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Learn about the qualifications, powers, and transfer of power in the presidency, including the role of the Electoral College and the evolution of the presidency. Understand the concerns of the founders and the growth of the White House staff.
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President Qualifications • A natural born citizen • Can be born abroad of parents who are American citizens • 35 years old • A resident of the United States for at least 14 years • Not necessarily the 14 years just preceding the election
The President’s term in office • When the Constitution was written the president was to be elected for a 4 year term, but what was to keep him from arrange to stay in office perpetuity by bribery, intrigue, and force. • Washington but this worry to rest when he choice not to run for a third term which all presidents copied until FDR. • 1951 the 22nd Amendment was ratified formally limiting the president two terms But a man can serve almost ten years as president How?
Powers of The President • Powers he has alone • Serve as commander in chief of the armed forces • Commission officers of the armed forces • Grant reprieves and pardons for federal offense • Not impeachment • Convene Congress in special sessions • Receive ambassadors • Take care that the laws be faithfully executed • Wield the executive power • Appoint officials to lesser offices • Powers shared with Senate • Make treaties • Appoint ambassadors , judges and high officials • Powers shared with Congress • Approve legislation
Electoral College • Each state gets electoral votes equal to the number of it Senators and representatives • Each states gets at least 3 so does D.C. • There are a total of 538 electoral votes a candidate must win 270 votes to win • In all but two states it is a winner take all that is who ever wins the popular vote gets all the electoral votes (Maine, Nebraska) • The winning slates of electors assemble in their state capitals about six weeks after the election to cast their ballots. Occasionally an elector will not vote the way the people of the state did (happened 9 times since 1796) • The state electoral ballots are opened and counted in a joint session of Congress during the first week of January. The candidate who gets 270 votes is declared elected.
Electoral College Cont. • What if not candidate wins the needed 270 votes? • The election falls into the House of Representatives • Each state cast one vote • by House rules each state’s vote is allotted to the candidate preferred by a majority of the state’s House delegation. • If there is a tie in a state’s delegation that state’s vote does not count. • The House has had to decide two presidential elections • 1800 Jefferson v Burr led to the 12th amendment • 1824 John Q Adams v Andrew Jackson • Today the winner take all system in 48 of the states makes it possible for one to be elected who has not won the popular vote.
TRANSFER OF POWER • Another issue concerning the president was establishing the legitimacy of the presidency itself: that is, to ensure, if possible public acceptance of the office, its incumbent, and its powers and to establish an orderly transfer of power from one president to the next. • Why was the last one a major concern and why do we take this for granted today?
The Evolution of the Presidency • In 1778 no issue caused more debate for the framers as the problem of defining the chief executive. • When the Constitutional Convention met, the existing state constitutions gave most if not all power to the legislatures. • Some of the framers proposed a plural national executive that is several people would hold executive power. • Others wanted the executive power checked by a council that would have to approve many of the chief executive’s actions.
Concerns of the Founders • The delegates and critics of the Constitution worried and feared the power of the presidency. • 1. Suspected that the president by being able to command the militia would use it to overpower the state governments • 2. Worried that if the president were allowed to share treaty making power with the Senate he would be directed by favorites and become a tool of the Senate. • 3. Concern over the possibility of presidential reelection.
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT • The White House staff has grown enormously from since the early 20th century. • Today the president has hundreds of people assisting him. • If one looks at his opportunities for appointments to the cabinet, courts, and various agencies. The resources at his disposal would appear to be powerful. • But this is misleading he has such a large amount of assistance he now confronts an army of a bureaucracy that he has a hard time controlling. • The ability of the presidential assistant, to wield power, to affect the president is their proximity physical and political to the president. • White House Office • Executive Office • Cabinet
White House Office • The president’s closest assistants they have offices in the white House. • These people oversee the political and policy interests of the president. • As part of his personal staff these aides do not have to be confirmed by the Senate and they can be hired and fired at will. • There are three ways in which a president can organize his personal staff • 1. pyramid structure • 2. circular structure • 3. adhoc structure
Executive Office of the President • Agencies that report directly to the president and perform staff services for him but are not located in the White House. • Their members may or may not enjoy close contact with the president. • Some of these agencies are large bureaucracies with the top positions being filled by presidential appointment, but unlike the White House staff they have to be confirmed by the Senate • Office of Management OMB • Central Intelligence Agency CIA • Council of Economic Advisers CEA • Office of Personnel Management OPM The most important of these agencies to the president today is the OMB. Helps with the budget that the president sends to Congress every year but it also studies the organization and operation of the executive branch. Develops plans for reorganizing departments and agencies, and develops ways of getting better information about how the government programs, and it reviews proposals of the cabinet departments before they become part of the presidents legislative program.
Cabinet • By custom these officers are the heads of the 14 major executive departments.
