04 23 2012 Set of presidential resources Expertise advice and information How important is the cabinet in present day presidencies o They re sources of expertise and advice but they tend to be down graded as a collective body by presidents o Too many people lack of secrecy o President doesn t know trust everyone o First loyalty may be to clientele and or Dept Not the Pres go native their interest groups o Reluctant to disagree with pres job security Inner cabinet Sec of State Clinton defense Panetta Treasury Geithner and Attorney General Holder Homeland Security Napolitano o Newest dept not sure if part of inner cabinet although important actor in recent years The Presidential Bureaucracy Reorganization Act of 1939 Executive Office of the President EOP containing WHO White House Office and Bureau of the Budget BOB Nixon concentrated power in WHO and EOP more broadly 600 in WHO 5000 in EOP White House Office WHO in EOP Don t need to go through senate confirmation appointed directly by the president WHO s president s personal bureaucracy 400 folks Works directly for fired by pres Chief of Staff usually most important position was Emanuel then Daley now Jack Lew gatekeeper info broker pres s surrogate representative and protector How to organize WHO 1 Spokes of the Wheel model FDR many have access to pres little hierarchy pres as own chief of staff Not being handled but easy to be overwhelmed not too great for A competitive variant FDR overlapping responsibilities to people modern day presidents who disagree o Benefits Lots of info to pres No delay in receipt of info No 1 group adviser has too much power o Drawbacks Too much info for pres overload taxes pres to manage and know all In fighting Difficult to assign blame or credit B Collegial variant JFK Ford Clinton pres brings together advisers and discuss as a group o Benefits Variety of perspectives Focus on big questions Flexible o Drawbacks of pres groupthink will not bring up points contrary to those Reactive 2 Centralized Management formalistic hierarchical Ike Nixon Reagan both Bushes specialization few on top chief of staff as gate keeper Benefits Dangers o Saves pres s time and energy o Less in fighting o Clearer responsibilities o Real world has inter related issue problems o Communication bias problems original ideas become distorted working up through chain of command takes time what if line breaks and chief of staff bottles up info o Pres becomes too isolated Well known parts of the EOP in addition to WHO OMB 1970 BOB 1921 70 Peter Orszag resigned as Director in late 2010 replaced by Jack Lew who held same job from 1998 1001 current interim is Jeffrey Zients 1 Develops President s annual budget 2 Legislative clearance 3 Regulatory clearance Council of Economic Advisers CEA Princeton U National Security council 1947 1946 Full Employment Act current chair is Dr Alan Kruger on leave from Statutory members are President VP Secs of State and Defense National Security Advisers president s assistant Gen James Jones was replaced by Tom Donilon and NS Staff Vice President a throw away job Dead end job Used to be seen as a small almost meaningless job not worth the bad media and talk just for a picture Eisenhower began to upgrade job with Nixon Walter Mondale as Carter s VP Al Gore during Clinton s administration Cheney unprecedented influence power during Bush s administration President and the Bureaucracy Why frustrating difficult relationship s for presidents Federal Bureaucracy Myth that federal bureaucracy has been GROWING rapidly in terms of of employees over recent decades of federal bureaucrats reached its peak over 20 years ago per capita in decline for many decades with recent uptick Growth taking place at the state and local levels Better for bureaucrats to look to work at these levels Limitations of the President with the Bureaucracy Appointed power quite limited Only appoints about 4 000 or so of 2 8 million employees 001 most are civil service merit positions o Job Security Merit positions are pretty safe since you apply and earn it by merit it is hard to actually get fired For the president this means they can t exert as much power as they would like However they try to obey president at least a bit Selection criteria may restrict Folks who are tapped by president to work refuse the job o don t want to go through senate confirmation process o Stress consideration o Ideology o pay cuts Even appointees go native o Associate and empathize more with people they are serving and their clientele rather than the person who appointed them the president Confronts SOPs red tape and fragmentation Communication failures both up and down The institutional imperative Want to keep agency intact survival of agency and sustaining job also staying in budget iron triangles composed of interest group bureaucracy and congress Congress friendly legislation oversight Int group Int group information and electoral support congress Congress funding and legislative support bureaucracy Bureaucracy favorable action on constituency services congress Bureaucracy favorable policy execution Int group Int group lobbies congress for agency support Bureaucracy Reorganization power but Congress must approve Likely opposed by affected agency dept congressional oversight committee and clientele and iron triangle involved if there is one More generally confronts a competing principal in Congress that competes for control of bureaucratic agents Congress functions Creates and abolishes departments and agencies and can transfer their Writes and passes the laws that bureaucrats administer Power of the purse controls budgets and funding Engages in oversight e g hearing and investigations Senate must confirm many presidential appointees President has some influence over bureaucracy has Central Clearance via OMB Budgetary legislative and regulatory clearance PRESIDENCY AND CONGRESS some other notes on president and congress Veto Power majority Presidential use of veto greater when the congress in power is of other party Simplified Veto Game assuming Congress cannot muster 2 3 override 1 Scenario 1 President and Congress have sharply different policy preferences president prefers status quo will veto or more likely Congress will not even legislate Lib Pres Status quo Cong Cons 2 Scenario 2 Congress favors a more drastic change in policy than does the President Congress will pass legislation marginally more attractive to president than the status quo Lib Cong