Name ___________________________ Date __________ Period ________

Chap. 6, Lesson 4 “How the Executive Branch Works”

Directions: Read lesson 4, pages 205 – 211 and complete the notes below.

Introduction

1. The executive branch is organized like a pyramid___. In general, the powerful officials at the top set goals and make most important decisions.

2. This group of appointed officials and lesser officials and managers are referred to as the President’s “administration.”

The Executive Office of the President

1. Like a large office with several smaller offices inside__. (Think of our school, with its many offices.)

2. The most important of the EOP offices are as follows:

The White House Office Chief of Staff - Jeff Zients

1. This EOP is overseen by the most powerful official in the White House Office, which is the _Chief of Staff__.

2. This person: a) takes care of the president’s schedules; b) decides who is allowed to meet with the president; The chief of staff and deputy chiefs of staff and senior advisers serve as the president’s closest advisors.

Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre

(Karine Jean-Pierre is the first Black person and LGBTQ press secretary in U.S. history)

1. Another is the President’s Press Secretary___. He or she informs the media and provides the public with news about, and statements from, the president. The White House Office’s approximately 500 people help the president develop policy and communicate with Congress and the general public.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

1. Helping the President prepare the yearly budget is the responsibility of the Office of Management and Budget*. The OMB must monitor spending in* hundreds of agencies______.

2. This budget is the clearest statement of the administration’s plans and goals for the coming year.

The National Security Council___ (NSC)

1. The National Security Council advises the president on matters of national security.

2. The NSC consists of the following positions: a) vice president__;

3. b) Secretaries of state (Anthony Blinken) and c) defense (Lloyd Austin);

d) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff_(Mark Milley) who are the top commanders from each of the armed forces; e) the Director of National Intelligence; and is headed by the f) National Security Advisor.

1. Other offices exist as well. (like the Council of Economic Advisers. CEA gives advice on economic policy. It addresses such matters as job growth, prices, and trade.)

Cabinet Responsibilities

1. A group of presidential advisors made up of the heads of executive departments (15)_, the

vice president_____________ and other top officials__.

1. All are headed by secretaries, except the Department of Justice_, which is headed by an attorney general. Secretaries are appointed by the president and approved by the Senate.

2. The last department added was the Department of Homeland Security_, added after Sept. 11, 2001.

3. Cabinet responsibilities include: a) advise the president on issues related to their departments; b) meet whenever the president thinks it’s necessary*. The president decides what* advice to follow.

4. Vice presidents sit in on many cabinet meetings; have other responsibilities given by the president_, while First Ladies have served the country in many ways and, today, have offices in the White House.

The Federal Bureaucracy

1. Employees and agencies of the federal executive branch are often called the federal bureaucracy and individual workers are often called bureaucrats_ or civil servants_. There are about three million people in the executive branch.

2. Their main goal is to carry out the laws/programs Congress creates__.

3. To do this, they do three basic jobs: a) write rules that put laws passed by Congress into practice; b) manage the day-to-day operations of the federal government; c) oversee and regulate various activities____________.

4. They develop public policy, which is deciding how to run a government program, or how to handle a certain situation.

5. Three types of independent agencies are:

   1. Executive Agencies, which are specialized agencies; deal with certain areas within the government (Ex: NASA – which handles space programs; CIA -- provides intelligence about other countries).

   2. Government Corporations which are businesses run by the government to provide certain services (Ex: U.S. Postal Service; Amtrak).

   3. Regulatory Commissions, which protect the public by making and enforcing rules for certain industries or groups (Ex: Federal Communications Commission – FCC – which regulates TV, radio, etc. or the Atomic Energy Commission; the Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) establishes safety standards for consumer products.).

Government Workers

1. Political appointees – people whom the president has chosen due to executive ability or political support. (Their employment usually ends when the president leaves office.)

2. Civil service workers – usually have permanent employment (90% of nat’l gov’t. workers). Get jobs based on merit (see below).

Civil Service System

1. Spoils System – In this system government jobs go to people as a reward for their political support. (the “spoils” is a term of war – referring to the loot the goods won as a result of victory; so, winning election allows you to hire people to certain jobs.) This was the traditional way of doing things.

2. Due to public dissatisfaction with abuses of this system and the assassination of President Garfield by a man who was refused a job, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, also known as the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883.

3. This law created the civil service system*, which placed* limits on the number of jobs a new president could hand out to friends and backers and created a “merit system.”

4. Merit System – The civil service system is a “merit system” which means government officials hire new workers from lists of people who have passed the tests and meet civil service standards.