The Executive Branch

1
The Executive Branch
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Great Expectations

• Consider these statements
• The president must live up to the expectations of
  the American people to ensure peace, prosperity,
  and security.
• Americans want to believe in a powerful president
  but at the same time do not like a concentration
  of power.

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Qualifications and Terms

• According to the United States Constitution
• The president must be
• 35 years old
• Natural-born citizen
• 14 years as resident
• The presidents terms of office are
• 4 years
• May serve 2 terms or 10 years

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From Title 8 of the U.S. Code Section 1401A
natural-born citizen is

• Anyone born inside the US
• Any Indian or Eskimo born in the US provided
  being a citizen of the US does not impair the
  person's status as a citizen of the tribe
• Anyone born outside the US, both of whose parents
  are citizens of the US as long as one parent has
  lived in the US
• Any one born outside the US, if one parent is a
  citizen and lived in the US for at least one year
  and other parent is a US National
• Any one born in a US possession, if one parent is
  a citizen and lived in the US for a least one
  year
• Any one found in the US under the age of five,
  whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as
  proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age
  21
• Any one born outside the US, if one parent is an
  alien and as long as the other parent is a
  citizen of the US who lived in the US for at
  least five years (with military and diplomatic
  service included in this time)
• A final, historical condition a person born
  before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S.
  citizen mother who has lived in the U.S

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Constitutional Powers

• The Constitution says little about presidential
  power.
• Presidents share executive, legislative, and
  judicial power with other branches of government.
  
• The framers placed checks on powers they believed
  to be most dangerous while protecting the general
  spheres of authority from encroachment.

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The Expansion of Presidential Power Good or Bad
for the Country??

• Today presidential power is greater than the
  Constitution suggests.
• Many presidents enlarged the power of the
  presidency by expanding the presidents
  responsibilities and political resources.
• In the 1950s and 1960s scholars tended to favor
  the idea of a strong presidency.
• However, after the abuses of power during the
  Vietnam War and Watergate, scholars argued that
  the presidency had become too powerful for the
  good of the nation.

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Formal Presidential Powers Found in Constitution
(Article II)

• Executing (carrying out) laws veto/pocket veto
  laws
• Commander-in-chief
• Negotiates/makes/signs treaties (NOT ratify!)
• Appoint federal justices and judges (NOT
  confirm!)
• Appoints ambassadors and foreign policy officials
  (NOT confirm!)
• Fill vacant government posts when the Senate is
  in recess
• May pardon individuals
• Recognizes nations
• Receives ambassadors and other heads of state
• May convene and/or adjourn both houses of
  Congress
• Must give message to Congress from time to time
• Has become the State of the Union Address

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Informal Presidential PowersNot in found in the
U.S. Constitution

• Crisis manager
• Has access to expert knowledge and expertise
• De facto political party leader
• Recognized as global leader
• Conducts foreign policy initiative
• Meets with world leaders
• Builds coalitions with international community
• FYIthis is not a finite list! There are many
  more!

• The First Citizen
• National Spokesman
• Makes executive orders and agreements
• Does not have to be approved by Congress!
• Access to media
• Sets domestic/economic agenda
• Sets foreign policy agenda
• Helps to set and guide legislative agenda

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In Other Words the President is the.

• Chief Executive
• Commander in Chief
• Chief Diplomat
• Chief Legislator

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Presidential Powers

• Chief Executive
• Runs the Government and is officially in charge
  of the 3 million-plus executive branch employees
• Appoints department heads, federal judges,
  ambassadors
• Pardons individuals of concern (usually at end of
  term)
• Commander in Chief
• In charge of armed forces
• May send troops without declaration of war after
  seeking approval from Congress
• Chief Diplomat
• Deals with foreign governments
• Makes executive agreements with foreign heads of
  state
• Signs treaties with advice and consent of the
  Senate
• Chief Legislator
• In charge of economic management
• Makes certain that laws are carried out- shall
  Take Care that the laws be carefully carried
  out (Take Care Clause)
• Sets agenda and budget with approval from
  Congress
• The Buck stops here- Harry Truman
• Can veto or pocket veto legislation

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The Chief Executive

• One of the presidents most important roles is
  presiding over the administration of government.
• One of the resources for controlling this
  bureaucracy is the presidential power to appoint
  top-level administrators.
• Presidents have recently taken more interest in
  the regulations issued by agencies, thus
  centralizing decision-making in the White House.

