The Presidential Branch

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The Presidential Branch

• February 20, 2007

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U.S. Government
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Executive Office of the President
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Executive Assistance

• Early Presidents supplied their own
• Hired relatives as personal secretaries
• First paid position--1857
• Jefferson--1 secretary and a messenger
• McKinley (1900)--13 people
• Hoover (1930)--35 people
• Bush (2005)--1,850 people

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Federal employment
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Federal employment
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Brownlow Commission (1937)

• The president needs help . . . To deal with
  the greatly increased duties of executive
  management falling upon the president, the White
  House staff should be expanded.
• Wasnt the first commission to study the problem
  of executive administration
• Joint Committee on Reorganization (1924)
• From TR to FDR, almost every president had one

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Recommendations

• A larger presidential staff
• Six additional staffers
• Create EOP
• Formal Chief of Staff
• Responsible for planning, budgeting, and civil
  service
• Move the Bureau of the Budget (becomes OMB) from
  Treasury to EOP
• Organize all agencies under 12 departments

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1939 Reorganization Act

• Allows Roosevelt to reorganize executive branch
  (with legislative veto)
• Results in many of the Commissions
  recommendations
• Creates EOP
• Moves BoB to EOP
• Creates Federal Security Agency
• No Chief of Staff
• No departmental reorganization

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EOP Budget
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EOP Budget
Iraq reconstruction (multi-year)
Afghanistan
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White House Budget
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Park of Perpetual Protest
New Executive Office Building (EOP)
West Wing
Treasury Department
Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EOP)
White House
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Old Executive Office Building
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Executive Office of the President

• White House Office
• Office of the Vice President
• Office of Management and Budget (1939)
• Council of Economic Advisors (1946)
• National Security Council (1947)
• Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (1970)
• Office of Policy Development (1970)
• Council on Environmental Quality (1970)
• Office of Science and Technology Policy (1976)
• Office of Administration (1977)
• Office of National Drug Control Policy (1989)

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OMB

• Coordinating mechanism for federal budget
• Issues guidelines for agency requests
• Compiles/reviews agency budgets
• Generates 1 budget document for entire government
• Evaluates impact of proposed legislation
• Reviews proposed federal regulations
• Evaluates agencies performance
• Countered by CBO

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Status Indicators

• Proximity to the president
• View from office
• Within the White House and outside it

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The Real West Wing
Karl Rove, Senior Advisor Dick
Cheney, Vice President
Josh Bolton, Chief of Staff
Karl Zinsmeister, Deputy Assistant for Domestic
Policy
Allan Hubbard, Director, National Economic Council
Jared Weinstein, Personal Aide Karen Keller,
Personal Secretary
Tony Snow, Press Secretary
Dan Bartlett, Counselor to the President
J.D. Crouch, Deputy National Security Advisor
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Where is the Office of Environmental Quality? The
Council of Economic Advisors? The National
Security Council?
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Institutionalization Effects

• Policy centralization
• Internal centralization
• Bureaucratization
• Politicization

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Policy Centralization

• Protects the presidents program
• Policymaking is complex
• Policymaking involves a lot of actors
• But often excludes other sources of information
  and advice
• Major criticism of the Bush White House
• Clinton suffered from it as well e.g., health
  care

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Internal Centralization

• Creates clear lines of responsibility, but
• Can create opportunities for abuse and
  corruption.
• Protects the presidents standing, but
• Can lead to too much insulation.

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Bureaucratization

• Rationalizes organizational behavior, but
• Creates court and bureaucratic politics.

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Politicization

• Generates agreement among aides and assistants,
  but
• Censors the information available to presidents
  and
• Weakens the objectivity of advice given to the
  president.
• E.g., OMB under Reagan

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Presidential Transitions

• Problem Organizing the presidential branch
• Evaluating necessary components
• Balancing loyalty and policy experience
• Organizational structure
• Bad examples
• Carter
• Clinton
• Good examples
• Reagan
• Bush II

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Organization/Management

• Vary by the individual (and sometimes by terms)
• FDR fostered competition
• Eisenhower formalized the office
• Chief of Staff became important
• Johnson was involved in everything
• Reagan delegated authority
• Bush heavily leans his advisors

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Institutionalization Effects