Logic Chapter 7: The Presidency

POLS-001: American Political Systems

“take care” clause

The provision in Article II, Section 3, of the Constitution instructing the president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

blame game

A strategy by the opposition majority party in Congress to pass popular legislation the president is already on record as opposing. When presidents veto these bills, they and their party suffer voters’ displeasure at the polls. When presidents sign these bills, they give the opposition the policies that it prefers and the administration opposes.

Brownlow reports

Report issued in 1937 by the President’s Committee on Administrative Management that likened the president to the CEO of a large corporation and concluded that the president needed a professional staff.

central clearance

A presidential directive requiring that all executive agency proposals, reports, and recommendations to Congress, mostly in the form of annual reports and testimony at authorization and appropriations hearings, be certified by the Office of Management and Budget as consistent with the president’s policy.

chief of staff system

The means by which a chain of command is imposed on the president’s staff. The system clarifies responsibilities and shields the president from having to micromanage the staff’s routine activities.

commander in chief

The title given to the president by the Constitution that denotes the president’s authority as the head of the national military.

detailed staff

Staff from another government agency sent to assist the White House.

divided government

A term used to describe government when one political party controls the executive branch and the other political party controls one or both houses of the legislature.

enrolled bill

A bill that has been passed by both the Senate and the House and has been sent to the president for approval.

executive agreement

An agreement between the president and one or more other countries. It’s similar to a treaty, but unlike a treaty, it does not require the approval of the Senate.

Executive Office of the President

A collection of agencies that help the president oversee department and agency activities, formulate budgets and monitor spending, craft legislation, and lobby Congress. The major components, established in 1939 by President Franklin Roosevelt, include the White House Office, Office of Management and Budget, National Security Council, and Council of Economic Advisers, among other agencies.

executive order

A presidential directive to an executive agency establishing new policies or indicating how an existing policy is to be carried out.

executive privilege

This concept refers to an inherent privacy protection for presidents as they formulate policy. For the first time, in 1974 the Supreme Court affirmed that the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine required that presidents be able to preserve confidentiality, except where presidential malfeasance is being investigated.

going public

When presidents engage in intensive public relations to promote their policies to the voters and thereby induce cooperation from other elected officeholders in Washington.

impoundment

An action taken by the president in which he or she proposes not to spend all or part of a sum of money appropriated by Congress.

line-item veto

A procedure, available in 1997 for the first time, permitting a president to cancel amounts of new discretionary appropriations (budget authority), as well as new items of direct spending (entitlements) and certain limited tax benefits, unless Congress disapproves by law within a specified period of time. It was declared unconstitutional in 1998.

National Security Council

The highest advisory body to the president on military and diplomatic issues. Established in 1947, this agency in the Executive Office of the President helps the president coordinate the actions of government agencies, including the State and Defense Departments and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, into a single cohesive policy for dealing with other nations.

Office of Management and Budget

The most important agency in the Executive Office of the President. The budget bureau, created in 1921 to act as a central clearinghouse for all budget requests, was renamed and given increased responsibilities in 1970. It advises the president on fiscal and economic policies, creates the annual federal budget, and monitors agency performance, among other duties.

presidential memorandum

A presidential directive to an agency directing it to alter its administration of policies along lines prescribed in the memorandum. When it is published in the Federal Register, it assumes the same legal standing of an executive order.

signing statement

A statement issued by the president that is intended to modify implementation or ignore altogether provisions of a new law.

State of the Union address

A message to Congress under the constitutional directive that the president 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.”

unitary executive theory

When a president claims prerogative to attach signing statements to bills and asserts his or her right to modify implementation or ignore altogether provisions of a new law that encroaches on his or her constitutional prerogatives as the chief executive or as commander in chief.

veto

The formal power of the president to reject bills passed by both houses of Congress. It can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in each house.

veto threat

With the rise of divided party control of the branches, modern presidents have increasingly threatened to veto the opposition party’s proposals to dissuade them from pursuing the policy or persuading them to negotiate a compromise with the administration.

War Powers Act

Law that requires the president to inform Congress within forty-eight hours of committing troops abroad in a military action.

White House Office

Agency in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) that serves as the president’s personal staff system. Although the entire EOP does the president’s business, the White House staff consists of the president’s personal advisers, who oversee the political and policy interests of the administration.