How Does the Bureaucracy Interact with Other Government Branches?

1. How Does the Bureaucracy Interact with Other Government Branches?

2. Executive Branch and the Bureaucracy • President appoints heads of agencies • Because he appoints the leaders of agencies, they must follow his direction • If he issues an executive order, they have to do it (i.e. Clinton issued an executive order to import RU486, an abortion pill, so the FDA set up guidelines for testing it) • OMB can recommend increases and decreases in budgets and the budgetary process allows for agency growth • President has the power to reorganize federal departments but not abolish them

3. Congress and the Bureaucracy • This is done in two primary ways: money and investigation • Because the Senate must approve both presidential appointments and agency budgets, the agencies are sensitive to Congress’ agenda • Most interaction is done on the issue of oversight, where agency heads are called to testify about issues related to the workings of that agency- this is largely done through the standing committee system

4. Congressional Supervision: Money • No agency can exist without congressional approval • No money can be spent unless authorized by Congress. Authorization legislation starts in legislative committees who determine the max. amount an agency can spend on a given program • Even funds authorized still have to be appropriated (or designated specifically for something). These originate with the House appropriations committee

5. Budget Exercise • Read through the budget process • Look at Obama’s proposed budget to Congress • Which agencies are given the most money? The least? • Your task. You need to cut $300 billion from this budget. How and where will you cut? How will you raise money for the budget?

6. Appropriations Committee and Legislative Subcommittees • Real power over budget is within the appropriations committee and power of this committee rarely challenged • Appropriations has lost some of its power: • Trust funds operate outside of reg. govern budget • Congress has changed many programs from permanent to annual authorizations, so the legislative committees set limits on them • Huge budget deficits have meant that Congress has focused more on cutting the budget than on evaluating the merits of certain programs

7. Legislative Veto • Requirement that an executive decision must lie before Congress for a specified period of time before it takes effect. • This could allow Congress to veto a decision by a resolution of disapproval • 1983 Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional

8. Congressional Supervision: Investigations • Power to investigate not specifically mentioned in the Constitution but is inferred from the power to legislate and Supreme Court has upheld this interpretation

9. Iron Triangle • Relationship between Congress, Bureaucracies (agency of the Executive Branch), and interest groups or public • Example is highly criticized Military- Industrial complex • Example: Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs, House/Senate Committees on veteran’s affairs, and veteran’s organizations

10. Major Complaints about the Bureacracy • Too much “red tape” – regulation • Too much conflict between agencies • Too much duplication • Too much waste- spending more than necessary • Imperialism- tendency for agencies to grow without regard to utility of programs

11. Attempted Reform Efforts • Grace Commission- 1982- less government • “REGO”-Reinvent Government- 1993- Clinton and Gore try to make the gov. more efficient • Performance standards for agency programs • Any agency spending more than $20 million annually had to submit a budget to OMB with a five-year progress plan • Reducing fed. Workforce by 12 percent