How Does The President Control The Bureaucracy

Photo of James Comey swearing oath before testimony at congressional hearing.

Director James Comey is sworn in earlier testifying at a Firm Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee, July 7, 2016. (Credit: REUTERS/Gary Cameron and Laura Santhanam of PBS)

Learning Objectives

Explain the way Congress, the president, bureaucrats, and citizens provide meaningful oversight over the bureaucracies.
Identify the means in which privatization has made bureaucracies both more than and less efficient.

As our earlier description of the Land Section demonstrates, bureaucracies are incredibly complicated. Understandably, then, the processes of dominion-making and bureaucratic oversight are every bit complex. Elected leaders and citizens have developed laws and institutions to assist rein in bureaucracies that become either too independent, decadent, or both.

Consider the Original

|| Federalist No. 70 ||

The Executive Department Further Considered
From the New York Packet
Tuesday, March 18, 1788.

Author: Alexander Hamilton

To the People of the State of New York:

In that location is an idea, which is not without its advocates, that a vigorous Executive is inconsistent with the genius of republican government. The aware well-wishers to this species of regime must at least promise that the supposition is destitute of foundation; since they tin never admit its truth, without at the same time admitting the condemnation of their own principles. Energy in the Executive is a leading graphic symbol in the definition of good regime. It is essential to the protection of the community confronting foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of holding against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary class of justice; to the security of liberty confronting the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy. Every man the least conversant in Roman story, knows how often that republic was obliged to take refuge in the absolute power of a single man, nether the formidable title of Dictator, every bit well against the intrigues of ambitious individuals who aspired to the tyranny, and the seditions of whole classes of the community whose conduct threatened the existence of all government, as against the invasions of external enemies who menaced the conquest and destruction of Rome.

There can exist no need, however, to multiply arguments or examples on this caput. A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government sick executed, whatever information technology may exist in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.

Taking it for granted, therefore, that all men of sense will concur in the necessity of an energetic Executive, information technology will but remain to inquire, what are the ingredients which institute this free energy? How far can they be combined with those other ingredients which constitute safety in the republican sense? And how far does this combination narrate the plan which has been reported by the convention?

The ingredients which constitute energy in the Executive are, first, unity; secondly, duration; thirdly, an acceptable provision for its support; fourthly, competent powers.

The ingredients which constitute safety in the republican sense are, first, a due dependence on the people, secondly, a due responsibility. […]

Federalist No. 70, "The Executive Department Farther Considered, March 18, 1788 by Alexander Hamilton; https://world wide web.congress.gov/resources/display/content/The+Federalist+Papers#TheFederalistPapers-70

Bureaucratic Rule-making

One time the particulars of implementation accept been spelled out in the legislation authorizing a new program, bureaucracies move to enact it. When they encounter grey areas, many follow the federal negotiated dominion-making process to propose a solution, that is, detailing how particular new federal polices, regulations, and/or programs will be implemented in the agencies. Congress cannot possibly legislate on that level of detail, and then the experts in the bureaucracy do so.

Negotiated dominion-making is a relatively recently adult bureaucratic device that emerged from the criticisms of bureaucratic inefficiencies in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.^[i] Before it was adopted, bureaucracies used a procedure chosen notice-and-comment rule-making. This practise required that agencies attempting to adopt rules publish their proposal in the Federal Register, the official publication for all federal rules and proposed rules. By publishing the proposal, the bureaucracy was fulfilling its obligation to let the public time to annotate. But rather than encouraging the productive interchange of ideas, the comment catamenia had the consequence of creating an adversarial environment in which different groups tended to make extreme arguments for rules that would back up their interests. Every bit a issue, administrative dominion-making became too lengthy, too contentious, and too likely to provoke litigation in the courts.

link to learning The Federal Register was once available only in print. Now, however, it is bachelor online and is far easier to navigate and use. Have a await at all the important information the government's periodical posts online.

Reformers argued that these inefficiencies needed to be corrected. They proposed the negotiated rule-making process, often referred to as regulatory negotiation, or "reg-neg" for brusque. This process was codification in the Negotiated Rule-making Acts of 1990 and 1996, which encouraged agencies to apply negotiated dominion-making procedures. While negotiated rule-making is required in only a handful of agencies and enough still use the traditional procedure, others have recognized the potential of the new process and take adopted it.

In negotiated rule-making, neutral advisers known as conveners put together a committee of those who have vested interests in the proposed rules. The conveners then gear up about devising procedures for reaching a consensus on the proposed rules. The committee uses these procedures to govern the procedure through which the commission members discuss the diverse merits and demerits of the proposals. With the help of neutral mediators, the commission eventually reaches a general consensus on the rules.

Regime Bureaucratic Oversight

A photo of Lois Lerner.

