WASHINGTON- Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson (R-TN) announced that the full committee will hold a two-part hearing on the state of the presidential appointment process. The committee will examine the process presidential appointees currently undergo, ascertain its effects on public service, and hear recommendations for reform.

Wednesday, April 4, 2001
2:00 PM
342 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Wednesday, the committee will hear from witnesses with hands-on experience as presidential appointees, as well as experience running the appointment process, who will describe the problems they encountered. Experts will outline the original purposes of the laws and processes affecting presidential appointments to office and how and why they may have become skewed over time.

Thursday morning, two new recommendations for reform will be released by the Presidential Appointee Initiative and the Office of Government Ethics, as required by a committee amendment to the Presidential Transition Act of 2000.

The Honorable Sean O’Keefe
Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget

The Honorable Robert Nash
Former Director, White House Office of Presidential Personnel

Paul C. Light
Vice President and Director of Governmental Studies, The Brookings Institution

Scott Harshbarger
President and Chief Executive Officer, Common Cause

G. Calvin MacKenzie
Distinguished Presidential Professor of American Government, Colby College

Patricia McGinnis
President and Chief Executive Officer, Council for Excellence in Government

Norman J. Ornstein
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

The Honorable Amy Comstock
Director, Office of Government Ethics

The Honorable Nancy Kassebaum Baker
Former U.S. Senator
Co-Chair, Presidential Appointee Initiative

The Honorable Franklin Raines
Former Director, Office of Management and Budget
Chairman and CEO, Fannie Mae Foundation
Co-Chair, Presidential Appointee Initiative