National Issues in Science and Technology 1993 (1993) / Chapter Skim
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Science and Technology Leadership in American Government: Ensuring the Best Presidential Appointments
Science and Technology Leadership in American Government: Ensuring the Best Presidential Appointments
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I SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT Ensuring the Best Presidential Appointments NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
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Gibbons Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy Office of Science and Technology Policy Executive Office of the President Washington, DC 20506 Dear Jack: We congratulate you on your appointment as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and we look forward to working with you in the coming years. Last month, we submitted to Warren Christopher, who was then Director of the Presidential Transition Office, the enclosed summary of our recent report, "Science and Technology Leadership in American Government: Ensuring the Best Presidential Appointments," whose principal recommendation was that the science advisor should be among the earliest of the President's senior advisors identified and announced, so that he could make input on the selection of other senior officials responsible for SET matters.
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Incumbents normally should be allowed! to serve their full terms, unless their performance was below par or they have politicized their positions in a manner contrary to the administration's policy positions, and appointees in other primarily technical positions should be considered on a case-by-case basis rather than removed automatically.
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The average time it takes to fill presidentially appointed positions has increased threefold since 1960. The average time from inauguration day to confirmation of PAS subcabinet positions was 2.4 months in the Kennedy administration, 5.3 months in the Reagan administration, and more than ~ months in the Bush administration.
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The factors making it harder to recruit highly qualified scientists, engineers, and medical experts for top government leadership include: · More stringent and confusing postgovernment employment restrictions; · The longer, more burdensome, and more intrusive nomination and Senate confirmation process; Stricter and more costly conflict-of-interest provisions; More detailed requirements for public financial disclosure; Pay that is not competitive with comparable positions in the private and nonprofit sectors; The high costs of moving to and living in Washington; Increased public scrutiny of one's personal life; Decreased capacity of government to carry out effective programs; and · Lower public esteem for and prestige of public service.
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The White House office of presidential appointments is likely to be under intense pressure to fill positions for political reasons, while department and agency heads have a large stake in filling S&T positions with people of high expertise. They are also better able to match the person with the job, and they are more likely than the White House presidential appointments office to be connected to the networks in which technical experts operate professionally.
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Also, in some recent cases, initial contacts with prestigious scientists and engineers have not been well handled, leading potential candidates to believe that inappropriate criteria were being used or that political criteria, while appropriate to some degree, were being overemphasized relative to technical qualifications. It is necessary and appropriate for the presidential appointments office in the White House to manage the overall confirmation process.
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Recent efforts to create a scandal-proof government have gone so far that, on balance, they may be doing more harm than good by deterring talented and experienced scientific and engineering personnel from taking senior government positions. Where laws afford little additional ethical protection at very high cost, they are a bad bargain for the government and the public.
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To eliminate this source of significant delay, the President could direct the FBI only to conduct background investigations since the last such investigation, where one exists. Nominees for PAS positions must fill out a series of separate, complicated, and incompatible financial disclosure and personal data forms for the Office of Personnel Management, the Office of Government Ethics, the FBI, and the White House and for the relevant Senate committee.
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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 Finally, working with the Congress, the President should carry out an overall reduction in political appointees (especially in Schedule C and noncareer Senior Executive Service jobs, but also in PAS positions) , as recommended by the National Commission on the Public Service and other bipartisan and nonpartisan groups.
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Assistant Secretary (Health Affairs) Air Force Departments Under Secretary, Technology Assistant Secretary, Technology Policy Director, Census Bureau Assistant Secretary/Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information Administration Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology Under Secretary/Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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Geological Survey Justice Director, Bureau of Justice Statistics Labor Commissioner of Labor Statistics Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety ant! Health State Under Secretary for International Security Affairs Assistant Secretary, Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Transportation Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration Deputy Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Veterans Affairs Chief Medical Director 15 IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV PHS IV IV PA IV IV IV V IV V V V IV V IV IV III IV III II IV III III
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Neither list includes cabinet secretaries (executive level I) or deputy secretary positions ([eve!
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