In this photograph, Lois Lerner, the one-time director of the Internal Revenue Service's Exempt Organizations Unit, sits before an oversight committee in Congress following a 2013 investigation. On the advice of her chaser, Lerner invoked her Fifth Subpoena right not to incriminate herself and refused to reply questions. (Credit: U. South. Congress; OpenStax included image)

The ability for bureaucracies to develop their own rules and in many means command their own budgets has often been a thing of great concern for elected leaders. As a consequence, elected leaders have employed a number of strategies and devices to control public administrators in the hierarchy.

Congress is particularly empowered to apply oversight of the federal hierarchy considering of its power to control funding and corroborate presidential appointments. The various bureaucratic agencies submit annual summaries of their activities and budgets for the following year, and committees and subcommittees in both chambers regularly hold hearings to question the leaders of the various bureaucracies. These hearings are often tame, applied, fact-finding missions. Occasionally, however, when a particular bureaucracy has committed or contributed to a blunder of some magnitude, the hearings tin can become quite animated and testy.

This occurred in 2013 post-obit the realization by Congress that the IRS had selected for extra scrutiny certain groups that had applied for taxation-exempt status. While the fault could have been a mere mistake or have resulted from whatsoever number of reasons, many in Congress became enraged at the thought that the IRS might purposely use its ability to inconvenience citizens and their groups.^[2] The House directed its Commission on Oversight and Government Reform to launch an investigation into the IRS, during which time it interviewed and publicly scrutinized a number of high-ranking civil servants.

link to learning The mission of the U.S. House Oversight Committee is to "ensure the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies." The committee is an important congressional check on the ability of the bureaucracy. Visit the website for more data nearly the U.South. Business firm Oversight Committee.

Perhaps Congress's nigh powerful oversight tool is the Authorities Accountability Part (GAO).^[3] The GAO is an bureau that provides Congress, its committees, and the heads of the executive agencies with auditing, evaluation, and investigative services. Information technology is designed to operate in a fact-based and nonpartisan way to deliver important oversight information where and when it is needed. The GAO's office is to produce reports, mostly at the insistence of Congress. In the approximately nine hundred reports information technology completes per year, the GAO sends Congress information about budgetary problems for everything from education, health care, and housing to defense force, homeland security, and natural resource management.^[4] Since it is an office within the federal bureaucracy, the GAO also supplies Congress with its ain annual performance and accountability report. This report details the achievements and remaining weaknesses in the actions of the GAO for whatever given year.

Apart from Congress, the president besides executes oversight over the all-encompassing federal bureaucracy through a number of different avenues. Most directly, the president controls the bureaucracies by appointing the heads of the fifteen chiffonier departments and of many independent executive agencies, such as the CIA, the EPA, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These cabinet and bureau appointments go through the Senate for confirmation.

The other of import channel through which the part of the president conducts oversight over the federal hierarchy is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).^[v] The primary responsibility of the OMB is to produce the president's annual budget for the country. With this huge responsibility, however, comes a number of other responsibilities. These include reporting to the president on the actions of the various executive departments and agencies in the federal authorities, overseeing the performance levels of the bureaucracies, coordinating and reviewing federal regulations for the president, and delivering executive orders and presidential directives to the various bureau heads.

Citizen Bureaucratic Oversight

A number of laws passed in the decades between the end of the 2d World War and the late 1970s have created a framework through which citizens can do their ain bureaucratic oversight. The 2 well-nigh of import laws are the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 and the Regime in Sunshine Act of 1976.^[half-dozen] Like many of the modern bureaucratic reforms in the United States, both emerged during a period of heightened skepticism virtually government activities.

The commencement, the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (FOIA), emerged in the early years of the Johnson presidency as the Us was conducting secret Common cold War missions around the earth, the U.S. armed forces was becoming increasingly mired in the disharmonize in Vietnam, and questions were still swirling effectually the Kennedy assassination. FOIA provides journalists and the general public the correct to asking records from diverse federal agencies. These agencies are required past police force to release that information unless it qualifies for one of nine exemptions. These exceptions cite sensitive bug related to national security or foreign policy, internal personnel rules, trade secrets, violations of personnel privacy rights, law enforcement information, and oil well data. FOIA as well compels agencies to post some types of information for the public regularly without being requested.

A scanned copy of a CIA document with large amounts of text blacked out.