Independent Agencies, Commissions, and judgeships • The president also appoints people to agencies and commissions that are not considered part of the cabinet and that by law have a quasi-independent status. • The difference between an executive and an independent agency is a head of a executive agency can be removed by the president and an independent agency head serves for a fix time and can only be removed for just cause • President can appoint federal judges subject to Senate approval. They only can only be removed by impeachment and conviction. • Acting appointments hold office until the Senate acts on their nomination (high government officials)
Veto Power • The Constitution gives the president the power to veto legislation. • This gives the president the power to say no and a way of blocking action but also a way of forcing Congress to bargain with him over policies. • Veto message • Statement that the president sends to Congress along with the bill in it he tells why he did not signing it • He has to act on the bill within tens days not counting Sundays of it becomes a law without his signature. • Pocket Veto • The president does not sign the bill within the ten days and Congress has adjourned within that time. This can only happen when Congress adjourns to end a session • A bill vetoed in this way cannot be brought back to life by Congress (adjourned) nor does it carry over to the next session. • Line-item Veto • President can approve some parts of a bill and disapprove others • In 1996 Congress passed a bill that Clinton signed (enhanced rescission) • Allowed the president to veto parts of a spending bill which could be overturned by a 2/3 vote of Congress • Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional
Impoundment of Funds • From time to time the president has refused to spend money appropriated by Congress. • This precedent is not Constitutional or is it. • The Constitution is silent on whether the president must spend the money that Congress appropriates but it does say that the president can only spend the money Congress appropriates • In 1972 Nixon wished to reduce federal spending so he proposed that Congress give him the power to reduce federal spending so it did not go over 250 billion. Congress (democratic control) refused. In response Nixon pocket-vetoed 12 spending bills and than impounded the funds appropriated under other laws that he had vetoed. • Congress as a result passed the Budget reform Act of 1974 requires the president to spend all appropriated funds unless he first tells Congress what funds he does not want too spend. Congress, within 45 days, must agree to delete the items. • If he wants to delay spending he needs to inform Congress but they can refuse and pass a resolution requiring the immediate release of the money • Federal Courts have upheld the rule that the president must spent without delay money appropriated by Congress.
Executive Privilege • The Constitution does not say whether the president is obliged to divulge private communications between himself and his advisers. • Presidents have acted as if they do have that privilege of confidentiality and they base it on two grounds • 1. doctrine of the separation of powers means that one branch of government does not have the right to inquire into the internal workings of another that is headed by constitutionally named officers • 2. principles of statecraft and of prudent administration require that the president have the right to obtain confidential and candid advice from advisers, this advice could not be gained if it would quickly be exposed to public backlash.
Executive Privilege Cont. • There was no real challenge to this claim of presidential confidentiality. The Supreme Court did not require the disclosure of confidential communications to or from the president until 1973 • 1962 the Senate committee accepted a claim by Kennedy that his secretary of defense (Robert McNamara) was not obliged to divulge who in the defense department had censored speeches by generals • In 1973 the Supreme Court for the first time met the issue head on in the water gate scandal United States V. Nixon • The court ruled in an 8 to 0 vote while there may be some sound basis for a claim of executive privilege, especially where sensitive matters are involved there is no absolute presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under any circumstances. To allow other wise would block the constitutionally defined function of the federal courts. • In 1997 and 98 Clinton was sued while in office by a private person (Paula Jones) His lawyers tried to used executive privilege for secret service officers and government paid lawyers who worked for him, but the federal courts ruled that the president can be sued and his officials could not claim privilege.
Presidential Transition 22nd Amendment ratified in 1951 limits the president to 2 terms. • Vice President • 8 times the vice president has become president because of death of the president. The question was the vice president only the acting president until was elected or was he to be president in every sense of the word. Which the Constitution did not say • John Tyler the first VP to become president pick the second one. And Congress confirmed in that opinion by Congress. Ever since the VP has automatically become president in title and power. • Vice Presidents have only been elected as President on 5 occasions • What is the vice presidents job?
Problems of Succession • If the president should die in office, resign, or be removed by impeachment the vice president assumes that office. • 1. What if the president falls seriously ill but does not die? • 2. If the vice president becomes president who than becomes the new vice president? • The first problem has happened 4 times (Garfield, Wilson, Eisenhower, and Reagan) • The second problem has happened on 8 occasions. • When this happens there is no elected person who is available to succeed the new president should he die in office. This problem for a long time was solved by law • The succession law of 1886 • Designated the secretary of state as next in line should the vice president die followed by the other cabinet officers (seniority) • The problem with this was the new president could pick his own successor by picking the new secretary of state. • In 1947 the law was changed to make the speaker of the House and then the president pro tempore next in line. • Problem with this was that both these officers could be from the opposite party and not have executive skill.
