The Executive Branch

1. The Executive Branch Dr. East, 3/19/2014

2. The Executive Branch & Bureaucracy • The President & VP • The Executive Office of the President (EOP) • Ex. Office of Management & Budget (OMB) • National Security Council (NSC) • White House Office (WHO) • Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) • The 15 Presidential Cabinets (executive depts.) • ex. Depts. of State, Homeland Security, Justice, Health • Federal Agencies not at Cabinet Level • (ex. NASA, EPA, Peace Corps, CIA, etc.) • Independent Regulatory Commissions • ex. Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission

3. Constitutional Qualifications • Article II of the Constitution establishes the Executive Branch to carry out the laws of Congress • Must be at least 35 years old • Must have lived in the United States for 14 years • Must be a natural born citizen • Elected by electoral college

4. Presidential Benefits • $400,000 tax-free salary • $50,000/year expense account • $100,000/year travel expenses • Total is approx. $550,000 • The White House (132 rooms, 18 acres) • Secret Service protection • Camp David country estate (resort in Maryland) • Air Force One personal airplane; helicopter Marine One • Staff of 400-500 in the White House Office • Including Press Secretary for White House Office, Jay Carney

5. Air Force One Camp David

6. Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Presidents • 100% male • Nearly all white • 1 non-white president • 97% Protestant • (1 Catholic = John F. Kennedy) • 82% of British ancestry • 77% college educated • 69% politicians • 62% lawyers • >50% from the top 3% wealth and social class • 0.5% born into poverty • 69% elected from large states What do you think it takes to become President?

7. Formal Constitutional Powers of the President • Commander-in-Chief • Commander in Chief of the all Military and National Guard • Pres. can send troops to conflicts without notifying Congress for up to 48 hrs. (According to War Powers Act of 1973) • If congress doesn’t agree to combat, Pres. must withdraw troops • According to Constitution, Congress has power to declare war

8. Formal Constitutional Powers of the president • Chief Executive • “Faithfully execute” laws • Oath of Office – “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” • Require the opinion of heads of executive departments • Grant pardons for federal offenses except for cases of impeachment • Can grant “amnesty” under the pardoning powers – be done with illegal immigrants • Nominate judges of the Supreme Court and all other officers of the U.S. with consent of the Senate • Fill vacancies that may happen during recess of the Senate

9. Obama’s First Try at the Oath 1/20/09 Obama’s “Official” Oath, Chief Justice John Roberts, 1/22/09

10. Sotomayor appointment to Supreme Court

11. Formal Constitutional Powers of the President • Chief Diplomat • Appoint ambassadors, ministers and consuls • Legally and formally “recognizes” leaders of other sovereign nations • Can make some nation’s diplomats “persona non grata” in the US • Make formal treaties with other nations subject to Senate confirmation • Receive ambassadors • Maintains “executive agreements” with other nations

12. Is Diplomacy sometimes purely for show? How might diplomacy “follow the money”?

13. Formal constitutional Powers of the President • Chief Legislator • Gives State of the Union address to Congress • Recommend “measures” and new legislation to Congress • Upon “extraordinary occasions” convene both houses of Congress in special session • Presidential Veto • Veto Message within 10 days of passing the House of origin • Pocket Veto - President does not sign within 10 days and the congress has adjourned • Congress can override with 2/3 majority from both Houses • Veto Politics • Congressional override is difficult (only 7% of all vetoes ever over-ridden) • Threat of veto can cause Congress to make changes in legislation • Does NOT have power of “line-item” veto, state governors of do have this power

14. Informal Roles and Powers of the President • Those powers not explicitly written in the Constitution • Similar to “necessary and proper” powers of Congress • In the modern era (since 1933), the President’s informal powers may be significantly more powerful than his formal powers • Informal Roles as Chief of State / Chief Citizen / Chief Moral Leader • Ceremonial head of the government, the visible leader our nation for both diplomatic and internal purposes • “The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. That is the least of it. It is preeminently a place of moral leadership”. - FDR

15. Do we hold our Presidents to a moral standard? Are our politicians shining examples of US citizens?

16. Informal Powers (cont.) • Chief Administrator (quasi-formal in that the Constitution implies an ordinance power) • Head of a huge hierarchical bureaucratic machine, the EOP, cabinet departments, and agencies • Including members of the armed services, exec. branch employs more than 4 million Americans, civilian employees are in what’s called the “civil service” • Constitution implies “executive ordinance power” since he is the chief executive; meaning that the Pres. can execute/administer gov. via subordinates in a hierarchical system • … so he can appoint people and remove people from appointed office • Bureaucracy is so huge, President’s appointments and their subordinates have a huge impact • Role as “Chief Legislator” gets a lot of play in the media with the White House’s policy positions having a huge sway over congress and voters • President is also the “Chief” of one of the two major political party’s thus he’s a huge voice in national politics

17. We ridicule Bureaucracy but where would we be without it?

18. Executive Orders (Implied by Informal Power) • Arise from executive and implied ordinance powers of the Constitution and various acts of congress • Orders issued by the President that carry the force of law • Clinton’s “Don’t ask don’t tell” gays in the military policy • FDR’s internment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor • GWB trying suspected terrorists in military tribunals • Obama 2nd executive order revoked one Bush made and opened up presidential records for more transparency • Bush’s order gave former presidents broad authority to claim executive privilege and to designate others, including family members who survive them, to exercise executive privilege on their behalf. Obama’s order revokes the survivor provision and gives ex-presidents less leeway to withhold records. • Obama also signed an executive order allowing embryonic stem cell research

