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Science Friday > Archives > 2000 > December > December 22, 2000:

Stages of the Presidential Appointments Process
By Adrianne Wong, Science Friday Staff

The Constitution (Article II, Section 2) states that the president may nominate officers of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate, but the specifics of the process have been influenced by various statutes, executive orders, and administrative rules. The appointment process, as it has evolved over the years, can be broken down into four stages: selection, clearance, nomination, and confirmation.

In the selection process, the Presidential Transition Team or the Office of Presidential Personnel draw up a list of potential candidates for a position and conduct interviews. They choose a finalist and recommend that candidate to the president; if he agrees, an offer is made from the White House.

Next comes the arduous clearance phase, which is overseen by the Office of the Counsel to the President. Candidates complete a massive amount of paperwork delving into all aspects of their lives -- everything from medical conditions to personal finances to drug use. That paperwork goes to the FBI, the Office of Government Ethics, and the IRS. Candidates are encouraged to document every peccadillo, as transgressions may pose more of a problem if they are kept quiet and later uncovered by outside sources. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest – even if no actual conflict may exist – can doom an appointment. Potential ethical problems or conflicts of interest need to be addressed before the appointment can proceed.

Once the Office of the Counsel has cleared a candidate, the Office of the Executive Clerk prepares a formal nomination parchment that is hand-delivered to the Senate. At this point, the nomination becomes public, although for some high-profile positions, such as the initial Cabinet-level appointments announced this week, the White House may have already announced the president’s intention to nominate the candidate.

The Senate committee with jurisdiction over the candidate’s position handles the confirmation. Members of the committee study copies of the candidate’s finances, ethics agreements, and National Security Positions from the clearance process, as well as the answers to further questions posed by the committee. The candidate often meets with the members of the committee prior to the confirmation hearing. During the public confirmation hearing, the candidate responds to committee questions. After a few days, a vote is held to approve or reject their nomination. If the candidate meets the approval of the committee, the nomination is taken to the full Senate during one an executive session. Most nominations are approved by a voice vote, and a simple majority rule.

Once the Senate has approved the nomination, the President signs the commission, and the new official is sworn in.

The average presidential appointment took over eight months from nomination to confirmation during the Clinton administration. However, seven percent of Clinton’s appointees were confirmed in under two months. There are over 7,000 positions subject to Presidential appointment, though only about 800 of those require Senate confirmation.

This summary includes information provided by the nonpartisan Presidential Appointee Initiative, a project of the Brookings Institution funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.