Past Reform Efforts and Their Recommendations

The appointments process has been a target of reform for some time. Since 1989, nine other commissions and working groups have taken up the cause of reform – with only limited success. Many recommendations proposed by these groups have been shared, with the most popular being: the use of standardized nomination forms; streamlining the financial disclosure process; making background investigations faster; decreasing the number of overall PAS positions; and preparing for post-transition staffing needs earlier. This information is visible in Exhibit 1 below:

Exhibit 1. Please click image to view or download.

Further textual summaries of these past commissions may be found here:

Past Commission Summaries