The Office of the President
Appointments
A Brief History
• President didn’t have any real staff until 1857
• Staff has grown enormously since then
– Pres now has large bureaucracy of assistants
he has difficulty controlling
– Rule of propinquity: power is wielded by
people who are in the room when a decision is
made
– Presidential appointments can be classified by
their physical and political proximity to the
pres.
The White House Office
• President’s closest assistants
• Staff typically has worked on campaign; a
few are experts
• Always a great deal of jockeying for
physical proximity (office close to Oval
office) and access to the president
The White House Office
• 3 types of structures, often used in combination
to compensate for their weaknesses/capitalize on
strengths
– Pyramid structure: most assistants report through
hierarchy to chief of staff, who then reports to pres
• Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, late Clinton
– Circular structure: cabinet secretaries and assistants
report directly to pres
• early Carter
– Ad Hoc structure: task forces, committees, and
informal groups deal directly with the pres
• Early Clinton
Executive Office of the President
• Composed of agencies that report directly to the
pres
• Appointments must receive Senate confirmation,
unlike White House staff
• Office of Management and Budget, perhaps most
important
– Assembles the budget
– Develops reorganization plans
– Reviews legislative proposals of agencies
– Has recently become more of a policy advocate
The Cabinet
• Chief executives (secretaries) of the executive
branch departments
• Not explicitly mentioned by name in the
Constitution, but implied in Art. 2 Sec 2
• Presidents have many more appointments to make
than Prime Ministers due to competition created by
separation of powers
• Presidential control over departments remains
uncertain – secretaries become advocates for their
departments
The Cabinet
Independent Agencies, Commissions,
and Judgeships
• Pres appoints members of agencies that have quasiindependent status
• “Acting” appointments have increased legislativeexecutive tensions
• In general, independent agency heads can only be
removed “for cause” and serve fixed terms
• Exec agency heads serve at the president’s
pleasure, though they must be confirmed by the
Senate
Who Gets Appointed?
• President knows few appointees personally
• Most appointees to cabinet and sub-cabinet have
had federal experience
– “In-and-outers” alternate federal govt and private sector
jobs (remember: revolving door)
– Modern tendency to place experts, rather than those
with a political following into the Cabinet
• Need to consider groups, regions, and organizations
• Rivalry often develops between department heads
(who represent expert knowledge) and White
House staff (who are extensions of president’s
priorities)