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Commander in Chief

• The framers made the president the commander in
  chief of the armed forces.
• As such he is the commander in chief of more than
  1.5 million uniformed men and women.

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Chief Diplomat

• The Constitution allocates certain national
  security powers to the president.
• He alone extends diplomatic recognition,
  negotiates treaties, and negotiates executive
  agreements with heads of foreign governments.
• The president must try to lead Americas allies
  on matters of economics and defense.

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Chief Legislator

• The president is the nations key agenda builder
  what the administration wants strongly influences
  the parameters of debate.
• In general, presidential legislative skill must
  compete with other factors that affect
  congressional voting behavior.
• Presidential legislative skills include
  bargaining, making personal appeals, consulting
  with Congress, setting priorities, exploiting
  honeymoon periods, and structuring
  congressional votes.

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Presidential Approval

• The higher the president stands in the polls, the
  easier it is to persuade others to support
  presidential initiatives.
• The presidents standing in the polls is
  monitored closely.
• Presidents frequently do not have widespread
  support.
• Public approval of the president sometimes reacts
  to rally events and takes sudden jumps.
• The criteria on which the public evaluates
  presidents are open to many interpretations.

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Presidential Approval

• Presidential approval is the product of many
  factors including the predisposition of many
  people to support the president, political party
  identification, and honeymoon periods.
• Changes in approval levels appear to reflect the
  publics evaluation of how the president is
  handling policy.
• Citizens seem to focus on the presidents efforts
  and stands on issues rather than on personality
  or simply how presidential policies affect them.

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Checks and Balances to Know

• Presidential Check on Legislative Branch
• Presidential Check on Judicial Branches

• Congressional Checks on Executive Branch
• Judicial Checks on Executive Branch

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1. Legislative Branch Checks over Judicial Branch
6. Judicial Checks over Executive Branch
2. Legislative Branch Checks over Executive
Branch
5. Judicial Branch Checks over Legislative Branch
4. Executive Branch Checks over Judicial Branch
3. Executive Branch Checks over Legislative
Branch
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Checks and Balances to Know

• Executive Check on Legislative Branch
• Veto
• May call special sessions or recommend
  legislation/budget
• Executive Check on Judicial Branch
• Nominations of Federal Judges
• Legislative Checks on Executive Branch
• Refusal to pass a presidential bill and/or
  presidential budget
• Overriding a Veto
• Impeachment (House) and Conviction (Senate)
• Refusal to approve Presidential appointees
  (Senate)
• Refusal to ratify treaty (Senate)
• May also conduct investigations
• (Special Counselors Ken Starr and Patrick
  Fitzsimmons)
• Judicial Checks on Executive Branch
• Declaration of presidential acts as
  unconstitutional
• Judicial Review

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Congress and the President

• In recent years, Congress has challenged
  presidents on all fronts.
• Congresss role has typically been overseeing of
  the executive rather than initiation of policy.
• Congress can refuse to provide authorizations and
  appropriations for presidential actions.

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Congress and the President

• Just whos in Charge of Domestic Affairs and
  Foreign Affairs??
• Congress is in charge of the budget (has purse
  strings) and appropriations therefore can be seen
  as having the upper hand in domestic matters
• Constitutional Check The president must sign
  budget bills into law

• The president is supreme in the area of national
  security matters and foreign affairs
• Congress DOES have a central constitutional role
  in making national security policy but is less
  involved in national security policy than in
  domestic policy

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22nd Amendment

• Limits presidents to 2 terms or 10 years
• No person shall be elected to the office of the
  President more than twice, and no person who has
  held the office of President, or acted as
  President, for more than two years of a term to
  which some other person was elected President
  shall be elected to the office of the President
  more than once."
• Criticism sometimes made of the 22nd Amendment
  is that it can seriously erode a second-term
  president's power and influence.
• Difficulties have been faced by every President
  during their second terms since the amendment's
  ratification.
• Such a president is often referred to as a lame
  duck.

