White House does early "preventive screening" that further bogs down the process. The ordeal puts off many talented recruits.

Failure is built in. To process 500 nominees at the average pace of 10 to 15 per week requires about 40 legislative weeks. "With recesses and vacations, the transition cannot be completed until a year into the new term." Frustrated cabinet secretaries have added new high-level staff positions such as chief of staff as a way of getting around the process, thus diluting the accountability that is the whole point of confirmation.

"Perhaps it is time," Light says, "to ask whether we need so many layers of government." Disclosure requirements, screening, and background checks could be scaled back. Some nominees could be spared Senate hearings. Does the nation really need the nominee for assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to tell all?