A Big Picture View of Bush & the Agencies
posted by Frank Pasquale
Admin law mavens will likely appreciate Christopher Moraff’s review of the Bush Administration’s approach to government agencies over the past eight years. Some key quotes:
Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy at the nonpartisan watchdog group OMB Watch. . . [says] “Politics is injected and elevated into decisions where science and rational judgment should prevail. . . .Politics supersedes scientific and technical information that is critical to protecting our environment and health and safety at home and in the workplace.”
What’s more, research by political science professor David E. Lewis of Vanderbilt University shows that politicization results in lower agency competence and that political appointee-run programs earn systematically lower grades in most management areas. Says Lewis: “Many of the politicization scandals in this administration came from cases where unqualified or inexperienced people got into key jobs … often with the power to hire others or control information flows.”
During his first term, federal jobs available to political appointees rose 15 percent, according to the 2004 edition of the “Plum Book,” which Congress publishes after each presidential election to list open positions.
In fact, in the first five years of the Bush administration, the total number of political appointees grew by 307 — or 12 percent — according to a 2006 report released by Waxman’s committee. At the same time, the number of Schedule C appointees — who are exempt from confirmation or qualification review — increased 33 percent during Bush’s first term.
In one of the more egregious examples, Bush appointed George Deutsch as NASA press officer in 2005. Deutsch, a then 24-year-old former Bush campaign staffer with no relevant scientific training, fell under fire almost immediately for attempting to censor the agency’s scientists. Most notably, he instructed senior scientists to refer to “the Big Bang” as a “theory,” and he tried to restrict scientists’ access to the media. He resigned in 2006 when it was revealed that he had lied on his resume about graduating from college.
I highly recommend the entire article.
August 28, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Posted in: Administrative Law
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