Chapter 8 & 9 Vocab – Flashcards

In the United States government, executive privilege is the power claimed by the President of the United States and other members of the executive branch to resist certain subpoenas and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of government to access information and personnel relating to the executive branch. The concept of executive privilege is not mentioned explicitly in the United States Constitution, but the Supreme Court of the United States ruled it to be an element of the separation of powers doctrine, and/or derived from the supremacy of executive branch in its own area of Constitutional activity. The Supreme Court confirmed the legitimacy of this doctrine in United States v. Nixon, but only to the extent of confirming that there is a qualified privilege. Once invoked, a presumption of privilege is established, requiring the Prosecutor to make a "sufficient showing" that the "Presidential material" is "essential to the justice of the case".

United States v. Nixon, was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision. It resulted in a unanimous 8-0 ruling against President Richard Nixon and was important to the late stages of the Watergate scandal. It is considered a crucial precedent limiting the power of any US president. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger wrote the opinion for a unanimous court, joined by Justices William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun and Lewis F. Powell. Burger, Blackmun and Powell were appointed to the Court by Nixon during his first term. Associate Justice William Rehnquist, a Nixon appointee, recused himself as he had previously served in the Nixon administration as Assistant Attorney General.

The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution deals with succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. It supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which does not expressly state whether the Vice President becomes the President or Acting President if the President dies, resigns, is removed from office or is otherwise unable to discharge the powers of the presidency. The Twenty-fifth Amendment was adopted on February 10, 1967. In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the top leaders of the executive branch. They are usually called ministers, but in some jurisdictions are sometimes called Secretaries. The functions of a cabinet are varied: in some countries it is a collegial decision-making body with collective responsibility, while in others it may function either as a purely advisory body or an assisting institution to a decision making head of state or head of government. In some countries, the cabinet is called "Council of Ministers" or "Government Council" or lesser known names such as "Federal Council", "Inner Council" or "High Council". These countries may differ in the way that the cabinet is used or established. In many parliamentary democracies, including those that use the Westminster system, Cabinet ministers are usually (or mandatory) appointed from among sitting members of the legislature and either remain members of the legislature while serving in the cabinet

An executive agreement is an agreement between the heads of government of two or more nations that has not been ratified by the legislature as treaties are ratified. Executive agreements are considered politically binding to distinguish them from treaties which are legally binding. An executive agreement is one of three mechanisms by which the United States enters into binding international agreements. They are considered treaties by some authors as the term is used under international law in that they bind both the United States and a foreign sovereign state. However, they are not considered treaties as the term is used under United States Constitutional law, because the United States Constitution's treaty procedure requires the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate, and these agreements are made solely by the President of the United States. Some other nations have similar provisions with regard to the ratification of treaties.

The line-item veto, or partial veto, is a special form of veto that authorizes a chief executive to reject particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill. Many countries have different standards for invoking the line-item veto, if it exists at all. Each country and/or state has its own particular requirement for overriding a line-item veto. In United States government, the line-item veto, or partial veto, is the power of an executive authority to nullify or cancel specific provisions of a bill, usually a budget appropriations bill, without vetoing the entire legislative package. The line-item vetoes are usually subject to the possibility of legislative override as are traditional vetoes. Forty-four states all except Indiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Vermont give their governors some form of line-item veto power. The Mayor of Washington, D.C. also has this power.

The War Powers Resolution is a federal law intended to check the president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. The Resolution was adopted in the form of a United States Congress joint resolution. It provides that the U.S. President can send U.S. Armed Forces into action abroad only by declaration of war by Congress, "statutory authorization," or in case of "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." The War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without a Congressional authorization for use of military force or a declaration of war. The resolution was passed by two-thirds of Congress, overriding a presidential veto.

