Expert on Dysfunctional Washington Playing By Different Job Rules Than the Rest of Us...
FTC'S Lina Khan’s Job Status Illustrates a Broken Washington...
PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Paul Steidler is a Senior Fellow at the Lexington Institute, a public policy think thank based in Arlington, VA.
Why do 66 percent of Americans believe the federal government is incompetent, up 10 points from 2022? One reason is that the appointees to lead federal government agencies are largely immune from public pressure and accountability because they can stay in their positions long after their terms “expire.”
In the real world, contractors, consultants, and others can’t do that and still expect to be paid. Everywhere except DC government, managers need to hire new people to capture revenues and keep their business functioning.
Dysfunctional DC Example #1: Controversial progressive Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, whose term expires Wednesday, September 25, but who has not been renominated by President Biden. Khan is not going anywhere; she can stay as long as she wants until a replacement is sworn in, even as some of Vice President Kamala Harris’s biggest donors have publicly called for Khan to be fired, and V.P. candidate J.D. Vance says he likes many of her positions.
Lexington Institute’s Paul Steidler (pronounced ‘Styd-lur’) says official Washington needs to hire and fire agency leaders much more quickly.
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The current federal statute keeps in an official who, Steidler says, is putting a wet blanket on American entrepreneurialism and innovation. And it allows the Administration to politically have it both ways on Khan, keeping her in office to appease progressives and giving Kamala Harris the option to remove her is she wins the race.
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Paul Steidler is a Senior Fellow at the Lexington Institute, a public policy think thank based in Arlington, VA.