Sites give glimpse of political grilling
- By William Matthews
- Dec 10, 2000
Brookings' Appointee Resource Center
Consulted a mental health professional in the past seven years? Left a job
under unfavorable circumstances? What do your friends, neighbors and colleagues
really think of you?
The FBI will ask those questions and many, many more if you are nominated
for a job in the new administration.
Before you apply, it might be helpful to find out more about what investigators,
Senators and the president's headhunters will want to know about you. The
Internet turns the task into a quick study.
The Brookings Institution, a political think tank located near the White
House, has developed an Appointee Resource Center that offers insight, advice and even copies of
forms political job-seekers will have to fill out.
And the man who hopes to be your next boss, George W. Bush, has also
created a Web site — bushcheneytransition.com — for the edification of appointment-seekers. The Bush site makes it clear
that working for the administration won't be everyone's notion of the ideal
job:
* The hours are long and the pace intense.
* There is much public/press scrutiny.
* Most applicants under serious consideration will go through a full
FBI background check.
* Financial holdings and sources of income for most applicants must
be disclosed and any conflicts of interest must be remedied.
* During and after working for the administration, dealings with the
federal government will be significantly restricted to prevent possible
conflicts of interest.
If you're still interested, the Brookings site offers a useful chart
of agencies and how many jobs they have to fill. The departments of Justice
and State have the highest number of jobs requiring presidential appointment
and Senate confirmation. The Defense Department has the greatest number
of political jobs overall, and Agriculture, Energy and the Department of
Veterans Affairs each have hundreds of political vacancies to fill.
The site includes a link to the
Plum Book, which lists thousands of appointee positions. And there are links
to the 13-page questionnaire that must be filled out for national security
jobs, the 43-question White House personal data form and the 18-page financial
disclosure report.