PRESIDENT LIKES “ACTING GOVERNMENT POSITIONS” BETTER THAN PERMANENT ONES

… This president is still trying to run the government like his business

The Trump administration has a higher turnover rate than any previous administration

More than two years into Donald Trump’s term, the president today has an acting chief of staff; acting attorney general; acting defense secretary; acting interior secretary, acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and an acting Environmental Protection Agency chief.

“It’s a lot, it’s way too many,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK.) said of the acting positions in Cabinet agencies. “You want to have confirmed individuals there because they have a lot more authority to be able to make decisions and implement policy when you have a confirmed person in that spot.”

The lack of permanent leaders is alarming top congressional Republicans who are pressing for key posts to be filled.

“I like acting because I can move more quickly,” Trump said in an interview with CBS News. “It gives me more flexibility.”

But according to the analysis by the Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post, the White House has not bothered to nominate people for 150 out of 705 key Senate-confirmed positions.

Three departments are facing a particularly high number of vacancies: Only 41% of the Interior and Justice Department’s Senate-confirmed posts are filled, and just 43% of  positions have been filled at the Labor Department.

“The Trump administration is slower to fill jobs and has higher turnover rate than any administration we have records for,” said the Public Service group’s president and chief executive, Max Stier.

By any standard, the Trump’s administration lags behind all of its predecessors when it comes to filling top posts throughout the government.  That is even though the president’s party has controlled the Senate for his entire time in office, and they are the group that is required to confirm these appointments. This same  Partnership for Public Service, has tracked nominations as far back as 30 years, and they estimate that only 54% of Trump’s civilian executive branch nominations have been confirmed, compared to 77% by this time under President Barack Obama.

One particular vacancy the senators have fixated on is at the Pentagon, where former defense secretary Jim Mattis resigned in December after clashing with Trump over his decision to begin withdrawing US troops from Syria.  Patrick Shanahan has been serving in an acting capacity since Jan. 1, and no one is being considered for nomination at this time.

After VA’s acting deputy secretary Jim Byrne hit his 210-day mark this past month, Secretary Robert Wilkie gave him a new job. He designated Byrne as “General Counsel, performing the duties of the deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs,” according to department spokesman Curt Cashour.

In other words, instead of nominating a Deputy Secretary, the Secretary used the Trump approach of giving Byrne a new title that has him basically doing the same job under a different title.  A position that doesn’t require Senate approval.

A Congressional Research Service report has concluded that “an action taken by any person who” is not complying with the Vacancies Act “in the performance of any function or duty of a vacant office . . . shall have no force or effect.” While this new position has not been tested in court, several legal experts said that it at least raises a question about the policies undertaken by officials who lack Senate approval.  It is expected that many of these positions may face congressional Democratic oversight by not being confirmed positions.

Nina Mendelson, a professor of law at the University of Michigan, said the strategic Interior officials that have taken to delegating many responsibilities to unconfirmed officials was “legally problematic” because it conflicts with the intent and language stated in the Vacancies Act.

“Congress specifically sought to limit this sort of strategy,” Mendelson said. As a result, she said, “Any legally binding actions taken by these officials would be subject to challenge.”

The Interior Department is currently running with leaders who lack any Senate approval.

Last week, acting interior secretary David Bernhardt amended an order his predecessor, Ryan Zinke, signed in November to keep “eight hand-picked deputies” in place without Senate approval.  Under the revised order, these appointees can serve in their posts for another four months, unless they are replaced or the department decides to extend the deadline once again.

Basically, for these “hand-picked deputies” their acting status could potentially be extended over and over again until Trump is out of office.

Per Kate Kelly, a director for the Center for American Progress “They are not just keeping the seat warm while waiting for the real McCoy to show up, and they’re able to operate without the level of scrutiny that’s usually associated with these positions.”

This is a classic Trump approach to keep everybody guessing if they are going to be replaced.  This is and example of his "flexibility".

Kelly noted that Interior’s top lawyer, Daniel Jorjani has signed several critical legal opinions since taking over the division, including one that revived a mining claim near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  In addition, a legal opinion that relaxed the penalties energy companies could face for killing birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The eight legal opinions Jorjani wrote during the first year-and-a-half of the Trump administration exceed the combined total that were issued under the three previous administrations.  All of those opinions should be considered for a challenge.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she is concerned with the lack of a confirmed Interior Secretary as well as vacancies a the top of the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service.

“When you think about it, what was the big initiative at the end of last year? Let’s do something with park maintenance,” Murkowski said. “Would sure be great to have the head of the parks in order to execute this initiative. Yup. It worries me.”

For the moment, Trump’s cabinet deputies continue to come up with inventive ways to fill openings.  Last week, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue named three presidential nominees to senior leadership posts in his department, saying that the last Congress failed to act on their appointments and he wanted them to start working while they awaited action from the new Congress.

In other words Perdue is saying: “Let’s let them make serious decisions even if they are in an acting position as they haven’t been confirmed that they are qualified to hold the position.”

Just one more issue that the next administration is going to have to fix after Trump is gone.

Copyright G. Ater 2109