PP Lecture 5.pptx

Lecture 5 The Executive Branch Requirements to Be President Article II Section 1 of the US Constitution… “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America…No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of th...

Lecture 5 The Executive Branch Requirements to Be President Article II Section 1 of the US Constitution… “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America…No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States…Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  Constitutional Amendments Constitutional amendments regarding the office of president… 12th amendment 1804 - modified the Electoral College to prevent the president and vice president from being in opposing parties by electing them on separate ballots. Previously the winner of the most votes became president, and the runner up was the Vice President. 20th amendment 1933 - set the official term of office to begin on January 20 and states that the VP shall take over if the president dies before taking office. 22nd amendment 1951 - limits the president to two terms. 25th amendment 1967 - The vice president and a majority of the cabinet or the Congress can remove a president if they determine he cannot do his job. Roles of the President The president fulfills the following roles… Head of State – a ceremonial role that is apolitical and requires rallying the country together. Head of Party - a partisan role as head of their own party where they goal is to push their political party’s agenda. Chief Administrator - head bureaucrat; in charge of making sure that the departments, agencies, and boards and commissions charged with enforcing the laws do their jobs. Commander in Chief – the president’s power to act as the civilian head of the armed forces of the United States (see pg. 416). Chief Foreign Policy Maker – the president’s power to formulate foreign policy and negotiate treaties.  Powers of The President The president has the following powers… Presidential Veto - a president’s authority to reject a bill passed by Congress; may be overridden only by a 2/3 majority vote in each house (see pg. 417). Negotiate Treaties – agreements with other countries that require 2/3 approval by the senate. Appointment power – the power to appoint thousands (yes thousands) of positions within the federal government, including the entire federal judiciary. Pardoning Power– the power to release or excuse a person from legal penalties of crime (see pg. 416). Executive Agreements - an international agreement between the president and another country made by the executive branch and without formal consent by the Senate (see pg. 418). Executive Privilege - the ability of the president to keep confidential certain documents concerning the executive branch or national security (see pg. 418). Executive Orders – clarifications of congressional policy issued by the president, having the full force of law (see pgs. 417-418). Executive Privilege in Further Detail As George Mason University professor Mark Rozell explained in a 1999 article for the Minnesota Law Review, executive privilege is “the right of the President and high-level executive branch officers to withhold information from Congress, the courts, and ultimately the public.” This power can be used in two circumstances: “(1) certain national security needs and (2) protecting the privacy of White House deliberations when it is in the public interest to do so.” The second part is especially valuable, as it allows presidential advisors to freely speak their minds without the threat of a subpoena. Every President to date has used this power in one way or another, although some have used it more famously than others. President Obama’s most famous use of executive privilege came during the “Fast and Furious” scandal. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) had run an operation to sell guns to Mexico, in the hope that they could track those weapons to major drug cartels and apprehend some of their members. Out of 2,000 guns, hundreds were unable to be tracked. Two guns traced to Fast and Furious were later found at the scene of a December 2010 shootout near Rio Rico that killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee engaged in a years long investigation into ATF, trying to obtain documentation related to the scandal which was eventually released. Executive Orders in Further Detail Executive orders are clarifications of congressional policy (laws) and they are usually directives to bureaucratic agencies and do not need congressional approval but have the same weight as law. How are they used in practice? When the president wants something accomplished, but chooses to bypass Congress, they will issue an EO directing a bureaucratic agency to carry out the will of the president under the pretext of an existing law. Presidents have been accused of simply creating new laws via executive orders. These are highly controversial because they can give the president too much power. How can other branches “check” the president’s use of EO? Congress can refuse to fund executive orders or pass laws that cancel out executive orders. EO can be challenged in court. Presidents can undo past executive orders. CNBC POLITICS: Example of Presidential Executive Order: “Supreme Court Blocks Biden Covid Vaccine Mandate For Businesses, Allows Health-care Worker Rule” Published Thu, JAN 13, 2022, by Kevin Breuninger and Spencer Kimball The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies. But the conservative-majority court allowed a vaccine mandate to stand for medical facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid payments. The OSHA