Background checks require days of intrusive interviews and form-filling that plumb every nook and cranny of candidates' lives. Financial disclosure sometimes leads candidates to complete financial divesture. Forms multiply, reputations are torn asunder and, all the while, the people's business goes unattended. Unfortunately, at the end of this grueling background ordeal, candidates are finding that the rewards for surviving the process are diminishing. Pay scales, especially for senior appointees, fall further and further behind senior executive salaries in the private sector.
Hours are long.
As a result, too many qualified candidates are saying no thanks, and our nation is much the poorer for it. We'll post the most interesting comments. The Presidential Appointee Initiative committee is holding hearings this week to search for possible solutions to the problems afflicting the appointments process. We realize that reasonable people can and will disagree about the solutions to the problems in the process, but we have a good idea of the general direction that these reforms should take. First, the process simply has to move faster.