A Surv Ivo R 'S Guide Fo R P Residential Nominees
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A Sur v ivo r ’s Guide f o r P residential Nominees The Council for Excellence in Gove rn m e n t The Presidential Appointee Initiative Published in November 2000 by The Presidential Appointee Initiative A Project of the Brookings Institution funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts 1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW Suite 301 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 496-1330 www.appointee.brookings.org Book design by Patricia Hord.Graphik Design Alexandria, Virginia Cover Illustration by David Tillinghast Table of Contents Foreword 3 Acknowledgments 5 Introduction: When the Phone Rings 9 The Changing of the Guard 9 Getting the Most Out of the Guide 10 The Burdens and Blessings of Public Service 11 The Best Jobs They Ever Had 11 Glossary of Appointed Positions 13 Chapter 1: First Things First 15 Do I want this job? 15 Am I the right person for this position? 18 What are the financial and personal ramifications, including restrictions on post-government employment? 21 What kind of help will I need to get through the nomination and confirmation process? 24 Do I want to live in Washington? 27 Why do I need a fallback strategy? 28 Chapter 2: People and Places Along the Way 31 Stages of the Appointments Process 31 Stage One: Selection 31 Stage Two: Clearance 33 Stage Three: Nomination 34 Stage Four: Confirmation 35 Key Gatekeepers 37 The Transition Team 37 White House Office of Presidential Personnel 38 Office of the Counsel to the President 40 U.S. Office of Government Ethics 42 The Senate 44 Chapter 3: Forms and Financial Disclosure 51 What Do I Have to Fill Out? 51 Getting Prepared Now 52 Key Forms 54 White House Personal Data Statement Questionnaire 54 SF 86 Questionnaire for National Security Positions 54 SF 278 Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report 55 Coping With the Forms 57 A Surv ivo r ’s Guide for Presidential Nominees 1 Chapter 4: Navigating the Senate 65 No Way to Tell 65 Courting the Senate 67 The Senate’s Forms 69 The Confirmation Hearing 70 Holding Patterns 71 The Nomination Battles 73 Chapter 5: Before and After You’re Confirmed – Ethical and Legal Considerations 77 Coming Aboard Before Senate Confirmation 78 The Ethical and Legal Minefields 82 Chapter 6: Dealing with the Media 89 The Capital of the News World 89 When in Doubt, Don’t Talk 92 Telling the Truth 93 Chapter 7: Moving to Washington 97 An Area Overview 97 What to do When Waiting for Confirmation 98 Where to Live? 100 Schools 101 Big-City Problems 102 Big-City Advantages 103 Chapter 8: Life After Government 107 Key Employment Restrictions 108 A Bar to Public Service? 109 Ethical Examples 110 The Strength of America’s System 111 Chapter 9: Resources 115 Resources on Appointed Positions 115 Congressional Information Sources 116 Ethics and Rules 118 Forms 118 Key Executive Branch Offices 119 Media Sources 120 Books/Papers 121 Appendix I: The Owner’s Manual: A Brief Look at the Constitution 123 Appendix II: Advice and Consent – And Rejections 127 Appendix III: Sample Questions Asked by Senate Committees 131 Appendix IV: Standard Form 278: Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report 135 Appendix V: Standard Form 86: Questionnaire for National Security Positions 155 Index 169 2 A Sur v ivo r ’s Guide for Presidential Nominees Foreword From its very founding, American government has depended on presidential appointees to help lead the nation. The Founding Fathers clearly believed that the quality of a president’s appointments could make or break their young democracy. “There is nothing I am so anxious about as good nominations,” Thomas Jefferson wrote at the dawn of his presidency in 1801, “conscious that the merit as well as reputation of an administration depends as much on that as on its measures.” Having designed a government that depended on the wisdom and virtue of individual citizens, the Founders left their own private lives behind to take the first presidential appointments. They fully understood that presi- dential service would be difficult and inconvenient. They also understood that entering office might involve tough questions from the U.S. Senate about their qualifications for office. Yet the Founders understood that presidential service was both an obligation of citizenship and one of the greatest honors of their lives. They recognized that the young nation would not survive if its most talented citizens rejected the call to service. More than 200 years later, the merit and reputation of an administration still depend on this willingness to serve. Presidential service is still inconvenient and often financially punishing, and the U.S. Senate still asks tough questions about qualifications for office. Yet, just as in the 1790s, presidential service is still one of the nation’s greatest honors. The jobs may be stressful, the pay sometimes less than one could have earned in pri- vate