1. Administration of Laws
Lesson 24

2. Lesson Objectives Why Congress creates administrative units
Circumstances that lead to their creation
Range of governmental functions that administrative units perform
Identify checks on administrative power
Take and defend positions on public administration in the US

3. Types of Administrative Units
Executive Departments
President’s Cabinet
Secretaries of department
Directed to administer particular laws
Executive Office of the President
Staff Agencies
OBM
Homeland Security Staff
Council of Economic Affairs
Council on Environmental Quality
Technical and managerial advice

4. Types of Administrative Units Cont..
Independent Agencies
Fall within the “Necessary and Proper Clause”
Agencies implement congressional statutes
Examples
US Postal Service
Federal Emergency Management Agency – relocated to Dept. of Homeland Sec.
FCC

5. Why create admin organizations
Help Congress administer laws
Help Congress resolve problems, offer expertise
Delegates some of it’s law making powers
Agencies adopt rules for implementation of congressional mandates
Rules are published in the Federal Register
Can conduct hearings to resolves disputes
1946 Congress adopted the Administrative Procedure Act
Established guidelines for administrative units
Permits judicial review in federal court after quasi-judicial proceedings within the administrative unit has been exhausted

6. What has contributed to the number of administrative organizations?
Demands on the national government
Industrial revolution
Natural resources
Great Depression and New Deal
Cold War
Department of Defense
In 1970’s ~ movement to reduce the size of the government

7. How are administrative agencies staffed?
Civil Service Program
Intended to created a class of administrative employees insulated from politics
Hatch Act of 1939, which prohibited political parties from pressuring administrative employees to make financial contributions or do work for their candidates, as condition of employment
Concern that these employees were deprived of the opportunity to participate in the political process
1993 Clinton signed the Hatch Act Reform Amendments into law
Agencies in most cases use the civil service system, to avoid employees losing their jobs due to political changes. Some have been exempted to create their own personnel systems.

8. Checks and Balances
Presidents reward their loyalists with positions as appointees
Required to pursue the president’s agenda
Check the civil service career employees
Check administrative power by using executive orders
Direct administrative heads to adjust and enforce administrative policies and procedures.
Congress control bureaucracy
Confirm appointees
Review agency budgets, investigate, review agency rules
Courts decide whether or not agencies follow the 14th amendment
Decide whether or not agency has too much power

9. Checks and Balances Federalism Citizens, interest groups, media
States may refuse to implement or create resistance to national policy
Citizens, interest groups, media
Monitor the actions of agencies
Media can alert public and officials of problems in the bureaucracy