The Executive Office of the President (EOPOTUS or EOP) consists of the immediate staff of the current President of the United States and multiple levels of support staff reporting to the President. The EOP is headed by the White House Chief of Staff, currently Denis McDonough. The size of the White House staff has increased dramatically since 1939, and has grown to include an array of policy experts in various fields. Senior staff within the Executive Office of the President have the title Assistant to the President, second-level staff have the title Deputy Assistant to the President, and third-level staff have the title Special Assistant to the President. Very few EOP officials are required to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, although there are a handful of exceptions to this rule. The core White House Staff appointments do not require Senate approval. The staff of the Executive Office of the President is managed by the White House Chief of Staff.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The main function of OMB is to produce the President's Budget.[2] OMB also measures the quality of agency programs, policies, and procedures and to see if they comply with the president's policies. The current OMB Director is Shaun Donovan, who was nominated by the president following the nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell to become the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. Donovan was confirmed by the Senate in a 75-22 vote. OMB prepares the President's budget proposal to Congress and supervises the administration of the executive branch agencies. OMB evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures, assesses competing funding demands among agencies, and sets funding priorities. OMB ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with the president's budget and with administration policies.

The federal bureaucracy consists of the roughly 500 departments, agencies, administrations, authorities, and commissions that carry out responsibilities assigned to them through Congressional legislation. The federal bureaucracy is huge: roughly 2.6 million employees, plus many freelance contractors. Everybody in the bureaucracy works to administer the law. For the most part, the executive branch manages the federal bureaucracy. Although the executive branch controls the majority of the federal bureaucracy, the legislative and judiciary branches also have some influence. Congress, for example, controls the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service, and the Government Accountability Office, among other bureaucracies. Through its power of oversight, Congress also monitors the federal bureaucracy to make sure that it acts properly. The courts sometimes get involved in the bureaucracy when issues of law and constitutionality arise, such as when a civil service regulation is violated or if an agency oversteps its jurisdiction.

In the politics of the United States, a spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party—as opposed to a merit system, where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of merit, independent of political activity. The term was derived from the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils" by New York Senator William L. Marcy, referring to the victory of the Jackson Democrats in the election of 1828, with the term spoils meaning goods or benefits taken from the loser in a competition, election or military victory. Similar spoils systems are common in other nations that traditionally have been based on tribal organization or other kinship groups and localism in general. Less obvious than the incompetence and/or indolence of many of its political appointees was the spoil system's propensity for also corrupting or installing already corrupt public officials. An early and glaring example of the perfidy that was associated with the spoils system is the matter of Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the United States during the Gilded Age, patronage became a controversial issue. Tammany boss William M. Tweed was an American politician who ran what is considered now to have been one of the most corrupt political machines in the country's history. Tweed and his cronies ruled for a brief time with absolute power over the city and state of New York. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railway, the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel. At times he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, the New York City Board of Advisors, and the New York State Senate. In 1873, Tweed was convicted for diverting between $40 million and $200 million of public monies. When James Garfield became president, he appointed corrupt men to several offices. This provoked the ire of the Stalwarts. Charles J. Guiteau assassinated Garfield in 1881, six months after he became President. To prevent further political violence and to assuage public outrage, Congress passed the Pendleton Act in 1883, which set up the Civil Service Commission. Henceforth, applicants for most federal government jobs would have to pass an examination. Federal politicians' influence over bureaucratic appointments waned, and patronage declined as a national political issue.

The United States civil service began to run on the spoils system in 1829 when Andrew Jackson became president. The assassination of United States President James A. Garfield by a disappointed office seeker in 1881 proved its dangers. Two years later, the system of appointments to the United States federal bureaucracy was revamped by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which made the merit system common practice. The fitness of the candidate is determined by the ability to pass a written competitive examination, given by a commission of examiners. The answers submitted by candidates must be unsigned, so as to obviate the possibility of favoritism on the part of the examiners. A list is made of the successful candidates, arranged in the order of their merit as shown by the results of the examination. Appointments must be made from this eligible list in the order of rank unless good cause can be shown why one of higher rank should be set aside for one standing lower on the list. A common objection to the merit system is that it does not provide a comprehensive method of judging a candidate's abilities or predicting their future performance. This flaw often eliminates the most competent candidate for selection. Proponents of the system admit that the system does not always lead to the choice of most competent candidate but is effective in eliminating those most incompetent.

