Confirmation of appointments

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

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 convene a hearing for each appointed official to facilitate asking and answering questions which are important to the legislature or to the public. However, the legislature shall have no power to reject such appointments.

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. 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.

[Author]

Posts