Semester 2 Week 4 Executive Branch or Week 5 Presidential Powers
https://extension.usu.edu/uyc/files/fun-activities-parliamentary-procedure.pdf
https://taylor.extension.wisc.edu/files/2013/01/parliamentaryprocedureguide31_000.pdf
Credit: Kami Harris
Simulation:
Notice garbage on the floor. Somebody should do something about this. This is a mess. I think the President of iFamily should know about this and take care of it. Tell Lawson to go get his mom. When she comes, explain the garbage mess to her. Have her decide on some crazy rule, so that it doesn’t happen again. (No more notebooks that don’t have clean edges. I think I will go and talk with my board and have them check back packs as people come in, so that we don’t end up with a mess like this again.)
Thank her for coming in and excuse her.
I’m just thinking that this will solve the problem of notebook paper, but what about when people make other messes like…
Question: Do you think this was the best way to handle this? Why or why not? What may have been a better way?
Have the students think about this as we talk about the powers of the executive branch and why the founders believed that the local and state governments should ultimately have power in taking care of problems that occur on local and state levels rather than having the federal government take responsibility for these problems.
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One of the branches of the federal government is the executive branch. The President administers the executive branch of our government.
Tell the students that the founders limited the President’s responsibilities to six areas. The President has been given a host of other responsibilities that the Founders would have never dreamed of.
Original intent of the founders to limit powers of the federal government. James Madison pointed out that the Constitution was structured so that “the powers delegated…to the federal government are few.” He also pointed out that “the number of individuals employed under the Constitution of the United States will be much smaller than the number employed under the particular States.” He also said, “The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
The ratio of government employees in our day is 200 times greater than what it was in Washington’s day.
None of these other responsibilities have been authorized by a constitutional amendment.
These responsibilities are outside the original intent of the Founders.
Ask the students to tell you what six responsibilities they think the Founders intended for the President.
Responsibilities given to the President explained in more detail
Divide the class into groups and give each group one of the six responsibilities that the President is given in the Constitution. Explain that each responsibility is outlined clearly in the Constitution and the parts of the Constitution that apply to this responsibility (found in Article 2) are underneath each responsibility. (The italicized words explain the Constitution.) Have each group read through their given information and be prepared to summarize the points to the rest of the class.
- Chief of state over 300 million Americans
The executive power to administer the affairs of the United States shall be vested (having rights to something) in a single individual, the President of the United States.
The Founders felt that a single Executive would provide greater efficiency and could not evade accountability, and that a plural executive would be disastrous in time of crisis.
- Commander in chief over a military force of 3 million
The President shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States and of the militia of the several states when they are called into active service by the federal government.
The President does not have the power to declare war. This power is expressly given to Congress, but he has command of them once war has been declared and the military has been called out.
The President shall commission all officers of the United States.
This provision gives the President the right to commission all federal military officers who will serve under him as their commander in chief.
- Chief executive officer of the whole executive branch of the government
The President may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officers who superintend the various bureaus and agencies, or other services of the executive department. Such officers shall be required to report to the President any pertinent information he may desire concerning those duties and responsibilities assigned to any office.
The principal officers are the President’s cabinet. The cabinet members typically are called into meetings once or twice a week. They meet in a room of the White house called the “Cabinet room,” which is adjacent to the Oval Office. The President consults with the Cabinet on what he considers to be proper. Their opinion is to be given in writing. This makes them more cautious and less flippant about the opinions they give. The President still makes the final decision and uses his own judgment to do so.
All thirteen Cabinet posts are filled by individuals who are called “Secretary,” except in the Department of Justice, where the Cabinet officer is called the “Attorney General.”
Here is the order in which the different departments were created:
Department of State 1789
Department of the Treasury 1789
Department of War 1789 (renamed the Department of Defense)
Department of Justice 1789
Department of the Interior 1849
Department of Agriculture 1889
Department of Commerce 1903
Department of Labor 1913
Department of Health and Human Services 1953
Department of Housing and Urban Development 1965
Department of Transportation 1967
Department of Energy 1977
Department of Education 1979
Department of Veterans Affairs 1988
Department of Homeland Security2002
The President shall see that the federal laws are faithfully administered and executed.
The Congress my, by law, delegate to the President, the various courts, or the heads of departments authority to appoint inferior officers.
This provision gave the Congress the right to authorize the President, chief administrators, and judges to appoint lesser officers without going through the elaborate confirmation process required for the more important positions.
The President shall have power to fill vacancies which occur while the Senate is in recess, but such commissions shall expire at the end of the next session if the appointment has not been confirmed by the Senate.
This provision gives the President the right to make temporary appointments in order to fill vacancies to important positions while the Senate is not in session and therefore cannot confirm the appointments.
- The chief diplomat in handling foreign relations.
The President shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided that two-thirds of the Senators who are present concur with the provisions thereof.
This provision gives the people the right not to be subject to any agreement with a foreign nation which has not received the consent of two-thirds of the Senators who were present when the matter was presented to them. (A quorum (51) must be present when the vote is taken.)
A treaty is a written contract between two or more governments respecting matters of mutual welfare, such as peace, the acquisition of territory, the defining of boundaries, the needs of trade, the rights of citizenship, the ownership or inheritance of property, the benefits of copyrights and patents, or any other similar subject.
The President shall nominate and, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint ambassadors, public ministers, consuls (a government official living in a foreign city to promote the commercial interests of the official's own country and protect its citizens), judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States not otherwise provided for in this Constitution.
