Mark DeSantis: The importance of getting political appointments right

Upon taking office, President George Washington promised to hire people “as shall be the best qualified.” We are struggling to meet that standard and with serious consequences.

Today, the federal government is the world’s most powerful and complex bureaucracy within the world’s largest economy and includes, among other things, armed forces larger than the next 10 militaries combined. Two million civilians (excluding postal workers) work under the leadership of 4,100 political appointees. And choices made by this appointed leadership cadre matter not just to every American, but also to friends and foes around the world now and for years to come.

The source of these appointments can be found in the “Plum Book,” so-called either because of the book’s color and/or the “plum” jobs listed therein. This well-known book includes the 4,100 critical “political” roles appointed directly by the president.

Bad choices, poor performance and low integrity among appointees mean billions of dollars wasted, diminished American prestige and power at home and abroad, and, most importantly, lives lost. That is why finding talented appointees qualified to assume these roles in government and do so with commitment, independence and integrity is so essential to effective and efficient governing.

But this is hard to do.

First, a four-year term is shorter than you might think, which is why every incoming president initiates his or her transition effort well before Election Day. The hope and expectation is that by the time the new president is sworn in, the new team is ready to go.

Yet that did not happen with the Trump administration. According to the Partnership for Public Service, the administration was still lagging behind his last four predecessors two years into his term. In fact, nearly half of the 1,200 senior most appointments are still unfilled.

Second, once in office appointees need to remain in their roles long enough to have an impact. Again, that is not happening in this administration.

“It’s historic, it’s unprecedented, it’s off the charts,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, author of a recent Brookings study on political appointments and appointees. The study found 51 of the 65 so-called “A Team” positions have turned over since Trump took office.

Third, you need the appointees to perform. Alas, poor quality remains endemic to the Trump administration. An American Public Media review of news coverage, ethics agreements and government financial disclosure forms found more than half of Trump’s 20-person Cabinet has engaged in questionable or unethical conduct. In addition, there are just too many disappointing anecdotes about unqualified junior appointees as well.

Fourth, contrary to the claim of New York Sen. William Marcy that, “To the victor belong the spoils,” in referring to President Andrew Jackson’s election of 1828, political appointees are not in office to harvest the spoils of political office. Appointees are there to support and enact the policy preferences of the president. Yet in order to do so, a political appointee must, in fact, be appointed. Strangely, nearly half of the 30 most senior positions — including no less than the White House Chief of Staff — in the federal government, 13, are in their roles without ever having been confirmed by the Senate, remaining in an “acting” capacity.

One possible explanation for why so many appointees remain in the limbo of acting gets to one of the most important aspects of political appointment: Appointees work at the pleasure of the president but not for the president. The administration may believe that by having a prospective appointee in an acting capacity his or her loyalty to the president may be assured. However, political appointees remain loyal to the Constitution and to you and me, and not to any man or woman who happens to occupy that office.

Mark DeSantis is a tech entrepreneur, adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon Univesity and former political appointee in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. He lives in East Liberty.