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of United States is a federal law established in 1883 that decided that government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political affiliation. The act provided selection of government employees by competitive exams, rather than ties to politicians or political affiliation. It also made it illegal to fire or demote government officials for political reasons and prohibited soliciting campaign donations on Federal government property. To enforce the merit system and the judicial system, the law also created the United States Civil Service Commission. This board would be in charge of determining the rules and regulations of the act. The Act also allowed for the president, by executive order to decide which positions could be subject to the act and which would not. A crucial result was the shift of the parties to reliance on funding from business, since they could no longer depend on patronage hopefuls.

The Civil Service System (CSS) was organized in 1920 and has provided retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for most civilian employees in the United States federal government. Upon the creation of a new Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) in 1987, those newly hired after that date cannot participate in CSRS. CSRS continues to provide retirement benefits to those eligible to receive them. CSRS is a defined-benefit plan, akin to a pension. Employees hired after 1983 are required to be covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), which is a three tiered retirement system with a smaller defined benefit (pension), Social Security, and a 401(k)-style system called the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). The defined benefits of both the CSRS and the FERS systems are paid out of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, which had a projected balance of $832 billion as of September 30, 2013.

A regulatory agency (also regulatory authority, regulatory body or regulator) is a public authority or government agency responsible for exercising autonomous authority over some area of human activity in a regulatory or supervisory capacity. An independent regulatory agency is a regulatory agency that is independent from other branches or arms of the government. Regulatory agencies deal in the area of administrative law regulation or rulemaking (codifying and enforcing rules and regulations and imposing supervision or oversight for the benefit of the public at large). The existence of independent regulatory agencies is justified by the complexity of certain regulatory and supervisory tasks that require expertise, the need for rapid implementation of public authority in certain sectors, and the drawbacks of political interference. Some independent regulatory agencies perform investigations or audits, and some are authorized to fine the relevant parties and order certain measures.

A state-owned enterprise (SOE) otherwise known as a: state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, crown corporation, government-owned corporation, commercial government agency, public sector undertaking, or parastatal is a legal entity that undertakes commercial activities on behalf of an owner government. The legal status of SOEs varies from being a part of the government to being stock companies with the state as a regular stockholder. The defining characteristics of SOEs are that they have a distinct legal form and they are established to operate in commercial affairs. While they may also have public policy objectives, SOEs should be differentiated from other forms of government agencies or state entities established to pursue purely non-financial objectives. Government-owned corporations are common with natural monopolies and infrastructure such as railways and telecommunications, strategic goods and services (mail, weapons), natural resources and energy, politically sensitive business, broadcasting, demerit goods (alcohol), and merit goods (healthcare).

The Hatch Act of 1939, officially An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, is a United States federal law whose main provision prohibits employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president, vice-president, and certain designated high-level officials of that branch, from engaging in some forms of political activity. The law was named for Senator Carl Hatch of New Mexico. It was most recently amended in 2012. The 1939 Act forbade the intimidation or bribery of voters and restricts political campaign activities by federal employees. It prohibits using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes. It forbade officials paid with federal funds from using promises of jobs, promotion, financial assistance, contracts, or any other benefit to coerce campaign contributions or political support. It provided that persons below the policy-making level in the executive branch of the federal government must not only refrain from political practices that would be illegal for any citizen, but must abstain from "any active part" in political campaigns, using this language to specify those who are exempt.

A bill to restore to Federal civilian employees their rights to participate, as private citizens, in the political life of the Nation, to protect Federal civilian employees from improper political solicitations. This is a House of Representatives bill in the United States Congress. A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law. In 1939, Congress approved landmark legislation known as the Hatch Act to limit the political activities of Federal employees, employees of the District of Columbia and certain employees of state and local governments. In 1993, legislation was passed that substantially amended the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act Reform Amendments of 1993 permit most Federal employees to take an active part in partisan political management and partisan political campaigns. While Federal employees are still prohibited from seeking public office in partisan elections, most employees are free to work, while off duty, on the partisan campaigns of the candidates of their choice.