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Lame Duck

• A lame duck is an elected official who loses
  political power or is no longer responsive to the
  electorate as a result of
• a term limit which keeps him from running for
  that particular office again,
• losing an election
• the elimination of the official's office
• Lame duck politicians continue to hold office
  until the end of the their term.

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25th AmendmentPresidential Succession and
Disability

• In case of death or resignation
• Vice-President takes over
• Speaker of House
• President Pro Tempore of the Senate
• Cabinet secretaries in order of creation

• In case of disability
• President signs away authority to VP
• If VP and majority of cabinet find President
  unfit they can take power

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Also in 25th Amendment

• Vice-Presidential Succession and Disability
• President nominates new candidate
• Nominee confirmed by majority of both houses
• Nixon selected Senator Gerald Ford as the Vice-
  President
• President Ford selected Nelson Rockefeller as his
  Vice-President

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The Vice-Presidency

• The Vice President must be a natural-born citizen
  of the United States, at least thirty-five years
  of age and a resident of the U.S. for 14 years.
• The Constitution also forbids the vice president
  from being from the same state as the president
• The Twelfth Amendment to the United States
  Constitution requires vice presidents to meet the
  same requirements as presidents.
• For example the 22nd amendment limits presidents
  to being elected to only two terms, so a former
  2-term president CAN NOT be elected as
  vice-president.

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The really dumb Original Plan

• Under the original terms of the Constitution, the
  members of the U.S. Electoral College voted only
  for office of President rather than for both
  President and Vice President.
• The person receiving the greatest number of votes
  (provided that such a number was a majority of
  electors) would be President, while the
  individual who was in second place became Vice
  President.

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And now the Really dumb results

• In the election of 1796 Federalist John Adams
  came in first, and Democratic-Republican Thomas
  Jefferson came second.
• Thus, the President and Vice President were from
  different parties.
• An even greater problem occurred in the election
  of 1800, when Democratic-Republicans Jefferson
  and Aaron Burr tied the vote.
• While it was intended that Jefferson was the
  Presidential contender and Burr was the Vice
  Presidential one, the electors did not and could
  not differentiate between the two under the
  system of the time.
• After 35 unsuccessful votes in the U.S. House of
  Representatives, Thomas Jefferson finally won on
  the 36th ballot and Burr became Vice President.

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The 12th Amendment

• The tumultuous affair led to the adoption of the
  Twelfth amendment in 1804, which directed the
  electors to use separate ballots to vote for the
  President and Vice President.
• While this solved the problem at hand, it
  ultimately had the effect of lowering the
  prestige of the Vice Presidency, as the Vice
  President was no longer the second choice for
  President.

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Selecting a Vice President

• Presidents have used several techniques when
  selecting their running mates
• Historically, they have usually chosen someone
  who balances the ticket
• Region
• Age
• Religion
• Charisma
• Experience

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Selecting a Vice President

• Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush went
  against this tradition
• Instead they have selected a running mate with
  their own political experience and knowledge
• Someone who could actually BE the president if
  called upon
• For example, Al Gore is from a southern state
  like Clinton and therefore did not balance the
  ticket in 1992 and 1996
• On the same note, VP Cheney is actually from
  Texas just like President Bush, but Bush selected
  him anyway (He had to establish residency in
  Wyoming to qualify)

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The Role of the President in Law Making

• He can take a bill that has passed both side of
  Congress and
• Sign it into law
• Let it become law (if Congress is in session)
• Veto it
• Pocket veto (Kills bill if Congress is not in
  session)
• Congress can override presidential veto with a
  2/3 vote of each house

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Line Item Veto

• The 1996 Line-Item Veto Law allowed the president
  to pencil-out specific spending items approved by
  the Congress.
• It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
  Court 1998, ruling that Congress did not have the
  authority to hand that power to the president.
• The 6-3 ruling said that the Constitution gives a
  president only two choices either sign
  legislation or send it back to Congress.

