Executive Offices of the President and Bureaucracy

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Executive Offices of the President and
Bureaucracy
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Executive Offices of the President

• The Executive Office consists of agencies that
  report directly to the president and perform
  staff services for him, led by the Chief of Staff
• Some agencies are large bureaucracies.
• The president appoints the top positions, but
  unlike the White House Staff members, these
  Executive Office appointees must be confirmed by
  the Senate.
• Modern EOP created under the Reorganization Act
  of 1939 - with the goal of
• To reduce expenditures
• To increase efficiency
• To consolidate agencies according to major
  purposes
• To reduce the number of agencies by consolidating
  those having similar functions and by abolishing
  such as may not be necessary
• To eliminate overlapping and duplication of
  effort.

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EOP

• The National Security Council advises the
  president on American military affairs and
  foreign policy. The NSC consists of the
  president, the vice president, and the
  secretaries of state and defense. The
  presidents national security adviser runs the
  staff of the NSC and also advises the president.
• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the
  largest office in the EOP, and it has the job of
  preparing the national budget that the president
  proposes to Congress every year. The OMB also
  monitors the spending of funds approved by
  Congress and checks the budgets and records of
  executive agencies.
• The National Economic Council helps the president
  with economic planning. The council consists of
  three leading economists and is assisted by about
  60 other economists, attorneys, and political
  scientists. The NEC is the presidents major
  source of advice and information about the
  nations economy.

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EOP Websites

• http//www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/nsc
• http//www.whitehouse.gov/omb/
• http//www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/nec

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The Cabinet

• Cabinet Officers are heads of the 15 major
  departments
• Cabinet officers serve as advisors, but depending
  the administration plays a limited role in
  deliberation.
• Appointed by the President and confirmed by
  Congress
• 14 Cabinet positions - with the order of creation
  used for certain protocol.
• Inner Cabinet - Secretary of State, Secretary of
  the Treasury, Attorney General and Secretary of
  Defense

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• The Cabinet includes
• the Vice President
• Heads of 15 executive departments
• Health and Human Services
• Homeland Security
• Housing and Urban Development
• Interior
• Labor
• State
• Transportation
• Treasury
• Veterans Affairs
• Attorney General
• Agriculture
• Commerce
• Defense
• Education
• Energy

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Bureaucracy

• a large, complex organization of appointed, not
  elected, officials.
• Bureaucracies exist in many countries in many
  areas of life, including corporations,
  universities, and local and state governments.
• The term actually comes from the French word
  bureau, a reference to the small desks that the
  kings representatives set up in towns as they
  traveled across the country doing the kings
  business.

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Bureaucracy according to Max Weber

• hierarchical authority structure - A chain of
  command that is hierarchical the top bureaucrat
  has ultimate control, and authority flows from
  the top down.
• task specialization - A clear division of labor
  in which every individual has a specialized job
• extensive rules - Clearly written,
  well-established formal rules that all people in
  the organization follow
• clear goals - A clearly defined set of goals that
  all people in the organization strive toward
• the merit principle - Merit-based hiring and
  promotion no granting of jobs to friends or
  family unless they are the best qualified
• impersonality - Job performance that is judged by
  productivity, or how much work the individual
  gets done

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American Federal Bureaucracy

• Divided supervision
• Close public scrutiny
• Regulation rather than public ownership

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Growth of Bureaucracy

• Article II, section 3 of the Constitution allows
  the president to appoint officers not mentioned
  in the Constitution
• 1789-1829 bureaucrats were made up of wealthy,
  white, landowning males
• Patronage
• Pendleton Act - Civil Service Commision

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Modern Bureaucracy

• The Office of Personnel Management
• administers civil service laws, rules, and
  regulations.
• administers written examinations for the
  competitive service, which includes about
  two-thirds of all appointed officials and is in
  charge of hiring for most agencies.
• The Merit Systems Protection Board
• protects the integrity of the federal merit
  system and the rights of federal employees
• hears charges of wrongdoing and employee appeals
  against agency actions and orders disciplinary
  actions against agency executives or employees.

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Bureaucracy Data

• About 57 are male, 43 are female.
• About 73 are white, 27 are minority (includes
  blacks, Asians, native Americans, and Hispanics).
• About 33 are hired by the Defense Department,
  26 by the Postal Service, and 41 in other
  agencies.
• Only about 10 work in the Washington area, 90
  work in other parts of the United States.
• The average age is about 42.
• The number of federal employees per 1,000 people
  in the U.S. population has decreased from over 14
  in the early 1970s to a little over 10 by the
  late 1990s.
• Bureaucrats hold a huge variety of jobs, but most
  federal employees are white-collar workers, such
  as secretaries, clerks, lawyers, inspectors, and
  engineers.
• Nearly 20,000 federal civilian employees work in
  U.S. territories, and another 100,000 work in
  foreign nations.

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Organization of the Bureaucracy

• The Cabinet Departments
• Independent Regulatory Agencies
• Government Corporations
• Independent Executive Agencies

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Cabinet Departments

• The Department of State (founded in 1789)
• The Department of Treasury (founded in 1789)
• The Department of Defense (created in 1947, but
  replaced the Department of War, founded in 1789)
• The Department of Justice (created in 1870 to
  serve the attorney general, a position created by
  George Washington in 1789)
• The Department of the Interior (created in 1849)
• The Department of Agriculture (created in 1862)
• The Department of Commerce (created in 1903 as
  the Department of Commerce and Labor)

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Cabinet Departments cont.

• The Department of Labor (separated from the
  Department of Commerce in 1913)
• The Department of Health and Human Services
  (created as the Department of Health, Education,
  and Welfare in 1953)
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development
  (created in 1966)
• The Department of Transportation (created in
  1966)
• The Department of Energy (created in 1977)
• The Department of Education (separated from the
  Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in
  1979)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs (created in
  1988)
• The Department of Homeland Security (created in
  2002)

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Independent Regulatory Agencies

• The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) -
  Founded in 1887, the ICC is the oldest of the
  regulatory agencies. It first regulated
  railroads, but now oversees trucking as well.
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - The FTC
  regulates business practices and controls
  monopolies
• The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) - The
  NLRB regulates labor-management relations.
• The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) - The FRB governs
  banks and regulates the supply of money.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) -
  The SEC polices the stock market.

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Government Corporations

• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• The Tennessee Valley Authority
• The U.S. Postal Service
• Amtrak

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Independent Executive Agencies

• The General Services Administration (GSA) - The
  GSA operates and maintains federal properties,
  handling buildings, supplies, and purchasing.
• The National Science Foundation (NSF) - The NSF
  supports scientific research.
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  (NASA) - NASA administers the United States space
  program, financing ventures into space since 1958.

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Iron Triangles
CONGRESS
INTEREST GROUPS
BUREAUCRACY
Iron Triangle - three-way alliance among
legislators, bureaucrats, and interest groups to
make or preserve policies that benefit their
respective interests
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Iron Triangles
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How it works?

• Everyone in the triangle has a similar interest
• Legislators get funding from interest groups and
  make laws reality with the help of the
  bureaucracy
• Interest groups provide valued information to
  bureaucrats and money to legislators
• Bureau chiefs implement legislator policy and
  interest group goals.

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Why are they iron?

• Strong bond cant be broken by President or
  Congress
• Referred to as sub governments, all the real
  decisions are made among these 3 groups
• Might maintain interests that might not be
  publicly popular like what?

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Department of Defense
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Department of Education