November 4, 2008

A summary of daily news relevant to the federal workforce produced by the Partnership for Public Service.

1. White House Treads Gingerly on the Campaign Trail
2. Federal Diary: As Political Climate Changes, Appointees Begin Burrowing In
3. Candidates Eye Potential Aides, Appointees
4. Opinion: Government Must Be More Efficient
5. Midnight Rule-Making Bonanza
6. Feds Denied Extra Hours Off to Vote
7. Government Executive to Live-Blog Election Results

White House Treads Gingerly on the Campaign Trail

The Washington Post
By Dan Eggen

The president's transition council held its second meeting last week, and the White House announced that the panel was bringing in outside advisers: former Bush chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr.; former Clinton chief of staff Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty; Jennifer L. Dorn from the National Academy of Public Administration; Norman Ornstein from the American Enterprise Institute; and Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service. 

 

As Political Climate Changes, Appointees Begin Burrowing In

The Washington Post
By Joe Davidson

Some animals burrow to secure protection from the elements. Rabbits, moles, gophers and groundhogs are examples of burrowing critters.

Another animal that sometimes burrows in and around Washington is the mammalian species known as the political appointee.

As the political climate changes, officials appointed by the outgoing administration are looking for a safe place to nest. For some, that would be a career position in a new administration run by John McCain or Barack Obama.

Moving from an appointed position to a career job is known as burrowing in. It's not illegal and often not inappropriate, but it can look like the fix is in for the anointed to get the gig.

And this is burrowing season.

"While such conversions may occur at any time, frequently they do so during the transition period when one administration is preparing to leave office and another administration is preparing to assume office," says a report issued last month by the Congressional Research Service.

Burrowers make up a very small portion of the government's 1.9 million civilian workforce. Conversions of fixed-term NASA appointees to career service, for example, have leaped in recent years, from 266 in fiscal year 2003 to 734 in 2007. So far, the Office of Personnel Management has rejected one proposed conversion out of 21 requested.

Perhaps most of those who do convert from appointed to career positions are well-qualified for their new jobs. But talk in government circles reflects a concern much greater than the numbers. The danger is in the appearance, valid or not, of favoritism.

To read the entire article, click here.

Candidates Eye Potential Aides, Appointees

MSNBC

Americans will elect not only a president on Tuesday, but also his huge team of aides, advisers and bureaucrats who will help the winner run the federal government for the next four years.

Clearly a John McCain presidency would be more conservative than a Barack Obama presidency. Beyond the ideological and partisan divides, however, are differences in style, tone and pedigree that would distinguish one administration from the other.

Obama, if he wins, appears likely to draw several of his top aides, including some Cabinet secretaries, from three key sources: Democratic governors midway through their second and final terms in office; former top appointees of Bill Clinton's administration; and political pros from Obama's hometown of Chicago.

To read the entire article, click here.

Opinion: Government Must Be More Efficient

The Arizona Daily Star
By Max Stier

During all three presidential debates, the candidates faced a question about how the rapidly growing budget deficit would impact their tax policies and spending plans. The moderators were right to inquire about the rising deficit, but they were asking the wrong question.

When it comes to our long-term budgetary outlook, the most immediate and important concern our next president will face is not deciding which campaign promises to put on hold, it's figuring out to make our government run more efficiently so that it can do the work of the people with increasingly limited means.

In this regard, our next president has his work cut out for him. The federal bureaucracy he will inherit is not even close to operating on all cylinders. It's struggling to keep pace in an a complicated world. Our failure to adequately regulate new financial products like derivatives and credit default swaps contributed to our current economic crisis. We import more and more products from abroad, but struggle to keep toxic toys and tainted food out of U.S. homes.

Many of government's operational problems come from a tendency of federal leaders to talk policy and forget operations. The emphasis on policy is understandable, but it is also a recipe for failure.