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Alexander Hamiltons View of the Presidency

• Hamilton proposed a president who would be
  elected for life, "on good behavior."
• That idea went nowhere as most delegate were
  fearful of a powerful monarch-like executive
• Hamilton vigorously defended the strong-executive
  plan in the essays that became known as The
  Federalist Papers. (Federalist 70)
• "Energy in the executive is a leading character
  in the definition of good government,"

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19th Century Presidents

• Dominated by Congress
• Exceptions
• Washington
• Gave Presidency Legitimacy
• Jackson
• First President to expand the powers of the
  Presidency
• Lincoln
• Set the foundations for the modern Presidency

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20th Century Presidents

• Extremely powerful
• Began with TR and FDR
• What Caused This?
• The Great Depression
• New Deal legislation
• The Cold War
• National Security issues

• The Media
• -More attention to president
• Weak Congresses
• -Infighting and partisanship
• Other ideas?

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Two Modern Views of the Presidency

• The Imperial presidency
• Rossiter and Schlesinger articles
• Can be defined, as the use (or misuse!) of
  discretionary power by the Chief Executive
• Categorized by the large staffs of most modern
  presidents
• Comparisons to the royal courts of Europe
• Emphasis on the executive branch replacing
  Congress as the most powerful branch
• Hamilton would have LOVED this!
• Also includes the decline in importance of the
  cabinet

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Two Imperial Presidents

• Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan both pushed the
  limits of the presidency
• Both won huge 2nd term elections
• Congress took the back seat in power to both men
• Watergate ended this for Nixon, but Iran-Contra
  had little effect on Reagans imperial presidency

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Examples of the Imperial Presidency

• Congress has ceded its budget-making authority to
  the president.
• Presidents make agreements with foreign nations
  without congressional approval by substituting
  executive agreements for treaties which required
  the approval of the Senate.
• The Commander-in-Chief role has also been
  expanded even though Congress is empowered to
  declare war.
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

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Presidential Power Today

• Some of the most noteworthy presidents in the
  past several decades century successfully
  advocated substantial increases in the role of
  the national government.
• All seven of the presidents since Lyndon Johnson
  have championed constraints on government and
  limits on spending.
• FYI
• It has been the president more often than
  Congress who has said no to government growth.

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Presidents and the Press

• Presidents do not directly reach the American
  people on a daily basis.
• The press is the principal intermediary between
  the president and the public, and relations with
  the press are an important aspect of the
  presidents efforts to lead public opinion.
• Presidents and the press tend to be in conflict.
• The White House monitors the media closely and
  tries to encourage the media to project a
  positive image of the president.

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The Press Secretary

• The person who most often deals directly with the
  press is the presidents press secretary and the
  best-known interaction between the president and
  the press is the presidential press conference.
• Press conferences are not very useful means of
  eliciting information. Most of the news coverage
  of the White House involves the most visible
  layer of presidents personal and official
  activities rather than in the substance of
  policies.

President Obamas Press Secretary-Jay Carney
President Bartletts Press Secretary- C.J. Cregg
?
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The Affects of Watergate

• Watergate brought a temporary halt to the
  "imperial presidency" and the growth of the
  institutional presidential power
• Over the president's veto, Congress enacted the
  War Powers Act (1973), which required future
  presidents to obtain authorization from Congress
  to engage U.S. forces in foreign combat for more
  than 90 days.
• Under the Act, a president who orders troops into
  action abroad must report the reason for this
  action to Congress within 48 hours.

