moreland. -- and in work was really worked almost every day, i worked in the vietnamese hospital. and our hospital, and then i to do red once a week cross work. >> watch american history tv every weekend on c-span3. on saturday, watch the 2018 rancho mirage writer's festival starting with karl rove on presidential elections throughout american history. stephens on u.s. foreign policies. dave barry talks about his writing life. historians and their favorite historical figures. watch the rancho mirage writer's festival on book tv on c-span2. >> to about 20 minutes, comments from white house, the chairman of the council of economic advisers. until then, part of today's "washington journal." joining this is the president and ceo of the partnership for public service. we are talking about presidential appointments and the filling of federal positions. the 101 about your organization. we are a nonpartisan nonprofit organization trying to make the government more effective. there are 1.6 million nonprofits out there. they are about all kinds of important things. we only have one tool for action to deal with our most medical problems. that is the federal government. we need all those nonprofits to focus on the decision of policy. our government is effective at delivering good results to the public. that is our focus. how do you make sure the government is well led and the system is effective. had you get people to care about what government does and that it doesn't well? our funding comes from wherever we can find it. we get donations from individual foundations, corporate support. we train leaders in government. i spend a decent chunk of my time getting the resources to fuel the activity where trying to get done. host: what is the president roland fettered -- filling federal positions. democracy oner this planet has anything close to it, the president has 4000 political appointees. 1200 require senate approval. identify 630 of the most fundamental jobs and running the government. the person is chosen by the president. the senate has to confirm them. the president has to create a system that fills these jobs with highly effective people. andresident has done that the system has to change. this administration is well behind prior administrations. host: we want to invite viewers to colin. we have two numbers to call in. he is the president and ceo for the organization for private service. 239 have no nominee this point. and 245 been nominated confirmed. take us through those numbers. that is 400 positions that have not been filled. guest: it begins at the beginning. all presidents come to be president without the experience of having done it before. it's an incredible left to take over the united states government, the most important organization on the planet. very few recognize the work you need to do in order to be prepared for an effective presidency. this administration didn't start well. governor christie led their effort. he was removed after the election. by and large, the operation he created was ignored. they got behind. they did not have the infrastructure in place to fill these jobs with quality people or understand the complexity of the process. it's crazy what you have to go through in order to be confirmed. host: one of the keys, the top jobs not filled? guest: they are across the board. look at the world we live in today, we don't have a nominee for south korea. that's a critical hotspot. a census to.g that's an incredibly big lift. there's not an agency that's not missing fundamental talent. jobs,are people in those but they are not fundamentally equipped to do those jobs effectively. they are not named by the president and confirmed by the senate. it's a substitute teacher phenomenon. the: thomas shannon is third highest ranking official in the state department. he is a standardbearer of diplomatic integrity. he is leaving. tingerved as ac secretary of state. ofhough the total number employees has not diminished significantly, they have suffered a brain drain of experience and respected diplomats. others were pushed out or resigned because they could not support the america first foreign policy. morel is low among many remaining employees. shannon councils some of them. it's sad. the state department plays a fundamentally critical role in protecting us as a country and managing the relationships we have with the rest of the world. that morale is down. we produce some of the best places to work rankings. the survey was from april to june last year. overall government numbers went up, state department numbers went down around senior leaders. it's challenging to be able to look at the data because we don't have good metrics on the highest performers. there is a lot of evidence that suggests the state department is not bringing enough talent and to replace the people that are leaving. it's an agency that's in trouble. host: the you have a sense of what the administrations broad plan is at this point to fill these positions? guest: my sense is they are trying. operation as all administrations do. the challenges we are a year plus into this administration. it's the patriots showing up at halfuper bowl and having their defensive line not on the field in the second quarter. there's no question that have been nominating people. liesof the responsibility with the senate. they need to do it fast. host: brad is from minnesota. you are up first. caller: good morning. i just want to ask him one question. what is the world going to conclude that we have in our premier agencies political moles? yout: i can start by saying are the first person to describe me as a young man in a very long time. it's very interesting. there's been a lot of attention to the question of burrowing. that would be political appointees. i think there are way too many who take on career positions. there is a substantial effort now making sure that is tracked very carefully. they have to review this. it's a legislative watchdog, they do a review of this. the numbers are tiny compared to the full workforce. you were talking about tens of people. bulkd large, the vast of the workforce are there because they want to help the american public. data, it's at the below the private sector in terms of the respect for their leader. where they exceed the private sector is their commitment to mission. they are willing to go the extra mile because they care about what they're doing. i'm not pretending you won't find examples, but they are tiny compared to the vast bulk of the workforce. this is only a part of the workforce is under the age of 30. they need to grow the talent that is already there. host: susan is in arizona. questions with the workforce, are you specifying about the fbi or the white house or the congress? guest: we will take any question. host: are you interested in a particular part of the government? caller: the fbi. i have family members in the fbi. they want the memo to come out. it's embarrassing the ones that are doing good for the ones being bad. it's the same with the sheriff's department. caller thing, i wanted to the other day. host: let me mention that we are talking more specifically about openings in the workforce with federal employees and the fact that a lot of administrative positions of not been filled yet. it's so hard to get them to be filled. it took almost four months for the background. a lot of people don't pass it. it's a real challenge for the federal workforce. employees,olitical there are 2 million career civil servants. that's not including the postal service. number as same existed in the early 1960's. people say the federal workforce is growing. it has stayed steady as responsibilities have increased. i think the point is correct. when you say three to four months to get through the process, it can take beyond the year. a lot of people can't wait that long. one area that the government has to change is the hiring process. if you talk to anyone on the inside that cares about the operation of government, they will point to that. take explain why it make three or four months. guest: to be clear about this, i'm talking about career