Presidential Appointments and the Judiciary

1
Presidential Appointments and the Judiciary

• Last time
• agency theory and managing the president
• the politics of appointments
• Judicial appointments

2
Managing the president

• Presidents agents of the American people in
  foreign/security policies
• The public suffers from
• hidden information, hidden action, Madisons
  dilemma, Collective action problem
• Generic remedies
• screening and selection mechanisms contract
  design monitoring and reporting requirements
  institutional checks
• Elections serve as screening/selection mechanisms
• Constitution limits how/when compensation can be
  changed
• Congress (1) monitors president and imposes
  reporting requirements (2) acts as institutional
  check on presidential initiatives
• But MCs have their own political goals and
  strategies that may conflict with performing as
  an effective check on the president

3
Presidential appointments

• Presidential appointments (1200 total)
• Constitutional offices (Senate advice and
  consent, but serves at pleasure)
• statutory offices (Prez has sole authority to
  hire and fire)
• independent agencies (advice and consent fixed
  terms)
• What is reversion point?
• recess appointments commissions/boards vs single
  administrators

4
The main players

• Cabinet heads of principal executive departments
• also, sub-cabinet level agencies not headed by
  commissions (e.g., FDA)
• Executive Office of the President
• White House Organization
• Independent agency commissions
• e.g., SEC, the Fed FEC, NLRB, etc.

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Cabinet

• Cabinet composition in 19th century
• bargaining at national nominating conventions
• regional representation
• factional balancing
• 20th century evolution
• civil service reform limited patronage
  opportunities in regular departments
• radio and TV helped create the media cult of the
  presidency popularization of presidential
  campaigns and change in nominations made
  candidates less dependent on bargaining
• appointments become increasingly about
  non-geographic descriptive representation
  (ethnic, gender diversity becomes an issue in
  1960s, first with Democrats)

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What do Cabinet Secys do?

• Statutory heads of departments. They (not the
  prez) are legally responsible for policy outputs
• Prez can fire/threaten to fire, but law limits
  prez influence over implementation
• Prez can require reports from dept heads
• Congress can end-run prez control over
  information through hearings, subpoena powers

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Executive Office of the Prez

• Created in 1939 by executive order, pursuant to
  the Reorganization Act of 1939
• Bureau of the Budget (now OMB) moved out of
  Treasury Natural Resources Planning Board
  Office of Government Reports Liaison Office for
  Personnel Management
• Todays EOP 9 offices PLUS W.H.O., VPs office,
  residential staffs 1,800 staff and budget of
  250 million
• OMB Office of the US Trade Rep Office of
  Administration Natl Security Council Natl
  Drug Control Policy Office of Policy
  Development Office of Science and Tech Policy
  Council of Economic Advisers Council and Office
  on Enviro Quality

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Independent agencies Judiciary

• Presidential appointment is constrained removal
  power is denied
• consequences for delegation by congress to
  agency?
• Boards, Commissions, Panels reversion pt is not
  the status quo
• appointment regimes unconstrained, partially
  constrained, completely constrained
• Judiciary another institutional check on the
  bureaucracy, shapeable by Congress