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Two Modern Views of the Presidency

• 2. The Institutional presidency (Neustadt
  article)
• The role of each new president in organizing and
  managing the Executive Branch
• Includes the
• Executive Office of the President (EOP)
• The White House Staff
• Chief of Staff as gatekeeper
• The Cabinet
• Most modern presidents have attempted to change
  the Executive Office of the Presidency by adding
  new offices and employees OR deleting or firing
  employees

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The Chief of Staff

• The White House Chief of Staff is the highest
  ranking member of the Executive Office of the
  President of the United States and a senior aide
  to the President.
• The office-holder has been dubbed "The
  Second-Most Powerful Man or Woman in Washington"
  due to the nature of the job.
• Most White House Chiefs of Staff are former
  politicians, and many continue their political
  careers in other senior roles.

President Obamas Chief of Staff - Jack Lew
President Bartletts Chief of Staff- Leo McGarry
?
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Parts of the Executive Branch
President
Independent Agencies, Boards Commissions
Executive Office of the President Includes White
House Staff
The Executive Branch Departments AKA The Cabinet
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White House Structures
3. Ad Hoc No real format. Access is limited or
granted by president or top aids on a case by
case or need to know manner.
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Important Acts and Cases

• Federalist 70
• Budget Reform Act of 1974
• Tonkin Gulf Resolution
• War Powers Act
• NAFTA
• Panama Canal Treaty
• US v Nixon

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The War Powers Act

• Presidents have customarily made short-term
  military commitments of troops or naval vessels
  that have occasionally become long-term (Korea
  and Vietnam).
• The War Powers Resolution (1973) required
  presidents to consult with Congress before using
  military force and mandated the withdrawal of
  forces after sixty days unless Congress declared
  war or granted an extension.
• The War Powers Resolution has not been a success
  and may be considered a legislative veto and a
  violation of the doctrine of separation of
  powers.
• Congress has found it difficult to challenge the
  president.

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United States v Nixon (1974)

• During the height of the Watergate scandal
  President Nixon asserted that he was immune from
  a subpoena for his personal White House tapes
  claiming "executive privilege.
• The right to withhold information from other
  government branches to preserve confidential
  communications within the executive branch or to
  secure the national interest.

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Importance of Case

• The Court said No!!
• It did grant that there was a limited executive
  privilege in areas of military or diplomatic
  affairs, but disagreed with Mr. Nixon claiming
  "the fundamental demands of due process of law in
  the fair administration of justice."
• Therefore, the president must obey the subpoena
  and produce the tapes and documents.
• Nixon resigned shortly after the release of the
  tapes.

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The Electoral College Review

• The Electoral College is the assembly that
  formally elects the President and Vice President
• Our votes simply elect the electors that vote for
  the President
• Number of electoral votes
• 538 Total
• 270 Needed to get elected

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Electoral College (continued)

• Electoral votes are divided up by state
• Number of state electoral votes is equal to the
  states number of House Representatives and
  Senators
• Exception
• Washington, DC gets 3 Votes

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Electors Review

• How selected?
• Varies with each state
• Usually selected by state parties or committees
• Who are they?
• Party loyalists
• Party leaders
• Friends of the candidate

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Contingency Election for President

• If one candidate does not win 270 votes, it goes
  to the House of Representatives
• Top three candidates receiving electoral votes
• Each state has one vote
• Need a majority of states to elect the President

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Contingency Election for Vice-President

• Goes to the Senate for a vote
• Two candidates with the most electoral vote
  compete
• Members vote as individuals rather than states.

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Electoral College Criticism

• Faithless Electors
• Electors may change their votes
• Some state laws do not allow this
• Winner take all system
• Gives big states an advantage
• Encourages fraud
• Enhances power of third party candidates to split
  the vote (Greens and Nader in 2000)

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Electoral College Criticism (continued)

• All states get at least three electoral votes
• Gives small states more power relative to their
  population
• Uncertainty of the Winner Winning
• Winner of the popular vote does not equal winner
  of the electoral vote
• Contingency Election Procedures
• Deadlock in the House
• Increased power of third parties to control
  election

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Virtues of the Electoral College

• It is a Proven System
• Makes Campaigns More Manageable
• Discourages Election Fraud
• Preserves Moderate Two-Party System

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