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<DIV><FONT size=2><STRONG><FONT size=5>Administration Moves to Protect Key
Appointees<BR></FONT></STRONG><FONT size=3>Political Positions Shifted To Career
Civil Service Jobs<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Juliet Eilperin and Carol D. Leonnig<BR>Washington Post
Staff Writers<BR>Tuesday, November 18, 2008; A01<BR></FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P>Just weeks before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has
shifted half a dozen key deputies -- including two former political appointees
who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior
civil service posts.</P>
<P>The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called
"burrowing" by career officials, creates security for those employees, and at
least initially will deprive the incoming <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Barack+Obama?tid=informline"
target="">Obama</A> administration of the chance to install its preferred
appointees in some key jobs.</P>
<P>Similar efforts are taking place at other agencies. Two political hires at
the Labor Department have already secured career posts there, and one at the <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Department+of+Housing+and+Urban+Development?tid=informline"
target="">Department of Housing and Urban Development</A> is trying to make the
switch.</P>
<P>Between March 1 and Nov. 3, according to the federal <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Office+of+Personnel+Management?tid=informline"
target="">Office of Personnel Management</A>, the Bush administration allowed 20
political appointees to become career civil servants. Six political appointees
to the Senior Executive Service, the government's most prestigious and highly
paid employees, have received approval to take career jobs at the same level.
Fourteen other political, or "Schedule C," appointees have also been approved to
take career jobs. One candidate was turned down by OPM and two were withdrawn by
the submitting agency.</P>
<P>The personnel moves come as Bush administration officials are scrambling to
cement in place policy and regulatory initiatives that touch on issues such as
federal drinking-water standards, air quality at national parks, mountaintop
mining and fisheries limits.</P>
<P>The practice of placing political appointees into permanent civil service
posts before an administration ends is not new. In its last 12 months, the
Clinton administration approved 47 such moves, including seven at the senior
executive level. Federal employees with civil service status receive job
protections that make it very difficult for managers to remove them.</P>
<P>Most of the personnel shifts have been done on a case-by-case basis, but
Interior Solicitor David L. Bernhardt moved to place six deputies in senior
agency positions with one stroke, including two who have repeatedly attracted
controversy. Robert D. Comer, who was Rocky Mountain regional solicitor, was
named to the civil service post of associate solicitor for mineral resources.
Matthew McKeown, who served as deputy associate solicitor for mineral resources,
will take Comer's place in what is also a career post. Both had been converted
from political appointees to civil service status.</P>
<P>In a report dated Oct. 13, 2004, Interior's inspector general singled out
Comer in criticizing a grazing agreement that the <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Bureau+of+Land+Management?tid=informline"
target="">Bureau of Land Management</A> had struck with a Wyoming rancher,
saying Comer used "pressure and intimidation" to produce the settlement and
pushed it through "with total disregard for the concerns raised by career field
personnel." McKeown -- who as Idaho's deputy attorney general had sued to
overturn a Clinton administration rule barring road-building in certain national
forests -- has been criticized by environmentalists for promoting the cause of
private property owners over the public interest on issues such as grazing and
logging.</P>
<P>One career Interior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as
not to jeopardize his position, said McKeown will "have a huge impact on a broad
swath of the West" in his new position, advising the Bureau of Land Management
and the <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Fish+and+Wildlife+Service?tid=informline"
target="">Fish and Wildlife Service</A> on "all the programs they implement."
Comer, the official added, will help shape mining policy in his new
assignment.</P>
<P>"It is an attempt by the outgoing administration to limit as much as possible
[the incoming administration's] ability to put its policy imprint on the
Department of Interior," the official said.</P>
<P>In a Nov. 13 memo obtained by <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/The+Washington+Post+Company?tid=informline"
target="">The Washington Post</A>, Bernhardt wrote that he was reorganizing his
division because the associate solicitors' original status as political
appointees undermined the division's effectiveness.</P>
<P>"This has resulted in frequent turnover in those positions, often with an
attendant loss in productivity and management continuity in these Divisions,
despite the best efforts of the newly-appointed Associate Solicitors," he
wrote.</P>
<P>But environmental advocates, and some rank-and-file Interior officials who
spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of hurting their careers, said the
reassignments represent the Bush administration's effort to leave a lasting
imprint on environmental policy.</P>
<P>"What's clear is they could have done this during the eight years they were
in office. Why are they doing it now?" said Robert Irvin, senior vice president
for conservation programs at <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Defenders+of+Wildlife?tid=informline"
target="">Defenders of Wildlife</A>, an advocacy group. "It's pretty obvious
they're trying to leave in place some of their loyal foot soldiers in their
efforts to reduce environmental protection."</P>
<P>In an interview yesterday, Bernhardt reiterated that he thinks the move is in
the government's long-term interest.</P>
<P>"I believe these management decisions will strengthen the professionalism of
the Office of the Solicitor and result in greater service to the Department of
the Interior," he said. "However, the next solicitor and the department's
management team are free to walk a different path."</P>
<P>One senior Interior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
discuss personnel matters, said an incoming interior secretary or solicitor
could create new political positions upon taking office and could shift Senior
Executive Service officials to comparable jobs within a few months. As a general
rule, career SES employees may be reassigned involuntarily within their current
commuting area within 15 days, and beyond their commuting area within 60 days,
but they retain their lucrative and permanent government posts. When a new
agency head is appointed, he or she must wait 120 days before reassigning career
SES officials.</P>
<P>Outside groups are trying to monitor these moves but are powerless to reverse
them. Alex Bastani, a representative at the Labor Department for the <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/American+Federation+of+Government+Employees?tid=informline"
target="">American Federation of Government Employees</A>, said it took months
for that agency even to acknowledge that two of its Bush appointees, Carrie
Snidar and Brad Mantel, had gotten civil service posts.</P>
<P>"They're trying to burrow into these career jobs, and we're very upset,"
Bastani said. "Everyone should have an opportunity to apply for these positions.
And certainly career people who don't have partisan bent and have 10 or 15 years
in their respective fields should have a shot at these positions."</P>
<P>Kerry Weems, acting chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
said he discourages political staff from moving into career slots. "It typically
doesn't work out for either party," he said. Even though Weems is a career
staffer, he expects to leave the administration when the Obama team takes
over.</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Alphonso+Jackson?tid=informline"
target="">Alphonso Jackson</A>, who was HUD secretary under <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+W.+Bush?tid=informline"
target="">President Bush</A>, warned his political appointees not to try to
burrow in when the administration changed. But one of his regional directors
objected to that flat-out prohibition, according to union leaders at HUD, and
has told his colleagues that he has been promised first crack at a career
position.</P>
<P><I>Staff writers Ceci Connolly and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this
report.</I></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>