November 8, 2000

To:     AGI Member Society Presidents, Executive Directors, and AGI Member Society Council representatives

From:     Murray Hitzman, Chair, AGI Government Affairs Advisory Committee
                David Applegate, AGI Government Affairs Program

Re:     Presidential Nominations Process

CC:     AGI Government Affairs Advisory Committee, AGI Executive Committee

Just as soon as the Florida votes are counted, the victorious campaign will quickly turn its efforts toward the transition to a new administration. Even before the election, small teams within each campaign have been working to prepare for the transition. Mostly, they operated in secret to avoid the appearance of over-confidence, but they also worked openly with the General Services Administration to ensure that the official transition team office space at 1800 G Street NW is ready with phone lines, computers, and all the trimmings. One of the most important tasks for the transition team is to fill presidential appointments from the Cabinet level on down.

This upcoming appointment process presents an opportunity for the geoscience community as it does for all constituencies. Key positions to be filled at federal agencies and within the White House can have a major impact on the conduct of geoscience education, research, and other activities as well as the employment of geoscientists. Consequently, AGI's Government Affairs Advisory Committee -- comprised of member society representatives -- wishes to encourage individual societies to identify qualified geoscientists and nominate them to the new administration.

To assist in this process, Margaret Baker has put together the attached list of geoscience-related political appointments (PDF file; 117 KB) in federal departments and agencies. This document should not be taken as a comprehensive list of high-ranking federal leadership positions since many of those are not strictly presidential appointments. For example, the head of the Geosciences Directorate at NSF is a career civil service appointment. But the list does include the positions that first the transition team and later the designees for science advisor and Cabinet posts will be looking to fill. The process operates from the top down, filling first the Cabinet positions, then their deputies, then their deputies in turn.

We must caution that the nomination process is not an easy one. AGI Executive Committee member Rhea Graham, formerly the presidentially appointed Director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, lent several pieces of advice for prospective nominees. First, any prospective candidate should be aware that their personal finances (and those of their spouse in community property states) become the public's purview, period. Tax returns are reviewed not just from the perspective of an auditor but from a political sensitivity perspective as well. Past writings will also be carefully scrutinized since people in high-level government positions are always considered to be speaking on behalf of the administration. For positions requiring Senate confirmation, it is critical that the nominee can obtain the support of their home-state senators. All positions will be put through a political filter, and thus geoscientists who have worked for campaigns or otherwise been politically involved would have an advantage.

Earlier this fall, the National Academy of Sciences released a report on the presidential appointment process for science and technology positions. The report found that in recent years, the percentage of top-level appointments completed within four months of nomination had slipped from 80-90 percent, the norm from 1964 to 1984, to 45 percent since then. The report recommended that steps be taken to initiate the appointment process for key science and technology leadership early in the transition, reduce financial and vocational obstacles to government service in order to increase the pool of scientists and engineers willing to serve, and streamline the approval process both within the administration and in the Senate. It remains to be seen whether the new administration will consider these recommendations or improve upon the recent track record. The full report, including a list of 50 most urgent science and technology presidential appointments, is online at http://www.nationalacademies.org/presidentialappointments.

According to our sources, neither campaign has identified a transition leader for science and technology. In the 1992 Clinton transition, this role was played by D. James Baker, later named to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As your society identifies nominees for the new administration, please contact the AGI Government Affairs Program for updated contact names and related information.