Untitled Flashcard Set

Chapter 1 Approaching the Study of Public Administration 21share (24 percent) of the total DHS budget; FEMA, 19 percent; the U.S.Coast Guard (USCG) received 16 percent; the Transportation SecurityAdministration (TSA) was allocated 11 percent; and U.S. Immigration andCustoms Enforcement (ICE), 14 percent.Independent Regulatory Boards and CommissionsAmong these organizations are other “alphabet soup” units such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federal Reserve Board (FRB), National LaborRelations Board (NLRB), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), andU.S. International Trade Commission (USITC). These organizations area second major type of administrative entity and differ from cabinet-leveldepartments in a number of important ways. First, they have a differentfunction—namely, to oversee and regulate activities of various parts of theprivate economic sector. Second, their leadership is plural rather than sin-gular; that is, they are headed by a board or commission of several individ-uals (usually five to nine) instead of a secretary. Third, they are designed tobe somewhat independent of other institutions and political forces. Mem-bers of these entities are appointed by the president with Senate approval(as are senior department officials) but have more legal protection than docabinet members against dismissal by the president; in addition, they nor-mally serve a term of office longer than that of the appointing president. Inrelation to Congress, these entities are supposedly somewhat freer to do theirjobs than are departments and their subunits; in practice, this is questionable,but the design does have some impact. Finally, these entities are designed toNote: Departmental Operations is composed of the Office of the Secretary & Executive Management, the Office of the Undersecretary for Management, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, the Office of the ChiefInformation Officer, the National Special Event Security Fund, and the DHS Headquarters Consolidation Project.Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FY 2021 Budget in Brief, p. 7. Figure 1-5Percent of TotalBudget Authority byOrganization, U.S.Department of HomelandSecurity, Fiscal Year 2021CBP24%USCG16%ICE14%TSA11%USCIS5%MD 4%CISA2%STD1%CWMD1%FLETC0%A&O0%OIG 0%OSEM0%FEMA19%60065_ch01_ptg01_002-055.indd 21 12/6/21 9:54 PMCopyright 2023 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.Copyright 2023 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-32322 Part 1 The Context, Nature, and Structure of Public Administration in Americaregulate private-sector enterprises in a detached and objective manner andare expected to prevent abuses, corruption, and the like. Some controversyhas existed, however, over just how detached and objective these organiza-tions have been in relation to those they regulate.Independent regulatory boards and commissions are not, however, theonly government entities having regulatory responsibilities. A phenomenonof considerable importance is the growth of government regulation since the1960s through a wide variety of other administrative instruments. Examplesinclude the FAA, state government departments of transportation, theNTSB, and the FDA. These agencies play important roles in their respectivepolicy areas with regard to setting rules and standards for those in the pri-vate sector. The increasing incidence of government regulation has spawnedrising political discontent over the scope and content of regulatory activity.Former President Clinton and Vice-President Gore ordered a cost-benefitanalysis of what were called “important” regulations, and recommended therescinding of those that were deemed “insignificant” (detailed in Chapters 10, Government Regulation and Administrative Law, and 11, Improving Performance Management in the Public Sector). They found that it is verydifficult in a large bureaucracy to eliminate the bad rules and make the goodones easier to understand. Sorting out the necessary from the unnecessary isa task—involving significant discretionary authority—heavily influenced bywidely varying public perceptions of what is “necessary”; private interests;congressional intent; and procedures governing regulatory agencies, boards,and commissions. The Obama administration attempted to broaden thescope of regulation to include consumer protection, financial institutions,and the provision of affordable health care to millions of Americans.Wholesale deregulation of national government authority was one of Pres-ident Trump’s major campaign promises. Without congressional approval,however, efforts to fulfill this promise were limited by Congress and thecourts. In Chapter 10, we will further explore the politics of regulation and regulatory reform.Government CorporationsThese are national, state, or local government organizations that are identi-cal to private corporations in most of their structures and operations exceptone—they are government owned. Also, while some (such as the NationalRailroad Passenger Corporation [Amtrak] and local public utilities) seek tomake a profit, others (such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation[FDIC] and the Lower Colorado River Authority of the state of Texas) donot. These are conceived as corporate entities for a number of reasons. First,their legislative charters allow them somewhat greater latitude in day-to-dayoperations than other agencies enjoy. Government corporations also havethe power to acquire, develop, and dispose of real estate and other kinds ofproperty while acting in their own names (rather than in the name of the60065_ch01_ptg01_002-055.indd 22 12/6/21 9:54 PMCopyright 2023 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.Copyright 2023 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-323 Chapter 1 Approaching the Study of Public Administration 23parent government). Finally, they can bring suit in a court of law and arelegally liable to be sued, also in their own name. Each is headed by a boardof directors, much as private corporations are, and is engaged in a wide vari-ety of governmental activities. Three entities established in recent decadesare Amtrak, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the U.S. PostalService (the Postal Service alone had more than 617,000 employees as of2020, about one-third of all civilian employees at the national governmentlevel); two of the oldest, both founded in the 1930s, are the FDIC and theTennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Consistent with his pro-business agenda,President Trump proposed privatization of the U.S. Postal Service. His Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, proposed massive changes in the PostalService in order to prevent its bankruptcy and DeJoy’s plan was supported by the Trump administration. It also should be noted that there was criticism of the Postal Service during the coronavirus pandemic, with many maintainingthat—due to staffing changes and increased demand—the quality of servicedeteriorated noticeably. A sweeping reform bill, which differed in significantrespects from what DeJoy had proposed, was submitted to Congress by theBiden administration in May 2021 with bipartisan support.14Executive Office of the President (EOP)The Executive Office of the President (EOP) is a collection of administra-tive bodies that are physically and organizationally housed close to the OvalOffice and designed to work for the president. Several of these entities areespecially prominent and important: (1) The White House Office con-sists of the president’s key staff aides and staff directors. (2) The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)assists the president in assembling budget requests for the entire executive branch and forwards them to Capitol Hill asthe president’s annual budget message, coordinates operating and regulatoryprograms, develops high-quality executive talent, and improves managementprocesses throughout the executive branch. (3) The Council of EconomicAdvisers (CEA) is the president’s principal research arm for economic policy;it frequently influences the president’s economic thinking. (4) Entities suchas the National Security Council (NSC) and the office of the Special Presi-dential Envoy for Climate, led by former Secretary of State John Kerry, weredesigned as forums for generating a broad overview of policy directions. TheNSC consists of the president, vice-president, key cabinet secretaries, andother relevant officials (including, for the first time, the Special PresidentialEnvoy for Climate). The formal purpose of these entities is to monitor andassess administration policies. These entities may become directly involved inpolicy making to a greater or lesser degree, according to each president’s pref-erences. As staffs have grown larger, however, actions can be taken without direct presidential supervision, as the Iran–Contra affair during the secondReagan administration (1985–1989) involving the NSC clearly illustrates (forelaboration, refer to Chapter 6).15Office ofManagement andBudget (OMB)an important entity in theExecutive Office of thePresident that assists thepresident in assemblingexecutive-branch budgetrequests, coordinatingprograms, developingexecutive talent, andsupervising programmanagement processesin national governmentagencies.60065_ch01_ptg01_002-055.indd 23 12/6/21 9:54 PMCopyright 2023 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.Copyright 2023 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-323 © Cengage