Confirmation of appointments

Proposal:

The chief executive shall appoint members of the cabinet and heads of various departments and chief justices. The chief investigator shall appoint regular and special investigators. The legislature shall have no power to affirm or reject such appointments.

The legislature shall convene a hearing for each appointed official to facilitate asking and answering questions which are important to the legislature or to the public. The appointed official shall appear at the hearing and answer questions from the legislature. It is a public duty for both the legislature to hold the hearings and ask questions and for the appointed official to appear at the hearing and answer questions.

If the appointed official fails to appear or fails to answer questions to the satisfaction of the legislature, the legislature may hold the official in contempt and impeach the official.

The legislature must schedule the hearing within 15 days of the official’s appointment date. The hearing must take place within 60 days of the official’s appointment date. If the official fails to schedule a hearing date with the legislature, or fails to appear for a scheduled hearing within 60 days of the appointment date, the official may be impeached for failing to fulfill this duty.

Intent:

The hearings in the legislature are akin to a public interview of the appointees. The hearings are mandatory. The legislature shall hold a hearing for each appointee. The appointees shall take an oath to tell the truth in the hearing under penalty of perjury.

If the legislature is unsatisfied with the responses of any appointed official in a hearing, the legislature may enact laws to constrain the behavior of the corresponding departments for a limited time to coincide with the maximum remaining term of the chief executive or chief investigator, or permanently.

If the legislature learns that an appointee has lied under oath or has committed any other crime while in office, the legislature may impeach the appointed official.

Discussion:

Having elected the chief executive and chief investigator, the legislature should trust them to appoint the people they trust to do the jobs that need to be done, and not delay them from starting to do their jobs. However, the legislature and the public may have questions for these elected officials so the hearings are like a public interview.

There is a concern that an appointed official will stonewall the legislature in the hearing and refuse to answer questions, since their appointment does not depend on the legislature. For this reason the requirement to appear and answer questions to the satisfaction of the legislature is included in the proposal and the legislature has the power to impeach the official over failing to fulfill this duty. However, rejected appointments are rare, and appointed officials may resign if the hearing is exceedingly negative and they don’t want to burden the chief executive or chief investigator with a scandal. Furthermore, the legislature may enact laws to govern those appointed officials and their departments by restricting or compelling behavior, and the legislature may impeach those appointed officials if they lied under oath or committed other crimes while in office. The legislature retains plenty of power to enact the will of the people and defend the Constitution and democracy.

Failing to give satisfactory answers could include deflecting, distracting, redirecting, or answering a question that wasn’t asked instead of the one that was asked. It is important to note that it is the tone and manner of the answer that is satisfactory or not, and not its content. For example, if the official answers a question directly but the answer is not what the legislature wants to hear, that is still satisfying the obligation. In contrast, if the legislature asks a question and the official fails to answer it directly after repeated attempts, that would not be satisfying the obligation. The answers are under oath so if the official truly doesn’t know something they can say they don’t know. If it turns out they were lying that is an impeachable offense.