mandate [would have] required that workers at businesses with 100 or more employees get vaccinated or submit a negative Covid test weekly to enter the workplace. State of The Union Address Article II Section 3 - “He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient…” (see pg. 416). The president’s Constitutional obligation to regularly inform Congress of the State of the Union and to recommend measures considered useful or necessary. Today this has become a huge televised spectacle in which the president, with the VP and Speaker behind the president, address both chambers of Congress, members of the Supreme Court, and all Cabinet members (except the designated survivor), and various guests invited by the president. *Note: In this photo, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tears up President Trumps speech as a way to show her disdain and disrespect for the president at the State of The Union Address. The Executive Office of the President Council of Economic Advisors Every day, the President of the United States is faced with scores of decisions, each with important consequences for Biden Council on Environmental Quality working families. s EOP Domestic Policy Council Gender Policy Council To provide the President with the support that he or she needs National Economic Council to govern effectively, the Executive Office of the President National Security Council (EOP) was created in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Climate Policy Office The EOP has responsibility for tasks ranging from Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator communicating the President’s message to the American Office of Intergovernmental Affairs people to promoting our trade interests abroad (see pg. 426). Office of Management and Budget Office of National Drug Control Policy Members of the EOP serve at the will of the president. Most do Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy not need Senate approval and can be fired by the president. Office of Public Engagement The EOP is headed by the Chief of Staff the person who Office of Science and Technology Policy oversees the operations of all White House staff and controls Office of the National Cyber Director access to the president. Office of the United States Trade Representative Presidential Personnel Office Members of the EOP work for and is largely loyal to the National Space Council president. The President’s Cabinet The Cabinet’s role is to advise the President on any subject he or she may require relating to the duties of each member’s respective office (see pgs. 527-529). President Joe Biden’s Cabinet includes Vice President Kamala Harris and the heads of the 15 executive departments Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. Additionally, the Cabinet includes the White House Chief of Staff, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, the Director of National Intelligence, and the US Trade Representative, as well as the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Management and Budget, Council of Economic Advisers, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Small Business Administration. The Bureaucracy A bureaucracy is an administrative group of nonelected officials charged with carrying out functions connected to a series of policies and programs. In the United States, the bureaucracy began as a very small collection of individuals. Over time, however, it grew to be a major force in political affairs (see pg. 516). Independent Agencies - organizations within the executive branch, created by congress, that execute the law and that are separate from the departments with a presidential appointee at the top (see pg. 530-531). EX: FEC, SSA, NASA, Independent Regulatory Boards and Commissions - organizations that regulate various businesses, industries, or economic sector with a presidential appointee at the top (see pg. 530-531). EX: FDA, NTSB, NLRB, SEC Government Corporations - organizations that fill some commercial function that are important but not profitable enough for private industry (see pg. 531). EX: AMTRAK or USPS Power of the Bureaucracy Broad language in laws gives more power to bureaucratic agencies to carry out the law as they see fit. A common criticism of the bureaucracy is that unelected officials are tasked with creating rules that the public must abide by. EX: 1972 the Consumer product Safety Act told the Consumer Product Safety Commission to “reduce unreasonable risk of injury from household products but offers no suggestions to guide the commission on what constitutes reasonable and unreasonable risks...” EX: Nancy Pelosi, famously said, “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it.” This was in regard to the 2011 Obamacare Act which dictated a great deal of responsibility to the Health and Human Services Department to address many of the issues at hand. Jerry L. Nashaw, “Most public law is legislative in origin but administrative in content.” Problems With The Bureaucracy Problems with the Bureaucracy Inter-government agency refers to clashes between agencies as they vie for budgetary funds, public support, and clientele groups. Bureaucratic Culture refers to the accepted values and procedures of an organization leading to a culture of conform and cover up. Those who do come forward and try to expose wrongdoings in the bureaucracy are called whistleblowers (see pg. 539). Congress passed the Whistleblower Protection Act in 1989 to ensure that whistleblowers are not punished, but this isn’t always a guarantee. Ed Snowden leaked classified information on how the US collects data. He fled the US before going public in 2013 and has remined in