[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9948]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              FBI BACKGROUND CHECKS NEED TO BE SPEEDED UP

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, in this week's National Journal, Norman 
Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, calls 
the number and length of FBI background checks ``insane.''
  I read in Insight Magazine last week that only 55 nominees for sub-
Cabinet positions have been confirmed out of 436 positions.
  Paul Light of the Brookings Institution's Presidential Appointee 
Initiative was quoted as saying that the Bush administration will be 
``lucky'' to have these positions filled by March 1 of next year.
  In other words, the Bush administration, which is already being 
blamed for problems that started long before it came into office, will 
not really have its people in upper-level positions until well over a 
year after the President was sworn in. This is ridiculous.
  Mr. Ornstein said most of the 1,250 top positions should have a 
simple, quick computer background check.
  I read in the Knoxville News-Sentinel that even Senator Howard Baker 
who spent 18 years in the Senate and 2 years as chief of staff at the 
White House had to fill out a detailed 85-page questionnaire, one 
question of which was, ``Have you ever been involved in a controversial 
issue?''
  Mr. Speaker, this process has become ridiculously bureaucratic and 
needs to be greatly speeded up.

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