Presidential Appointments Last time: –more priming, framing and the public agenda –presidents and military initiative Today: the politics of appointments

Presidential persuasion “Going public” (external lobbying) –priming –framing Insider lobbying –patronage; campaigning support –persuasion

Can the president prime issues? Jeffery Cohen article on State of the Union addresses: –presidential mentions of an issue area are related to increased mentions of those issues by survey respondents (a priming effect) –prez popularity seems unrelated –leadership effects decay faster in domestic than in foreign policy arenas –no evidence of framing effects

Congress, Prez and Security MCs assumed to want to (1) get reelected; (2) promote own career; (3) create good public policy Reelection strategies include (1) advertizing; (2) position-taking; (3) credit-claiming –how does foreign policy fit? Progressive ambition requires expanding one’s reputation to a wider electorate –how does foreign policy fit? What does “good public policy” mean in foreign policy/security? –American attitudes toward risk? –Congressional accountability?

Managing the president Presidents as agents of the American people in foreign/security policies Congress as (1) institutional checks; (2) oversight agents on presidential action in foreign/security policies The public suffers from –hidden information –hidden action –Madison’s dilemma –Collective action problem

more last time President is Commander-in-Chief of whatever armed forces Congress creates, under whatever conditions Congress imposes and can enforce –Senate confirmation of officers’ commissions is example of screening/selection –U.S. rejection of the Nuremberg defense is example of institutional check –Constitution limits military appropriations to no more than 2 years’ duration (a sunset provision)

Presidential appointments Presidential appointments (~1200 total) –“Constitutional” offices (Senate advice and consent, but serves at pleasure) –statutory offices (Prez has sole authority to hire and fire) –independent agencies (advice and consent; fixed terms) What is reversion point? –recess appointments; commissions/boards vs single administrators

The main players Cabinet: heads of principal executive departments –also, sub-cabinet level agencies not headed by commissions (e.g., FDA) Executive Office of the President White House Organization Independent agency commissions –e.g., SEC, the Fed; FEC, NLRB, etc.

Cabinet Madison credited with inventing the label Heads of State, Treasury, Defense, etc. framers had discussed “advisory council” but didn’t include the idea in the Constitution; didn’t want to set up Prez to look like a king with an insulating layer of Ministers Cabinet secretaries generally controlled lower-level appointments in their departments; –key appts for patronage thus were Post Office and Treasury (Customs Service and Internal Revenue), although the Prez directly controlled nominations to the key Customs appts and Postmasterships –other big issue was the letting of government contracts (postal service; supplies for the military) –Post-bellum era, military pensions become a big deal (Veterans Bureau)

more Cabinet Cabinet composition in 19 th century: –bargaining at national nominating conventions –regional representation –factional balancing 20 th century evolution –civil service reform limited patronage opportunities in regular departments –radio and TV helped create the media cult of the presidency; popularization of presidential campaigns and change in nominations made candidates less dependent on bargaining –appointments become increasingly about non-geographic descriptive representation (ethnic, gender diversity becomes an issue in 1960s, first with Democrats)

What do Cabinet Sec’ys do? Statutory heads of departments. They (not the prez) are legally responsible for policy outputs Prez can fire/threaten to fire, but law limits prez influence over implementation Prez can require reports from dept heads Congress can end-run prez control over information through hearings, subpoena powers

Executive Office of the Prez Created in 1939 by executive order, pursuant to the Reorganization Act of 1939 –Bureau of the Budget (now OMB) moved out of Treasury; Natural Resources Planning Board; Office of Government Reports; Liaison Office for Personnel Management Today’s EOP; 9 offices PLUS W.H.O., VP’s office, residential staffs; 1,800 staff and budget of ~$250 million: –OMB; Office of the US Trade Rep; Office of Administration; Nat’l Security Council; Nat’l Drug Control Policy; Office of Policy Development; Office of Science and Tech Policy; Council of Economic Advisers; Council and Office on Enviro Quality

White House Organization this is the stuff of West Wing chief policy advisers speech writers lobbyists press office

Independent agencies Presidential appointment is constrained; removal power is denied –consequences for delegation by congress to agency?