There are two fundamental reasons why operational issues are prone to be overlooked: First, it's hard to change what you don't measure, and our government operates in an environment with very few meaningful measurements for performance and operational health.

Second, and perhaps more significantly, it is run by short-term political leadership that has little incentive to focus on long-term issues.

To read the entire story, click here.

Midnight Rule-Making Bonanza

Federal Times
By Gregg Carlstrom

Anticipating an end-of-administration rush to churn out hundreds of regulations -- a practice known as "midnight rule making" -- the White House counseled agencies to restrain themselves.

"We need to continue [our] principled approach to regulation as we sprint to the finish, and resist the historical temptation of administrations to increase regulatory activity in their final months," White House chief of staff Josh Bolten wrote in a May 9 memo to agency heads.

Nice try.

The waning months of the Bush administration will witness perhaps the greatest output ever of new government regulations.

The Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has reviewed 267 rules -- both proposed and final -- since June, according to an OMB online database. Of those, 55 are "economically significant" rules, which have more than a $100 million impact on the economy. And another 140 regulations now await OIRA review, of which 14 are economically significant. That's a sizable increase in activity over the same period a year ago, when 239 rules were forwarded to OIRA for review, of which 33 were economically significant.

And it far outpaces the regulatory activity in the waning months of the Clinton administration. Eight years ago during the same period, OIRA had reviewed 201 rules, of which 36 were economically significant.

Dozens more regulations are expected to come in for OIRA review before January.

Critics say many of these last-minute rules are designed to weaken existing laws and regulations, particularly those protecting the environment and worker safety. The Interior Department, for example, recently proposed a rule to weaken curbs on mountaintop mining, giving mining companies a long-sought victory. The practice is opposed by both presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz.

Another Interior Department rule proposed in July would allow federal agencies to approve power plants, dams and other infrastructure projects without consulting biologists to see if the construction would harm endangered species.

"In many cases, these are giveaways to industry, to roll back rules that they have long despised," said Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy at OMB Watch, a nonprofit watchdog group.

To read the entire article, click here.

Feds Denied Extra Hours Off to Vote

Government Executive
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt

The acting director of the Office of Personnel Management on Thursday denied a request to give federal employees two additional hours of excused absence to vote on Election Day.

Federal agencies already have authority to grant an excused absence for federal employees, "including the ability to adjust policies to circumstances as they unfold," said OPM acting Director Michael Hager in a letter to Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., and James Moran, D-Va.

Hager was responding to an Oct. 30 letter from Davis and Moran, who requested up to five hours of excused absence for federal employees to vote on Nov. 4. Because turnout has risen in recent years and changes in federal and state election laws can increase the amount of time it takes to process votes, employees could face longer lines at polling sites and delays that could exceed the current three-hour excused absence, the congressmen argued.

Current OPM rules dictate that if the polls are not open at least three hours before or after an employee's regular work hours, the employee is eligible to report to work three hours after the polls open or leave work three hours before the polls close, whichever requires the lesser amount of time off. The rules define regular work hours as the time of day an employee normally arrives at and departs from work.

But Hager said only 30 minutes to one hour of excused absence typically is needed to provide employees with a three-hour period to vote either before or after the end of their work day.

"Because polling places are usually open for extended periods of time, excused absence is usually not needed," Hager wrote. "This historic arrangement allows for a strong balance of keeping the federal government functioning while providing time necessary for employees to exercise their right to vote."

Hager said OPM will notify federal chief human capital officers and human resource directors to "remind them of existing excused absence flexibilities and of their responsibility to support federal employees in voting in this year's elections."

Government Executive to Live-Blog Election Results

Log onto GovExec's FedBlog today where reporter Alyssa Rosenberg will be liveblogging election results throughout the day, http://blogs.govexec.com/fedblog/.

 

The summaries of news items appearing in the Pipeline are selected to provide subscribers with a full range of that day's important news about issues affecting our federal government workforce and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Partnership for Public Service.