Unit 5: The Executive Branch

The Executive Branch from jtoma84

I. Assessment Review:

• Presidential Requirements
• Powers of the President: Delegated, Implied, etc
• Executive Privilege
• 25th Amendment
• Impeachment
• US v. Nixon
• War Powers Act 1973
• Cabinet
• Spoils-System
• Civil Service System
• Pendleton Act
• Executive Agreement
• Presidential Veto
• line-item veto
• Lincoln's Presidency
• Jacksonian Democracy
• Office of Management and Budget
• Executive Order
• Bill Clinton
• FDR
• VA Plan
• Electoral College
• Interstate Commerce Commission
• Bureaucracies
• Presidential Approval Ratings (Bush and Obama)
• Regulatory Agencies
• Title IX
• 6 Qualities of an Effective Leader

Vocabulary Quiz on Chapters 8 and 9

II. Notes:

Presidency Qualifications: natural-born citizen, live in US 14 years, 35 years old 

Formal, explicit, constitutional powers/duties:

• Sign or veto laws (legislative)
• Issue pardons, reprieves, commutations, amnesty (judicial) Commander-in-chief – power to commit troops
• Appoint ambassadors, secretaries of departments, agency heads, judges negotiate/make treaties
• recognize nations
• receive ambassadors, etc
• see that the laws are faithfully executed

Delegated powers/duties (by statute):

• prepare & submit the budget
• Informal, evolved powers/duties:
• Executive order
• Executive agreement
• Recess appointments
• Agenda setting
• Access to media/bully pulpit/power of persuasion
• Has access to more information, knowledge, expertise than Congress 
• Easier for 1 person to act than 535 – crisis management
• Morale builder 
• Propose policy 
• Head of party

Checks Congress has on president:

• override veto
• Senate must approve treaties by 2/3 vote
• Senate must confirm appointments by simple majority
• Senate can filibuster and slow down approval of appointment or passage of legislation 
• War Powers Act
• Impeachment: simple majority for House to impeach; 2/3 vote of Senate to convict 
• vote funding for presidential programs/policies – power of the purse

Checks Supreme Court has on president:

• can rule his actions unconstitutional

Other Attempts to increase presidential power:

• line-item veto (ruled unconstitutional Clinton v City of New York)
• Impoundment of funds (Budget Reform & Impoundment Act of 1974 said President must spend all appropriated funds, courts have supported this)
• Executive Privilege – claim of confidentiality of communications between president & advisors based on (1) separation of powers (2) national security (rulings on Nixon & Clinton have limited this)

White House Staff: (ie, Chief of Staff; Press Secretary; Presidential Counsel)

• Pros/cons of pyramid v circular model
• Don’t have to be approved by Senate – often political allies/friends/campaign workers

Executive Office of the President:

• Must be confirmed by Senate
• National Security Council (National Security Advisor – one of key advisors) 
• Office of Management & Budget

Amendments:

• 12th - each elector casts 1 vote for Pres & 1 for VP
• 20th – Lame Duck amendment – changes inauguration date from March to January
• 22nd - 2 term limit (no more than 10 years)
• 25th – VP takes over if Pres disabled & VP & majority Cabinet agrees; Pres appts VP when VP vacant
• Succession: VP, Speaker, Pres Pro Tem, State, Treasury, Defense, Attorney General, then in order of creation

Bureaucracy
Characteristics of American Bureaucracy: hierarchical, merit, impersonal, extensive rules (SOP), task specialization, divided supervision, regulation not private ownership, open to public

Criticisms of Bureaucracy: red tape, duplication, waste, no accountability, constantly growing, turf wars, “muddling through”, incrementalism

Reasons for Growth: New Deal, more government regulation, expectation that government is responsible for social & economic welfare of Americans (Great Society)

What Bureaucracy Does:

• implements laws passed by Congress & federal programs
• regulates business (since Interstate Commerce Act)

Cabinet:

• Must be confirmed by Senate
• 15 Cabinet secretaries (including newest – Homeland Security)
• Inner cabinet has most influence – State, Atty General, Defense, Treasury
• Other cabinet secretaries see their workers more than they see president – danger of co-option

Independent Regulatory Agencies: regulate economy, not directly controlled by president, supervised by non-partisan commission appointed by President & confirmed by Senate who can’t be removed by President; EX – Interstate Commerce Commission, Federal Reserve Board, Securities & Exchange Commission

Government Corporations: businesses owned by Federal Government, have control over own funds; EX – Post Office, Amtrak, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Tennessee Valley Authority

