Science and Technology Leadership in American Government Ensuring the Best Presidential Appointments (1992) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2. REDUCING THE HURDLES AND DISINCENTIVES
2. REDUCING THE HURDLES AND DISINCENTIVES
Pages 31-48
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 31... ...
Ethics rules have increased in scope and detail, largely in response to a series of defense procurement scandals, and have imposed substantial restrictions on postgovernment employment choices, types of financial holdings, and outside earnings. Some progress has been made in the areas related to pay, tax treatment of assets that must be divested, and moving expenses, but the costs of taking a federal job and living in Washington are still high and discourage some who want, but cannot afford, to serve.
|
From page 32... ...
But the efforts to achieve a scandal-proof government have gone too far and, on balance, do more harm than good by deterring talented and experienced scientific and engineering personnel from taking senior government positions. Some of these ethics reforms, especially recent attempts to purify Me procurement process by imposing broad postgovernment employment restrictions, afford little ethical protection at very high cost-a bad bargain for the government and a bad bargain for the public.
|
From page 33... ...
We believe, however, that it is possible to have fair and effective conflict-of-interest laws that are compatible with, indeed would promote, public service by highly qualified and motivated individuals from industry, academia, and other sectors who are on the cutting edge of science and technology. Postgovernment Employment Restrictions According to presidential recruiters, as well as scientists and engineers who have been approached by recruiters, the laws restricting postgovernment employment have become the single biggest disincentive to public service, now that pay levels have been increased substantially.
|
From page 34... ...
Instead, section 207 should be revised to include restrictions on improper postemployment conduct, to curb improper influence not only by prohibiting personal representation but also by prohibiting use or disclosure of specific types of inside information, such as that which is integral to source selection. Subject to these restrictions, participation in work under contracts should be allowed, so that the government may benefit from the expertise of its former employees.
|
From page 35... ...
As amended by the Ethics Reform Act of 1989, section 207 strictly limits former government employees in representing private parties before their former agencies and in participating in matters in which the former employees were involved personally and substantially while in government (the basic restrictions are laid out in Appendix C)
|
From page 36... ...
requires federal employees negotiating for other employment to disqualify ~emseIves from participation in procurements or other particular matters affecting the prospective employer. Several of the statutes recommended for repeal impose additional restrictions to discourage improper influence and use of inside information the Procurement Integrity Act, the DOD revolving door laws, and
|
From page 37... ...
opposes even wider application of broad approaches to such an important and difficult set of issues, for example, extending the two-year postgovernment employment ban from DOD to the entire government. Consolidation and Periodic Review of Ethics Laws The government's conflict-of-interest and other ethics laws should be fair, clear, and consistent.
|
From page 38... ...
New laws should be considered not only for their specific purpose but also for their net effect on the overall ethics system, including their impact on the quality of the public service. The bipartisan President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform performed a valuable service in proposing a comprehensive revision and consolidation of executive branch ethics laws and rules, which was largely implemented in the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 (the first comprehensive update since the Ethics in Government Act of 1978~.
|
From page 39... ...
In applying the conflict-of-interest laws, divestiture of assets should not be considered the primary remedy and therefore required routinely. Recusal, coupled with full public financial disclosure, should be considered the primary remedy in most cases by the Senate, Office of Government Ethics, and designated agency ethics officials.
|
From page 40... ...
First, the nominee files a public financial disclosure statement that lists all relevant financial holdings and associations. Second, there is consultation between the nominee, the designated agency ethics official, and perhaps the Office of Government Ethics (OGE)
|
From page 41... ...
Divestiture has usually been used as a last resort in curing conflicts of interest, because it often incurred large capital gains taxes. On recommendation of the President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform, the law was changed in the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 to eliminate this major disincentive to the acceptance of high-level positions (President's Commission, 1989:25~.
|
From page 42... ...
College and university faculty, and scientists and engineers from nonprofit medical institutions, national laboratories, and other nonprofit research organizations, normally should not be forced to give up tenure in their home institutions. In fact, leaves of absence for tenured faculty, and other nonprofit personnel, should be encouraged to increase the government's capacity to recruit and retain well-qualif~ed scientific and engineering personnel in high-level positions.
|
From page 43... ...
Now that executivelevel salaries have been increased substantially, Congress and the President should ensure that there are regular salary reviews and pay increases, when justiBed by cost-of-living data, in order to avoid the large lapse in adequacy of executive pay that developed in the mid-198Os. The quadrennial commissions on executive, legislative, and judicial salaries have consistently noted that executive salaries are still lower in real terms than they were in 1969.
|
From page 44... ...
Recent pay hikes have increased that figure to nearly 80 percent in 1992. In addition to the most comprehensive revisions in the government's ethics laws since the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, the 1989 Ethics Reform Act included the pay increases just described, prescribed a new method of determining and implementing automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments, and created a new quadrennial pay commission process to review the pay situation for top federal officials (McGrath, 1990~.
|
From page 45... ...
In most years in Me 198Os, Congress denied annual comparability adjustments for itself and therefore for executive level officials. Although the new annual cost-of-living adjustment process established by the Ethics Reform Act does not require recorded votes, it remains to be seen whether Congress will allow full increases to go into effect without reducing or eliminating them, as they often have in the past.
|
From page 46... ...
The Executive Order prohibiting outside earned income for presidential appointees should be revised to permit appointees to continue activities that are normally part of a professional research career, such as textbook editorships. Such exceptions should be carefully considered and approved by the department or agency head if the time demands will not interfere with the appointee's official duties, which are primary.
|
From page 47... ...
should only cover the time period since the last FB} background investiga 2 The President's Commission on the Federal Appointment Process recommended that the Senate adopt one basic form for all committees and accept the SF-278- the executive branch's financial disclosure formulas an alternative net worth statement (1990:51.
|
From page 48... ...
only had to investigate the time period since a previous investigation. This would be especially helpful in recruiting scientists and engineers because some of Nose nominated for important PAS positions have already been investigated by Me FBI before appointment to such science advisory boards as the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the National Science Board.3 3 The President's Commission on the Federal Appointments Process made a similar recommendation that the FBI only investigate the years since the last FBI background check that was based on a full field investigation, to "avoid time-consuming reinvestigations of old information n (President's Commission, 1990:9~.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.