Equally this CIA certificate shows, even data released under FOIA can be profoundly restricted past the agencies releasing it. The black marks (redacting) embrace information the CIA accounted particularly sensitive. (Credit: Central Intelligence Agency)

In financial year 2015, the authorities received 713,168 FOIA requests, with just three departments—Defence, Homeland Security, and Justice—accounting for more than than one-half those queries.^[7] The Center for Effective Government analyzed the fifteen federal agencies that receive the most FOIA requests and concluded that they generally struggle to implement public disclosure rules. In its latest study, published in 2015 and using 2012 and 2013 data (the near recent available), ten of the fifteen did not earn satisfactory overall grades, scoring less than 70 of a possible i hundred points.^[8]

The Government in Sunshine Deed of 1976 is different from FOIA in that it requires all multi-headed federal agencies to hold their meetings in a public forum on a regular basis. The proper name "Sunshine Act" is derived from the sometime adage that "sunlight is the best disinfectant"—the implication being that governmental and bureaucratic corruption thrive in secrecy but shrink when exposed to the light of public scrutiny. The act defines a meeting every bit any gathering of agency members in person or past telephone, whether in a formal or informal way.

Like FOIA, the Sunshine Act allows for exceptions. These include meetings where classified information is discussed, proprietary data has been submitted for review, employee privacy matters are discussed, criminal matters are brought upwardly, and information would prove financially harmful to companies were it released. Citizens and citizen groups tin can besides follow rule-making and testify at hearings held around the country on proposed rules. The dominion-making process and the efforts by federal agencies to go along open records and solicit public input on of import changes are examples of responsive bureaucracy.

Government Privatization

When those in government speak of privatization, they are oft referring to ane of a host of different models that comprise the market forces of the individual sector into the function of government to varying degrees.^[9] These include using contractors to supply goods and/or services, distributing government vouchers with which citizens tin purchase formerly government-controlled services on the private market place, supplying government grants to private organizations to administer government programs, collaborating with a private entity to finance a government program, and even fully divesting the authorities of a office and direct giving it to the individual sector. Nosotros volition look at iii of these types of privatization presently.

Divestiture, or full privatization, occurs when authorities services are transferred, usually through sale, from government bureaucratic control into an entirely market-based, individual environment. At the federal level this form of privatization is very rare, although it does occur. Consider the Student Loan Marketing Association, often referred to by its nickname, Sallie Mae. When it was created in 1973, it was designed to be a regime entity for processing federal student education loans. Over fourth dimension, still, it gradually moved further from its original purpose and became increasingly private. Sallie Mae reached total privatization in 2004.^[10] Another example is the U.Southward. Investigations Services, Inc., which was one time the investigative branch of the Function of Personnel Management (OPM) until information technology was privatized in the 1990s. At the state level, yet, the privatization of roads, public utilities, bridges, schools, and even prisons has become increasingly mutual as state and municipal authorities look for ways to reduce the cost of regime.

I the most the most of import forms of bureaucratic oversight comes from inside the bureaucracy itself. Those inside are in the best position to recognize and report on misconduct. But bureaucracies tend to jealously guard their reputations and are generally resistant to criticism from without and from inside. This tin can create quite a problem for insiders who recognize and want to study mismanagement and even criminal beliefs. The personal cost of doing the right thing can exist prohibitive.^[11] For a typical bureaucrat faced with the selection of reporting corruption and risking possible termination or turning the other way and continuing to earn a living, the choice is sometimes easy.

Under heightened skepticism due to government inefficiency and outright corruption in the 1970s, government officials began looking for solutions. When Congress drafted the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, it specifically included rights for federal whistleblower southward, those who publicize misdeeds committed within a bureaucracy or other organization, and set up protection from reprisals. The deed'southward Merit Systems Protection Board is a quasi-juridical institutional lath headed by three members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate that hears complaints, conducts investigations into possible abuses, and institutes protections for bureaucrats who speak out.^[12] Over time, Congress and the president have strengthened these protections with additional acts. These include the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012, which farther compelled federal agencies to protect whistleblowers who reasonably perceive that an institution or the people in the establishment are acting inappropriately.

An ad on the side of a bus featuring a photo of Edward Snowden. The text says

In 2013, Edward Snowden, an unknown figurer professional working under contract within the National Security Agency, copied and released to the press classified data that revealed an expansive and largely illegal secret surveillance network the government was operating within the Us. Fearing reprisals, Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then Moscow. Some argue that his deportment were irresponsible and he should be prosecuted. Others champion his actions and hold that without them, the illegal spying would have connected. Regardless, the Snowden instance reveals of import weaknesses in whistleblower protections in the United States. (Credit: modification of work by Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuño)

Questions to Consider

What concerns might ascend when Congress delegates decision-making say-so to unelected leaders, sometimes called the fourth branch of regime?

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whose interests are they most likely to favor
Which model of bureaucracy all-time explains the way the authorities currently operates? Why?

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personal stance
Practise you think Congress and the president have done enough to protect bureaucratic whistleblowers? Why or why non?

Show Answer

open for debate

Terms to Remember

negotiated rulemaking–a rulemaking process in which neutral advisors convene a committee of those who have vested interests in the proposed rules and aid the committee reach a consensus on them

privatization–measures that contain the market place forces of the private sector into the function of government to varying degrees

whistleblower–a person who publicizes misdeeds committed within a bureaucracy or other organization