Political Quotes

“we are on the verge of passing legislation that will streamline the executive branch nominations process and I want to congratulate the bill's authors--Senators Schumer and Alexander--for their bipartisan accomplishment and thank them for their hard work. This bill--S. 679, The Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011--removes about 170 non-policymaking positions from the list of Presidential appointments requiring Senate confirmation--plus over 2800 members of the Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, Officer Corps, whose appointments and promotions are also subject to the Senate's advice and consent. This is not as many positions as the bill first contemplated. But it is a significant achievement nonetheless when you consider that the work that goes into vetting nominees must be multiplied by four because the White House, the Senate, the FBI and the Office of Government Ethics, OGE, all have to conduct their own thorough background investigations. So by removing 170 positions we eliminate the need for 680 separate background investigations. This frees up the Senate, the White House, the FBI and OGE to focus their efforts on vetting nominations for those critical positions where policy is made. And that should help speed up the vetting and confirmation process for these positions as well.…”