Anne O’Connell

Under Obama, more appointments go unfilled

Anne Joseph O’Connell quoted in ProPublica, February 27, 2013

“I think President Obama bears some responsibility and the Senate bears some responsibility,” said Anne Joseph O’Connell, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, whose research shows that Obama filled fewer positions in departments and executive agencies in his first year in the White House than any of the last four presidents.

Anne O’Connell Studies Impact of Administration’s Slow Rate of Appointments

Center for American Progress, April 21, 2010 by Anne Joseph O’Connell
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/waiting_for_leadership.html

This report offers politically feasible recommendations for both the White House and Senate, though these recommendations will take some real effort by the political branches. The White House and the Senate will have to make compromises—potentially more careerists in political positions and fewer holds on agency nominees, respectively, for example. But compromises are necessary to have a functioning and accountable modern bureaucracy.

Anne O’Connell Explains Intent of “Midnight Regulations”

NPR, News & Notes, Nov. 20, 2008 by Farai Chideya
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97260899

“I think every outgoing president—Republican or Democrat—wants to extend his administration’s reach, so in the final months we see an attempt at locking in controversial policy decisions. Even if some of these decisions can be undone, the effort that the new administration has to put into undoing them prevents the new administration from starting their own regulatory agendas.”