Succession Cont. • Both of our problems were solved with the 25th Amendment in 1967 • It deals with the disability problem; • 1 allowing the vice president to serve as the acting president when the president declares that he is unable to do his duties of the office or when the vice president and a majority of the cabinet declare that he is incapacitated. • 2 if the president disagrees with the opinion of the VP and the cabinet then Congress decides the issue with a 2/3 majority vote to confirm that the president is unable to serve.
Succession Cont. • 25th amendment deals with the succession problem by; • 1 requiring a vice president who assumes the presidency (death or resignation)to nominate a new vice president. • 2. this person has to be confirmed by a majority vote of both houses of congress • 3 If there is no vice president than the next in line is the speaker of the House than the president of the Senate and than the cabinet officers starting with the secretary of State. • The disability problem has not arisen since the adoption of the amendment (except Reagan ) • The succession problem has happened since the amendment (1973 Spiro Agnew) (1974 Nixon)
Impeachment • The president, Vice President, and other civil officers of the United States that includes federal judges can be impeached. (judges impeached the most) • Cabinet secretaries, bureau chiefs, and others are not subject to impeachment because the president can remove them at any time. • It is like an indictment in a criminal trial: a set of charges against somebody, voted by (president) the House of Representatives. To be removed from office, the impeached officer must be convicted by a 2/3 vote of the Senate. They sit as a court and make their decision under whatever rules it wishes to adopt. (chief justice acts a judge for president)
Impeachment • 16 people have been impeached by the House 7 have been convicted by the Senate • Only two presidents have been impeached Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton. • Some founders may have thought that impeachment would be used often against presidents but in reality it is so complex and serious an undertaking that we should only expect it to happen in the gravest forms of misconduct. • What is a high crime or misdemeanor? • It something illegal or unconstitutional
Lame Duck • A politician whose power has diminished because he or she is about to leave office as a result of losing the election or the end of the term (presidents second term)
Executive Orders • Legally binding orders given by the president, acting as the head of the executive Branch, to Federal Administrative Agencies. • They are generally used to direct federal agencies and officials in their execution of congressionally established laws or policies. • They have generally been used to guild agencies in directions contrary to congressional intent. • Not all of these orders are equal proclamations are a form of executive orders that are generally symbolic or ceremonial. (take your child to work day) another type are those concerned with national security or defense issues. (national security directives)
Executive orders cont. • They do not require Congressional approval to take effect, but they have the same legal weight as laws passed by Congress. • The source of the authority to issue them can be found in Article II Section 1 which gives to the President the executive Power. • Section 3 of Article II further directs the President to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. • To implement or execute the laws of the nation the president gives directives and guidance to executive agencies and departments, often in form of executive orders. Why are they controversial?
Military and Diplomatic Powers • Commander in Chief • Congress does have war powers however the President dominates military policy his powers as commander in chief are almost without limit. • 1907 Teddy Roosevelt Great White Fleet • Powers power v Congress control of fund • Most Presidents delegate military matters to military advisers but they are still responsible and have final authority over all military matters. • Undeclared War • Does the Constitution give the President the power to make war without a declaration of war from congress?
Congressional Resolutions • Congress has not declared war since WWII but they have issued joint resolutions to authorize military force. • 1955 Eisenhower Stop China from taking Taiwan • 2002/2003 Bush Iraq • Military Action without a resolution from Congress • Korean War • Grenada Reagan 1983 • Panama Bush 1989 • Balkans Clinton 1995 (NATO Bosnia Kosovo 1999)
War Powers Resolution • As a result of the war powers actions of Johnson and Nixon in Vietnam (undeclared War) Congress enact the war powers resolution in 1973 to stop another undeclared war • President can only commit troops if • 1. Congress declared war • 2. congress has authorized that action • 3. when an attack on the U.S. has occurred • If troops are send in by the President under the 3rd circumstance the president must
Report it to congress within 48 hours • Any commitment of forces must end within 60 days unless Congress agrees to stay longer and at any point congress can end a commitment by a passage of a resolution (can be vetoed) • What is the issue with this?
Diplomatic powers • Constitution does not say that the President is the nations top diplomat but in practice he has that power • Treaty • Advice and Consent of the Senate (2/3 vote) • Legal standing as a law enforced by the courts • Congress can repeal a treaty by passing a law that repeal the terms of the treaty and a treaty and wipe out a law if a law and treaty come into conflict the court goes with the latest enacted one
Executive Agreements • Pact between the President and the head of a foreign State. • They agreements do not have to be approved by the Senate. • They have the same standing as a treaty by they do not supersede federal law otherwise they are binding on the U.S. • Most of them come out of legislation already passed by Congress or out of treaties already passed by the Senate. • These are not permanent presidents can end them.