Independent Executive Agencies: only called independent because not part of a Cabinet department, still controlled by President, administrative; EX – NASA, General Services Administration, National Science Foundation

Role of Interest Groups: lobby congressional subcommittees & bureaucratic agencies after law is passed

• Iron Triangles – alliance of bureaucrats, interest groups, & congressional subcommittee members; have common goals ( more power & money for their program/issue) and can help each other achieve them against Congress/Pres 
• Issue Networks – interest groups, congressional staffs, university staffs,& mass media who debate an issue; because there are now so many interest groups that there are many on each side of an issue so iron triangles are not as accurate; Pres appoints someone as agency head who shares his philosophy from that issue network

Accountability: 
PRESIDENT:
o Appointments – appoint a new agency head (but sometimes he is “co-opted” or “goes native”) 
o Executive Orders – could issue written orders or send staffer informally to agency
o Budget – Office of Management & Budget can cut or add to agency’s budget
o Reorganization – recombine different agencies together or under different leadership
CONGRESS:
o Authorization & appropriations of funds – can cut appropriations if agency doesn’t “behave”
o Rewriting legislation – esp if agency is exercising too much “administrative discretion”
o Duplication – assigning same or overlapping jobs to different agencies; keeps 1 from becoming too
powerful
o Oversight (Hearings) – tends to be only after disasters (Challenger, 9/11) or when media puts it “on the
agenda” (GSA scandal, steroids in sports)

Attempts to Reform Bureaucracy:

• Pendleton Act – required Civil Service exam for employees to be hired in bureaucratic agencies; reaction to assassination of Garfield by angry office seeker; attempt to deal with Spoils system & patronage excesses
• Hatch Act – forbids federal government employees from running for political office, raising funds or campaigning for a candidate; has now been changed to allow bureaucrats to actively participate in politics as long as they don’t run for office themselves
• Deregulation – Conservatives pushed deregualtion to reduce the size of the national government in the 1970s & 1980s, especially in the airline, banking, & telecommunications industries
• Reinventing Government (Clinton/Gore) – Total Quality Management; used “customer” satisfaction surveys to evaluate bureaucratic agencies; but who is the customer?
• Intelligence Reform & Terrorism Prevention Act (Bush) – 2004 – created Director of National Intelligence (recommended by 9/11 Committee) and put 15 intelilgence agencies (including FBI & CIA) udner his control. Created a National Counterterrorism Center that anything relating to terrorism has to go through.
• Outsourcing – hiring a private company or a non-profit to carry out an administrative directive to avoid hiring

III. Presidential Project:

Directions: Using PowerPoint or Prezzi:

Evaluate the 6 Qualities of an effective leader: (pgs. 262-264) and rate your chosen President

1.    Understanding the Public

2.    Ability to Communicate

3.    Sense of Timing

4.    Openness to New Ideas

5.    Ability to Compromise

6.    Political Courage

Include the following historical examples:

1.    Term

2.    Popular and Electoral Vote

3.    Political Party

4.    Vice President

5.    Congress (friendly or unfriendly)

6.    Any Supreme Court appointees

7.    Any changes to the Constitution

8.    Foreign Policy

9.    Major Legislation Passed

10. Major Achievement

11. World events dealt with

12. Increase in Executive Power

PowerPoint or Prezzi should include graphics; short videos clips (if available) and use bullet points instead of long paragraphs/sentences. Extra points will be given to those groups that use a political cartoon and explain the relevance.

Presidential Options: (Circle the option you have been given)

President	Period 1	Period 2	Period 3
FDR	Jazzlyn, Luisteven	Helena, Imani	Joyce, Reginald
JFK	Kyla, Amy		Jarrod, Emeline
Nixon	Brian Lara, Natalie		Jolaade, Elizabeth
Reagan	Miles, Joanne	Danielle, Rebecca	Dante, Kyfie
Clinton	Daniel, Stephon
Thomas Jefferson	Ashley D., Natalia	Chima, Angeles	Dana, Anijah
Andrew Jackson	Deja, Terrence
Abraham Lincoln	Ashley J., Angel	Abdul, Joseph	Samyia, Kamau
Woodrow Wilson	Serrano, Veronica, Monica		Devi, Moyanda
George W. Bush		Bradley, Tajeer	Fritz,  Breasia
Lyndon B. Johnson		Randy, Anaya	Guy, Samadia
Dwight Eisenhower		Emmanuel, Ashley S.	Danielle, Ismairy
Harry S. Truman		Alex, Twyla

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Due Tuesday 10/27/2015