Paul Hitlin
Paul Hitlin manages research for the Partnership’s Center for Presidential Transition including the organization’s presidential appointment tracker, which they produce in collaboration with The Washington Post. Paul believes information should be a public good, an idea that informed his work at the Pew Research Center where he studied media, technology and data science. Paul’s favorite public servant is former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone who was well-known for his commitment to community organizing and campaign finance reform.
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Senate Confirmations Slow to a Crawl
The process takes almost three times as long as it did during the Reagan administration As President Donald Trump plans to enter the White House for the second time, a major responsibility will be to fill the more than 1,300 political appointee positions that require Senate confirmation. As with all recent presidents, Trump will face…
The public’s confidence in the peaceful transfer of power has increased, although one-third still have doubts
As Election Day approaches, much attention has been paid to the difficult events that occurred during the post-election period four years ago. However, confidence that the upcoming presidential election will lead to a peaceful transfer of power has increased dramatically over the past six months. Regardless of the outcome of the election, the public overwhelmingly…
Presidential appointments are hard to track – and growing
Every new president faces the management challenge of filling out the leadership ranks of federal agencies with more than 4,000 presidential appointees. The most senior of those positions must go through an increasingly difficult and lengthy Senate confirmation process. While figuring out how many positions require Senate confirmation would seem to be straightforward, getting a…