How to Pick Better Bureaucrats (Geocities Rescue)

When people complain about unelected bureaucrats making policy, they picture career civil servants, like the overworked clerk who was seemingly rude to them when they were in line for some service, such as mailing a letter or renewing their car tags. In thinking about bureaucrats in this way, it is a short step to regard the permanent government as illegitimate. This is an error in the popular understanding, as the types of bureaucrats who make policy decisions are by and large political appointees who are accountable to the office holder who appointed them. Personnel reforms designed to increase the caliber of senior career servants are misguided, as most career servants are already quite well trained. It is time to relocate the target of reform to where it is needed most, the political service.

This essay addresses the establishment of a cadre of experts for the filling of high-level federal appointments and the formation of councils to ensure that these leaders and the senior civil servants are reading from the same page.

Establishing a Senior Political Service

With every new administration there is a scramble to fill Federal Executive Appointments. The Transition Team is flooded with resumes from industry, academia, the party faithful and major campaign contributors. Although some of these have served previously in government, many have not. Additionally, many who are well qualified to serve withhold their service because of the many ethics and disclosure requirements for high office that tend to overwhelm the first time appointee.

Little is provided to political appointees in terms of training, with the exception of brief orientation sessions and White House Briefings. This is in contrast to their senior career counterparts, who are required to undergo an extensive training program and have many years of federal service under their belts.

Compounding this problem is the state of relations between political appointees and career executives over the past twenty years, where political appointees are discouraged by the administration from making meaningful contact with their career counterparts and involving them in decisions. This goes beyond the natural hesitation all administrations experience at the beginning of encountering a bureaucracy "laced" with the holdovers from the prior administration to what has been described as "fear and loathing." Aside from the human relations and staffing effects of this situation the administration has denied itself the experience base (which is bipartisan) that the civil service provides for policy execution, and even policy development.

To improve agency leadership, establish a Senior Political Service for each major party (or national campaign). Members of the Service are nominated by each of the major parties/candidate organizations and certified by the Office of Personnel Management with oversight from the Merit Systems Protection Board to insure partisan neutrality.

Candidates for these positions come from Capitol Hill staff and former members, academia, industry, the bar and the interest advocacy community. To obtain certification candidates:

• Obtain or hold graduate level education or significant experience in the policy area for which they seek employment;
• Obtain graduate level certification or experience in the operations of the Federal Government in general, especially in regard to federal management and relations with the senior executive service;
• Obtain and maintain the required security and financial disclosure clearances.

The Office of Personnel Management coordinates an educational program similar to that provided to potential Senior Executive Service members. It includes both OPM, Federal Executive Institute and University based programs. The Federal Government and the nominating partisan/campaign organization share the costs of this program. The result is a ready pool for political transitions and the filling of vacancies between elections.

Establishing Executive Councils

The Senior Executive Service is politically neutral. However, administration, including the Senior Political Service proposed above, is more politics and public relations then public policy development. Some deliberative mechanism is needed to close the gap between these two worlds, giving a voice in the councils of government to the civil service and providing political appointees with a reason to serve longer. To do this, I propose the establishment of Executive Councils.

Executive Councils serve at the major administration level where a political manager interfaces with the Senior Executive Service. The Councils have five members, three of which are political appointees from the current administration. Its membership is proposed as follows:

Adminstrator
Serves at the pleasure of the President and acts as Chair. Graduate member of the Senior Political Service.

Assistant for Policy
Appointed for a 4 year term by the Cabinet Secretary. Member of the Senior Political Service.

Senior Assistant for Policy
Appointed for an 8 year term by the Cabinet Secretary. Member of the Senior Political Service. Replace by Assistant for Policy if unable to serve full term.

Tenured Assistant for Policy Appointed by prior administration to provide for institution-al memory. Member of the Senior Political Service. Replaced by a Senior Execuitve Servant if unable to serve full term.

Staff Assistant for Policy
Appointed for a 4 year term by the Secretary. Member of the Senior Executive Service

This schema provides popular control of the government, while at the same time providing for stable leadership. A change of course still occurs with every new administration. However, it is not allowed to occur without listening to the past. This proposal, combined with the Senior Political Service, does more to provide responsible government than any other possible administration reform because it establishes a culture of stable leadership, rather than government by the flavor of the month.