19. Executive Agreements • International agreements, usually related to trade, made by a president that has the force of a treaty; does NOT need Senate approval • Temporary agreement NOT a formal treaty; formal treaty would mean that it was binding on other presidents • Ex. When US gave destroyers to Britain prior to officially entering WWII; in return the US got a 99 year lease to naval and air bases stretching between Newfoundland and the Caribbean • Ex. GWB announced cuts in the nuclear arsenal, but not in a treaty; usually trade agreements between US and other nations

20. Executive Privilege (implied power) • Claim by a president that he has the right to decide that the national interest will be better served if certain information is withheld from the public, including the Courts and Congress • Ex. When Nixon tried to keep Watergate tape recordings out of federal court • Supreme Court decided against this claim • Ex. GWB trying to prevent Tom Ridge’s, Office of Homeland Security, testimony before a congressional inquiry • Upheld in this case

21. Constitutional Amendments Regarding the Presidency • 12th – Choosing president & vice-president on separate ballots • 20th – Presidential succession • VP assumes presidency if Pres.- Elect dies before oath of office • 22nd – Presidential term limits • (2 terms; 10 years total; a VP who serves less than 2 years of someone else’s four year term may stay for 2 terms of his/her own) • 25th – Presidential disability and succession • and Pres. can appoint a new VP if there is a vacancy in that office • After VP, then Speaker of the House, Pres. Pro temp of the senate, and Secretary of State and then on down the cabinet lines in order of dept. creation

22. Congressional Checks on the President(Article I) • Make laws (ex: War Powers Resolution that prevented Nixon from escalating war) • Override presidential vetoes by 2/3’s majority • Power to declare war in Congress not Presidency • Power of the purse (taxes and funding) • This is a huge problem for the President, especially when he/she is of a different political party than most of congress • Regulation of the land and naval forces • Impeachment Power (House) • Impeachment Trial (Senate)

24. Congressional Limits on Presidential Power (Article II) • President elected indirectly by the people through the Electoral College • Selection of president (by House) in case of no majority of electoral vote • President must deliver State of the Union address • Senate approves treaties and ambassadors • Senate approves department appointments • “Advice and consent” of federal judge appointments (Senate)

25. Judicial Checks on Presidential Power • To declare executive acts unconstitutional • power came with the landmark case of Marbury vs. Madison in 1803 • Chief Justice presides over a Pres. Impeachment trial

26. Informal Limits to Presidential Power • Media • They “watchdog” the government for wrongdoing • Ex. Rush Limbaugh and Clinton • Public opinion • Unpopular executive acts and actions can be soundly criticized by people with media outlets • Ex. Dixie Chicks and George Bush • NGO’s • NOW, or Right to Life Groups, etc. • The other political party • Ex. they get air-time after every Presidential Address • Congressional Hearings • Can make very public and sometimes embarrassing investigations of President • Ollie North and Iran-Contra Affair hearings

27. Executive Branch and Foreign Diplomacy • American foreign policy consists of the official positions and actions that the national government takes in its relationships with other countries. • The President has primary responsibility for making foreign policy; the President can negotiate, persuade, apply economic pressure, and threaten military intervention. • Chief instrument of diplomacy is the State Department

28. Foreign policy is administered by President in his roles as Chief Diplomat and Chief of State • Key Agencies involved in Foreign Policy Include: • The State Department (Secretary Hillary Clinton) • The National Security Council • Department of Defense (Secretary Robert M. Gates) • Central Intelligence Agency

29. State Department and Foreign Service • Headed by Hillary Clinton • Department originally called the Dept. of Foreign Affairs – department has over 25,000 employees around the world • Organized both by region of the world and topic • ex.Bureau of African Affairs • ex. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (“Drugs N Thugs”) • Employs Ambassadors and Special Diplomats • Issues Passports • travel Visas are issued by other countries to American visitors • Visas to American are issued by American Consulates housed in Embassies

31. National Security Council • Headed by President, includes: • VP, Secretary of State, Defense, Treasury, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, CIA, Director of National Intelligence Amongst Others • Advises the president on all matters of national security NSC in the Situation Room below White House Adm. Michael Mullen, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff

32. Department of Defense • Headed by Secretary Robert Gates • Offices in Pentagon • Major Sub-units include • Army • Navy (Marines part of Navy) • Air Force

33. Department of Defense

34. Director Leon Panetta Works under the direction of the National Security Council Tasked with information-gathering from open sources local news in foreign places, etc. and and closed or secretive source “espionage” Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

36. US Foreign Policy goals • Making Foreign Policy decisions meansbalancing often contradictory goals • Some general goals include: • Preserving a peaceful world and Advancing international cooperation • Ex. Membership in UN, NATO, and WTO • Promote democratic values • Ex. Promote democratic elections in developing countries; Truman Doctrine aimed at prevent Soviet Communism spread • Protect nations from aggression • Ex. Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine of Anti-European Intervention in Latin America • Also served US interests economically

37. Encourage market-oriented economies and free trade • Ex: NAFTA, membership in WTO • Safeguarding the global environment • Ex. Legislation that prevents overfishing in international waters • How well do you think we are doing in terms of Foreign Policy?

38. Wrap Up and Review