This includes cabinet members.
This provision gave the President the right to nominate and the Senate the right to confirm or reject every important new appointment of judges and administrators who would serve in the government of the United States.
The President shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers from foreign nations.
This provision gives the President the right to determine whether or not the United States will maintain diplomatic relations with another country.
- The chief architect for needed legislation
The President shall, from time to time, give the Congress a report on the state of the union.
This typically happens at the time of the opening of Congress in January or when an emergency or unusual circumstance has risen.
The President shall recommend to the Congress such measure as he shall consider necessary and expedient to improve the general welfare of the nation.
This provision gives the President the right to recommend needed legislation to Congress.
On extraordinary occasions, the President may call together both the House of Representatives and the Senate in a special session.
This provision gives the President the right to convene the Congress in a special session whenever he feels critical circumstances warrant it. Examples include: the important functions of declaring war, appropriating funds for military action, borrowing emergency resources, and so forth. All these are powers that rest exclusively in the Congress, not the President. This gives the President the power to call the Congress into action when needed.
Should the House and Senate disagree as to the date of their adjournment, the President may designate the time when their adjournment shall take place.
- The conscience of the nation in granting pardons or reprieves when he feels justice requires them.
The people of the states empower the President to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States.
Grant reprieves—which means to delay the execution of a sentence.
Grant pardons—which means to grant the suspension of or the mitigation of a sentence.
Only the President can exercise this power in federal cases. Only the governor can exercise this power in state cases.
The President can pardon treason, but not impeachment.
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Quickly read through the current list of President’s responsibilities:
Other things the Congress has assigned the President that was not outlined by the Founders:
- The responsibility of maintaining full employment for the work force of the entire nation.
- The task of ensuring a high level of agricultural prosperity.
- The task of developing a national housing program
- The task of supervising the exclusive distribution of atomic energy resources.
- Underwriting hundreds of billions of dollars in private loans and private insurance programs.
- Providing various kinds of federal relief for the victims of natural disaster throughout the country.
- Administering a national welfare program.
- Administering a national Medicare and Medicaid program
- Administering a national social security program.
- Allocating billions of dollars for educating the young.
- Settling major labor union-management disputes.
- Administering a network of health agencies
- Administering the environmental protection of the entire nation.
- Administering nearly 40 percent of the nation’s land area and its resources
- Administering supervisory control over the discovery and development of all major energy resources.
- Regulating all major Unites States industries such as steel, automobile manufacturing, coal mining, oil production, metal mining, and so forth.
- Supervising all radio and television broadcasting in the United States as a prerequisite to issuing licenses.
- Monitoring the manufacturing and distribution of food and drugs and requiring special permission before any drug can be distributed.
- Initiating various types of federal programs on a regional basis to replace many powers and activities originally reserved to the sovereign states.
Question: What are the problems that you see with giving the Executive Department so many responsibilities?
By having the federal government in charge of so many issues, how does this encroach upon your freedom?
Giving all these responsibilities to the Executive Department has four major problems from Making of America:
- It is unbelievably expensive. (Many things cost from double to a hundred times more when done by the federal government than they do when assigned to a competitive private contractor.) (Wouldn’t it be easier to just see what needs done and do it or have each class pick up after themselves etc?)
- By its very nature, government is sluggish and inefficient.
- It places billions of dollars in the hands of the executive department which can be and have been used to intimidate both the members of Congress and the states.
- It is impossible for one human being to effectively administer all of the things that have been assigned to him. The Founders believed that problems were best solved at their lowest level.
My own thoughts: When people don’t have the opportunity to take care of their own problems, their initiative to take care of problems diminishes. There is a direct tie between taking responsibility for the choices we make and the amount of freedom we have.
As the federal government takes responsibility for what takes place on a local level, this becomes more of a top heavy or tyrannical government, and there is less freedom. The founders organized the Constitution so that the government is “bottom heavy--” the power and responsibilities rests with the people.
All information for this lecture came from Making of America part III.
“The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
-James Madison
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and infinite….The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.” -James Madison
“The number of individuals employed under the Constitution of the United States will be much smaller than the number employed under the particular States.”
-James Madison
Chief of state over 300 million Americans
Commander in chief over a military force of 3 million
Chief executive officer of the whole executive branch of the government
The chief diplomat in handling foreign relations.
The chief architect for needed legislation
The conscience of the nation in granting pardons or reprieves when he feels justice requires them.
The responsibility of maintaining full employment for the work force of the entire nation.
The task of ensuring a high level of agricultural prosperity.
The task of developing a national housing program
The task of supervising the exclusive distribution of atomic energy resources.
Underwriting hundreds of billions of dollars in private loans and private insurance programs.
Providing various kinds of federal relief for the victims of natural disaster throughout the country.
Administering a national welfare program.
Administering a national Medicare and Medicaid program
Administering a national social security program.
Allocating billions of dollars for educating the young.
Settling major labor union-management disputes.
Administering a network of health agencies
Administering the environmental protection of the entire nation.
Administering nearly 40 percent of the nation’s land area and its resources
Administering supervisory control over the discovery and development of all major energy resources.
Regulating all major Unites States industries such as steel, automobile manufacturing, coal mining, oil production, metal mining, and so forth.
Supervising all radio and television broadcasting in the United States as a prerequisite to issuing licenses.
Monitoring the manufacturing and distribution of food and drugs and requiring special permission before any drug can be distributed.
Initiating various types of federal programs on a regional basis to replace many powers and activities originally reserved to the sovereign states.
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