POLS 1101 Lecture 11Outline of Last Lecture I. Framer’s Wishes: Unitary ExecutiveII. Constitutional Bases of Presidential Power IIII. Constitutional Bases of Presidential Power IIIV. Constitutional Bases of Presidential Power IIIV. Bureaucratic Institutions in the Obama AdministrationVI. In Comparison: Executive FormsVII. Individual Presidents and Scope of the ExecutiveVIII. The Partisan PresidencyIX. The Populist PresidencyX. Presidential Public ActivitiesOutline of Current Lecture I. Presidential VetoesII. AppointmentsIII. Orders, Agreements, and Signing StatementsIV. Presidential Signing StatementsV. Administrative ResourcesVI. The Vice PresidentVII. Investigations, Impeachments, and Electoral PressuresCurrent Lecture: I. Presidential Vetoes• What explains the variation in the number of vetoes of president issues?– Veto threats: whenever congress is considering a proposal, the president will oppose bill as it is, if it’s passed as it is, he will veto it.Reasons why he’ll veto: “why should we waste our time if I’m going to veto it… you could revise it and I won’t” – Partisan control of Congress: local variation… president’s party or other party incongress… if the other party is the majority, it makes for more vetoes• Gridlock: Arises when the two chambers of Congress and the president cannot agree on new legislation (inaction… no new policy being made) – The status quo is key to whether new laws will pass: what is policy if nothing happens?? Sometimes doing nothing will be better or worse…HOR:If congress was arguing the issue of minimum wage and the president wants to raise minimum wage ($10.10)… To raise it for the whole country takes congress… L to R scaleprojects perfectly onto what the idea min. wage should be (L = higher min. wage) (R = slightly lower min. wage) Current status quo: ($7.25)Which side does the issue lean more towards?? The house median and everybody needs to be onboard- President needs to come down a bit so everybody can be on board!Add Senate:Cloture rule will (60/100 senators) end debate so they can finally vote on bill.II. Appointments: President does this…- With the “advice and consent” of the Senate- Positions in executive agencies, ambassadorships, and courts- Looks for people who share philosophyIII. Orders, Agreements, and Signing Statements: President doesn’t have to weigh into area of gridlock- Executive orders can be used for major policy changesa. Avoid waiting for legislation - Executive agreements to avoid the Senate: a lot smaller than a treaty, senate doesn’thave to ratify… President and Other leader from another country come to an agreement. - Signing statements explain how the president interprets the law: President has decided to sign a bill that has passed congress, but makes a statement that says how he interprets the law… He can say he believes something is unconstitutional so do not follow that part of the law.IV. Presidential Signing StatementsV. Administrative Resources- White House staff: includes chief of staff, etc.- Executive Office of the Presidenta. An intermediate layer between the White House staff and the federal bureaucracyb. Advises the president on policy: transmit things from president to the bureaucracy… c. Implements policy and provides Congress with informationd. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is part of the EOP- The Vice PresidentVI. The Vice President: Not very useful?- The Constitution and the Vice Presidenta. The 12th and 25th Amendments: 12th established that votes for president and vice president are clearly marked… 25th established that if the president is disabled, the VP serves as active president until the real president is better- Duties and responsibilities todaya. Assumption of the presidency if neededb. Key advisorc. Breaks ties in the Senate: 60/100 d. Coordinates bureaucratic agenciesVII. Investigations, Impeachments, and Electoral Pressures- Checks on the presidenta. Courts can declare actions of the president unconstitutionalb. Veto override: 2/3 of each chamberc. Presidents can be impeached: only happened twice in history… neither convictedHOR votes to impeach, Senate hold triald. Elections and public