Unit 6 Presidency and Bureaucracy Vocab

22 Amendment

its the President to two terms. If they serve more than ½ of someone else's term, it counts as their first.

25 amendment

Sets the presidential lines of succession if the President dies in office.

Impeachment

Formal accusation against a president or other public official, the first step in removal from office.

Executive Orders

Formal orders issues by the president to direct action by the Federal bureaucracy

Chief of Staff

The head of the White House staff

Cabinet

 Advisory council for the president consisting of the heads of the executive departments, the vice president, and a few other officials selected by the president.

National Security Council

the principal forum used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security and foreign policy matters with senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the executive office of the president of the United States.

EOP

The cluster of presidential staff agencies that help the president carry out his responsibilities. Currently the office includes the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers, and several other units.

OMB

Presidential staff the agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.

Council of Economic Advisors

a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the President of the United States on economic policy.

Veto

A formal decision to reject the bill passed by Congress

Pocket Veto

A formal decision to reject a bill passed by Congress after it adjourns - if Congress adjourns during the ten days that the president is allowed in order to sign or veto law, the president can reject the law by taking no action at all.

Line Item Veto

Presidential power to strike, or remove, specific items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire package; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

War Powers Resolution

A resolution passed in 1973 requiring the president to give advance warning of a military attack or ask Congress for a declaration of war or specific legislation.

Treaty

 A formal, public agreement between the United States and one or more nations that must be approved by two thirds of the Senate.

Executive Agreement

A formal agreement between the U.S. president and the leaders of other nations that does not require Senate approval.

Congressional-executive Agreement

 A formal agreement between a U.S. president and the leaders of other nations that requires approval by both houses of Congress.

Electoral College

The electoral system used in electing the president and vice president, in which voters vote for electors pledged to cast their ballots for a particular party's candidates.

Presidential Ticket

The joint listing of the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same ballot as required by the Twelfth Amendment.

Take Care Clause

The constitutional requirement (in Article II, Section 3) that presidents take care that the laws are faithfully executed, even if they disagree with the purpose of those laws.

Inherent Powers

The constitutional requirement (in Article II, Section 3) that presidents take care that the laws are faithfully executed, even if they disagree with the purpose of those laws.

Recess Appointment

Presidential appointment made without Senate confirmation during Senate recess.

Executive Privilage

The right to keep executive communications confidential, especially if they relate to National Security.

Impoundment

 A decision by the president not to spend money appropriated by Congress, now prohibited under Federal law.

State of Union Address

The president’s annual statement to Congress and the nation

Mandate

A president’s claim of broad public support

Rally Point

A rising public approval of the president that follows a crisis as Americans "rally round the flag" and the chief executive.

Bureaucracy

A formal of organization that operates through impersonal, uniform rules and procedures

Bureaucrat

A career government employee

Pendleton Civil Service Act

a United States federal law, enacted in 1883, which established that positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political affiliation.

Civil Service

Federal employees who work for government through a competitive, not political selection process.

Spoils System

A system of public employment based on rewarding party loyalists and friends.

Merit System

 A system of public employment in which selection and promotion depend on demonstrated performance rather than political patronage

Hatch Act

Federal statute barring Federal employees from active participation in certain kinds of politics and protecting them from being fired on partisan grounds.

OPM

Agency that administers civil service laws, rules, and regulations.

GS Rating

the predominant pay scale for federal employees, especially employees in professional, technical, administrative or clerical positions. The system consists of 15 grades, from GS-1, the lowest level, to GS-15, the highest level.

Senior Executive Services

 Established by Congress in 1978 as a flexible, mobile corps of senior career executives who worked closely with presidential appointees to manage government.

Independent Agency

A government entity that is independent of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Independent Regulatory Commission

A government agency or commission with regulatory power whose independence is protected by Congress.

Government Corporation

A government agency that operates like a business corporation, created to secure greater freedom of action and flexibility for a particular program.

Government Corporations

There is no standard definition of a government-owned corporation (GOC) or state-owned enterprise (SOE), although the two terms can be used interchangeably. The defining characteristics are that they have a distinct legal form and they are established to operate in commercial affairs.

Independent Executive Agency

 those agencies that exist outside of the federal executive departments (those headed by a Cabinet secretary) and the Executive Office of the President.

Policy Implementation

The process of putting a law into practice through bureaucratic rules or spending.

Standard Operating Procedures

or SOP, is a set of step-by-step instructions compiled by an organization to help workers carry out complex routine operations. SOPs aim to achieve efficiency, quality output and uniformity of performance, while reducing miscommunication and failure to comply with industry regulations.

Adminstrative discretion

Authority given by Congress to the Federal bureaucracy to use reasonable judgment in implementing the laws.

Regulation

A precise statement of how a law is implemented. (The formal instructions that government issues for implementing laws.)

Deregulation

The removal of regulations or restrictions, especially in a particular industry.

Department

Usually the largest organization in government with the largest mission; also the highest rank in Federal hierarchy.

Federal Reserve Board

A variation of an independent regulatory agency with a chairman and board that controls the supply of money that flows through the U.S. economy.

Oversight

Legislative or executive review of a particular government program of organization. Can be in response to a crisis of some kind or part of routine review

Policy Makers

 Individual and groups that make the actual choices to create a public policy.

Distributive Policy

A public policy such as Social Security that provides benefits to all groups in society.

Redistributive Policy

A policy that provides to one group of society while taking henefts from another through policy solutions such as tax increases to pay for job training.

Policy Agenda

The list of issues that the federal government pays attention to.

Think Tank

A nongovernmental organization that seeks to influence public policy through research

Entitlement Programs

Programs such as unemployment insurance, disability relief, or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.

Iron Triangle

A policy-making instrument composed of a tightly related alliance of a congressional committee, interest groups, and a federal department or agency.