hiring. there are some similarities. part of it begins with the process. it's incredibly difficult. there's a lot of information that's required. the federal government adopts .rocesses that are unique i think that's something more that needs to happen. security clearances, there's a massive backlog. that could be a huge hindrance in getting talent. host: who would play the biggest role in making changes? is a combination? load is onbiggest the executive branch. the rules need to be modernized. many of the rules that govern how the executive branch brings , many are 70 plus years old. most of it is in the part of the leadership. leaders,political crisis management, policy development, don't run their organizations effectively. host: we are looking for federal employees who want to colin. we want to hear from you. caller: thank you very much for c-span and taking my call. appreciate the effort of what you are doing. i have some concerns with a couple of statements. i've been in federal government since 1999. i am a career civil servant. regarding persons and acting capacity, you referred them to substitute teachers. this is not accurate. i have worked with plenty of people who were in senior capacity who functioned in that role for years and were successful. whether or not someone is able to keep the mission associated with that moving forward, it has more to do with the individual than with any limitations. in fullame as being capacity, no. plenty of them are functional in the roles. the second one has to do with the difficulties in filling those positions. is ii have to say there truly believe this administration has been handicapped by the response from the agencies. i spent my career in the intelligence committee. i left because it's over politicized. thecame so fed up with actions of appointees from the obama administration that i would not work in that environment anymore. believe absolutely and i know many people who work in other agencies to leave there is a deep state that is undermining the administration. something about numbers of people. you said it was not a lot of people. the majority of federal employees follow the rules. they will not raise an issue about somebody who is doing something wrong unless evidence is obvious. they know they will be the ones taken to task for raising a complaint. news more for complaining. -- you lose more by complaining. they are able to get away with it. host: you made several points. out three andull i will try to respond to them in a helpful way. first, the with the metaphor of the substitute teacher. i think we have more agreement and disagreement. by a large, the people in these acting roles are better oflified than the majority political appointees who come from the outside. is and i would expect you would agree with this, every one of those individuals would say they would be better off if they were the hearse and confirmed i the senate. -- by the senate. they don't know if they are going to be there for three months or six months or nine months. they are not going to make decisions with the expectation that they will see them through. they will not be perceived by those is having long-term authority. invest inn't going to the same way as they do with someone they expect to be around. there's no question that person teacheras substitute would be better off in a permanent place. it talked about difficulty of filling the jobs and whether the deep state is at play. i personally think the nation of bad one.state is a there are people who don't do their jobs well and are career people. the vast majority are there to follow the lead. they understand their jobs and do what the president's directing them to do. they may have a different view, but they are sworn to follow the rule of law. the president has a responsibility to create effective leadership teams. with the are unhappy bureaucracy and the choices being made, they are not making it harder for him to find or pick people. that's his responsibility and something he owns directly. the third point is very important. -- ialked about whether mentioned the survey. on the surveyr 17 asks are you able to raise a violation of ethics? i think this is a critical question for any organization and a public sector one. when you look at the challenges the obama administration had at on,v.a. or the irs earlier this is fundamental to the problem. somewhere someone is going to do something stupid. what does the rest of the culture do? do they raise the problem? if you don't have a healthy culture, people don't raise that information to leadership. this is not unique to obama or trump, federal workers will believe they are in an environment where they are safe. political leader should hold themselves that accountable for creating that. it's onlyies will say about one third of the workforce that can raise a violation of law or ethics. that number is more than 15 points lower than the private sector. that's a problem. host: we have time for a few more calls. let's take a look at this. you can see it's a large agency. people read this chart? guest: you are a kind man to raise this. a lot of people talk about running the government to business. you can't. government is fundamentally different. public good rather than financial return. it's more challenging. one commonality whether you are in the private sector or government is the engagement of your employees. it's the most important element of success. host: let's get to more calls. gina is in florida. caller: the color from virginia said that there is a deep state that is trying to undermine president trump. that was a real propaganda call. expression, many mistakes are made on purpose. when you get what you've got now, this authoritarian government with so many generals are running around the white house. they are going to diminish the department they find unnecessary. they will focus on what they want. this administration wants provocation in the middle east, claiming israel -- jerusalem is the capital of israel. trying to destroy the iranian nuclear deal. it's very obvious that they are trying to do. the department of defense, general mattis, he said he wants more diplomats. it's just the opposite. i think the idea of the isp say -- state counterproductive and not accurate. americans should understand they have a phenomenal government but it won't stay that way if we don't invest in it. one of the great challenges is a polymerization of the -- that's theion -- reason why you serve. is a mission oriented workforce trying to do their best. they are being failed by the system they are operating in. if we want to stay at the top of the world, we need to make sure we are taking care of our government in an effective way. the other quibble i would have is the notion that the generals are part of the problem. military,k at our they have in many ways the most effective talent operation, more than the civilian side. they look at their people as an asset. looke civilian side, most at the talent as a cost. we need to look at it as an asset. those people should understand the civilian workforce is more than a majority focused on national security. host: at the state of the union speech tuesday, he talked about the the a accountability. passed aear, congress landmark the a accountability act. accountability act. my administration has already employeesre than 1500 who failed to give our veterans the care they deserve. we're hiring talented people who love our veterans as much as we do. i will not stop until our veterans are properly taken care of, which is been my promise to them from the very beginning of this great journey. all americans deserve accountability and respect. to ourwhat we are giving wonderful heroes. tonight, i call on congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good work and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the american people. host: journal"ington live every day on c-span. we are taking a live to hear from the chair of economic advisers counsel kevin hassett. live coverage here on c-span. mr. hassett: the james

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