endeavors and the public scrutiny intense, but presidential service is still essential to the nation’s survival. That is why we have published A Survivor’s Guide for Presidential Nominees. A collaboration between The Council for Excellence in Government and The Presidential Appointee Initiative, and funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Gu i d e is designed to help individuals accept the call to service by providing nonparti s a n in f o r mation on what has become an increasingly complicated, and sometimes confusing, appointments process. The Guide is based on the simple notion that good government is impossible if presidents cannot attract the nation’s most talented citizens into service. As another of this nation’s original citizen servants, Alexander Hamilton, warned 200 years ago in The Federalist Papers, “a government ill-executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be in practice a bad government.” The American people cannot have confidence in the promises their leaders make if those leaders cannot attract talented citizens to join the government and work to fulfill those promises. To the extent the Guide helps those citizens help themselves as they navigate the nomination and confirmation process, the nation can only benefit. The Guide is only one piece of The Presidential Appointee Initiative (PAI). Established by the Brookings Institution in 1999 with an advisory board co-chaired by former Office of Management and Budget Director Franklin D. Raines and former U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker, PAI is committed to making the presiden- tial appointments process easier, faster and more respectful toward the people who have accepted the call to A Surv ivo r ’s Guide for Presidential Nominees 3 service. PAI is also working to remind America’s civic and corporate leaders that presidential service remains one of the nation’s highest honors, and one that they should encourage their most talented leaders to both pursue and accept. PAI’s collaborator on the Guide is The Council for Excellence in Government. Founded in 1983, CEG is a non- profit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the performance of government at all levels, as well as government’s place in the lives and esteem of American citizens. Ultimately, the willingness to serve resides in each citizen’s heart. Like the Founders themselves, citizens must be ready to accept the sacrifices of service to make American democracy succeed. The nation is much stronger today than it was during those first moments of vulnerability in the 1790s, but it is no less dependent on the talents and commitments of its citizen leaders. Michael H. Armacost President The Brookings Institution 4 A Sur v ivo r ’s Guide for Presidential Nominees Acknowledgments A Survi v o r ’s Guide for Presidential Nominees is a col- the six volumes in the Prune Book series, which laboration between the Council for Excellence in examine issues related to the staffing and manage- Go v e r nment and The Presidential Appointee Initiative. ment of high-level positions filled by presidential A number of individuals and organizations con- appointment and profile the responsibilities and tributed significantly to the publication of the Gu i d e . requirements of the most important posts. Trattner began his career as a journalist and served for nearly First, our warmest thanks and admiration go to author 20 years as a career U.S. foreign service officer spe- Christopher Connell. Chris is a veteran Washington cializing in press relations and public affairs. He also journalist and editor who began working for the was press secretary to former Senator George Associated Press while still at Princeton and, during a Mitchell. He is the author of A Survivors’ Guide for quarter century with the news service, covered health Government Executives, published in 1989. and education issues as well as the White House. He was the AP assistant bureau chief in Washington PAI is very fortunate to have G. Calvin Mackenzie, when he left in 1999 to launch his own writing and distinguished presidential professor of American consulting business. His in-depth knowledge of Government at Colby College, as its adviser on the Washington, his contacts and his excellent reporting appointments process. During the 1980s, Cal played and writing skills greatly enrich the final product. a central role in the Presidential Appointee Project of the National Academy of Public Administration, as We would also like to express our deep appreciation project director and principal author of several acade- to David Hosansky, who edited the Guide. David is my publications, including Leadership in Jeopardy: now a freelance writer and editor in Denver, Colo., The Fraying of the Presidential Appointments System, specializing in the environment and public policy Guidebook for the Senior Executive Service and both issues. He worked as a reporter for Congressional editions of The Presidential Appointee’s Handbook.