In United States politics, the iron triangle comprises the policy-making relationship among the congressional committees, the bureaucracy, and interest groups. In the United States, power is exercised in the Congress, and particularly in congressional committees and subcommittees. By aligning itself with selected constituencies, an agency may be able to affect policy outcomes directly in these committees and subcommittees. This is where an iron triangle may manifest itself. The picture above displays the concept. At one corner of the triangle are interest groups. These are the powerful interests groups that influence Congressional votes in their favor and can sufficiently influence the re-election of a member of Congress in return for supporting their programs. At another corner sit members of Congress who also seek to align themselves with a constituency for political and electoral support.

Issue Networks differ from Iron Triangles in that they seek to support the public interests, not private ones, by seeking to benefit a wide ranging constituency that supports their side of the issue. Issue networks can be antagonistic to iron triangles as they may oppose a policy pushed by a private interest group, and carried out by a government agency. This is particularly the case in regards to environmental issue networks that disagree with the lax environmental standards pursued by private energy companies. It is also important to note often different Issue networks can also compete with one another, as in the case of proponents and opponents of abortion. In political scientist Hugh Heclo's model, an issue network is a rather fluid, loose grouping of people and organizations who seek to influence policy formation. Thus, an issue network is not as easily identifiable or as neatly categorized as an Iron Triangle or subgovernment: "Looking for the closed triangles of control, we tend to miss the fairly open networks that increasingly impinge upon our government."

The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) is an independent federal agency within the U.S. executive branch and is composed of 19 Cabinet secretaries and agency heads. The current chairperson is Department of Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell serves as the vice chairperson. The Executive Director of USICH is Matthew Doherty. USICH partners with these 19 federal agencies, state and local governments, advocates, service providers, and people experiencing homelessness to achieve the goals outlined in the first federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, Opening Doors. Coordinate the federal response to homelessness and to create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the Federal Government in contributing to the end of homelessness.

In public administration, administrative discretion refers to the flexible exercising of judgment and decision making allowed to public administrators Regulatory agencies have the power to exercise this type of discretion in their day-to-day activities, and there have been cases where regulatory agencies have abused this power. Administrative law can help these agencies get on the path of following regulations, serve the public, and in turn, a reflection of the public's values and beliefs. There's a need for administrative discretion because the public's interest could be at risk if several agencies were not following laws and regulations. Administrative discretion is important because without it, it could lead to arbitrary and unreasonable use of such discretion, which may lead to destruction of basic principles of administrative law.

In administrative law, rule-making is the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or promulgate, regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more detailed regulations through rule making. By bringing detailed scientific and other types of expertise to bear on policy, the rulemaking process has been the means by which some of the most far-reaching government regulations of the 20th century have been created. For example, science-based regulations are critical to modern programs for environmental protection, food safety, and workplace safety. However, explosive growth in regulations has fueled criticism that the rulemaking process reduces the transparency and accountability of democratic government. Legislatures rely on rulemaking to add more detailed scientific, economic, or industry expertise to a policy—fleshing out the broader mandates of authorizing legislation. For example, typically a legislature would pass a law mandating the establishment of safe drinking water standards, and then assign an agency to develop the list of contaminants and safe levels through rulemaking.

Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States was a drill manual written by Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben during the American Revolutionary War. Commissioned to train troops at Valley Forge, Steuben first formed a model drill company of 120 men who were in turn to train further companies until the entire army was trained under the same procedures as the first company of troops. Following this exercise, Steuben published his drill instructions in a manual that was widely distributed throughout the Continental Army. Originally entitled "Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States," this manual became commonly known as the army's "blue book." It remained the official U.S. military guide until 1812.

The Administrative Conference is undertaking a project to map the contours of the federal administrative adjudicatory process, including both "formal" adjudication conducted under the Administrative Procedure Act and "informal" adjudication. Most studies of federal agency adjudication by the Conference or others took place years ago or assessed only limited aspects of the adjudication process. There is no single, up-to-date resource that paints a comprehensive picture of agency adjudications across the federal government. The current study aims to fill this gap. As such, this study does not only update and deepen prior studies on administrative adjudication conducted by the Conference, but also highlights adjudicatory trends and developments. Best practices and/or other recommendations are drawn from project-related research and data and the information gathered is available in a public database. Additionally, it is expected that the project will yield a published report, which will serve as a unique resource for members of Congress and their staffs, federal agency and judicial officials, Conference members, and the general public.