Science and Technology Leadership in American Government Ensuring the Best Presidential Appointments (1992) / Chapter Skim
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4. MAKING THE JOBS THEMSELVES MORE ATTRACTIVE
4. MAKING THE JOBS THEMSELVES MORE ATTRACTIVE
Pages 61-66
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From page 61... ...
S&T appointees should be willing and able to support an administration's policy positions. But their basic function is to bring technical knowledge and informed judgment to the policy arena and to foster policies that are rl~f~n~ibl~.
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From page 62... ...
Some positions have become more politicized in relation to their technical content, and others have been distanced from final decision authority by intervening layers in He bureaucracy. Because government is best served if the best technical judgment on difficult public policy issues is heard, considered, and balanced with political and other considerations by decisionmakers, the S&T executive leadership structure should be carefully designed to ensure that unbiased and accurate technical judgments can be made and directly applied to relevant policy choices.
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From page 63... ...
A few PAS positions already have fixed terms for the purpose the pane} endorses that is, to make them one step more insulated from day-to-day pressures of partisan politics. The positions covered now include the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, the Director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Director of the National Science Foundation, and the Chief Medical Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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From page 64... ...
This was done successfully in the case of the assistant directors of the National Science Foundation because political recruitment was taking too much time of the Director, and promising candidates were put off by the ordeal of the confirmation process in order to fill what they considered to be a professional position. REDUCING ADMINISTRATIVE "OVERBRUSH" The number of presidential appointments in the executive branch requiring Senate confirmation has increased from about 150 in 1965 to about 550 today.
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From page 65... ...
These appointees e.g., noncareer members of the Senior Executive Service holding deputy assistant secretary or similar positions and Schedule C staff assistants-tend to dilute decisionmaking authority held by line agency and bureau heads. This hampers the ability of S&T leaders to manage their programs and encourages second-guessing or "micromanagement" of decisions that are made by the highly qualified officials who are in the best position to reach informed judgments involving scientific and engineering as well as political and economic considerations.
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From page 66... ...
Congress and the President should carry out an overall reduction in political appointees (especially in Schedule C and noncareer SES jobs, but also in PAS positions) , as recommended earlier by the National Commission on the Public Service.
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