The Office of the President1. Not until 1857 did the president have a personal secretary paid by public funds; not till 1901 did he get a Secret Service bodyguard; and not until 1921 could he submit a presidential budget.
2. Today, the president has a HUGE staff that he can use but not necessarily control.
i. The “rule of propinquity” says that the person in the room with the president when he makes his decision has the most influence on him; thus, the people closest to the president wield the greatest amount of power.
ii. There are 3 degrees of propinquity: the White House Office, Executive Office, & the cabinet.
3. The people in the White House Office can be hired and fired by the president at will, and they can be organized by “pyramid,” “circular,” and “ad hoc” methods.
i. In a pyramid structure, most assistants report through a hierarchy to a chief of staff.
ii. In a circular structure, all cabinet secretaries and aides report directly to the president.
iii. In an ad hoc structure, task forces, committees, and informal groups of friends and advisors deal directly with the president.
a. Presidents usually mix methods when dealing with their staff.
iv. There are also risks: the pyramid formula is orderly but can be misleading; the circular can be chaotic but is fair; the ad hoc is really flexible but can cut off important details/steps.
v. Most presidents find that eventually, they cannot deal with all of their staff and appoint a chief of staff who leads all and can become very influential (in good ways and/or bad).
a. Most senior White House staff members are long-time friends or associates, but some are experts in a certain field—one that the president happens to need advise on.
vi. Who can see the president and who sees and “signs off” on important items can drastically influence and alter the eventual outcome of important policy decisions.
4. Members of the Executive Office are not as close to the president and must have their appointments approved by the Senate.
i. The principle agencies of the Executive Office are: Office of Management and Budge, Central Intelligence Agency, Council of Economic Advisors, Office of Personal Management, and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
ii. The OMB is perhaps the most important branch, since today, it manages the national budget, sees how to get better info about gov’t programs, plans ways to reorganize agencies, and reviews proposals that cabinet departments want included in the legislative program.
a. Recently, the OMB has begun advocating policies, taking a step away from its old nonpartisan stance.
5. The Cabinet is supposed to get together and meet and discuss affairs and matters, but that has rarely actually been the case, and today, cabinet members are basically the leaders of 14 important gov’t departments who can advise the president when he needs it.
i. The president can only appoint a small number of members of the departments represented by cabinet members, and also, cabinet members spend so much time worrying about and attending to their own department matters that they have little time to be in contact with the president, and thus, they are weak.
6. There are also other agencies that function for certain renewable terms that the president has limited authority over, called “independent agencies.”
i. The president, with Senate approval, can appoint federal judges who serve for life unless impeached and convicted.
