The Executive
Branch
The Executive Branch
 Enforces Laws
 Article II of the Constitution
 Leader is the President
Qualifications
 35 years old
 Been a resident of the
U.S. for 14 years
 A natural born citizen
 President takes an oath
to uphold the
Constitution
Terms and Benefits
 4 year term
 Limited to 2 terms (22nd
Amendment)
 Salary - $400,000/year
 $50,000 expense account,
$100,000 for travel, and
$19,000 for entertainment
 Secret Service Protection for
10 years after presidency
 Clinton last lifetime
protected president.
 Pension $191,000 after they
retire plus travel funds and
franking privilege
The President’s Job
 The President’s main job is to carry out the
laws passed by Congress.
 The Constitution gives the president power to
veto, call Congress into special session, serve
as commander-in-chief, and receive foreign
officials.
 The president can also make treaties, appoint
judges and top government officials, and
pardon convicted criminals
Jobs of the President
 The Constitution also requires the
president to give Congress an update of
the nation with the “State of the Union”
address.
 The president discusses the most
important issues facing the nation and
describes new legislation he would liked
passed.
Vice-President
 Official Duties
 President of the
Senate
 Second in Line of
succession – 25th
amendment
 Decides Presidential
disability – 25th
 Qualifications are the
same as president
 Unofficial duty – Balance
the ticket
Presidential Succession
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Vice President
Speaker of the House
President Pro Tempore
Secretary of State
Pg 168 – for the rest of list
What is a naturalized
citizen?
1. A citizen born in
the U.S.
2. An immigrant who
wants to become
a citizen
3. An immigrant who
became a citizen
4. A citizen born in a
territory of the
U.S.
Electing the President
 The Primaries
 States hold primary elections to vote for the
candidates who will run for president under each
party
 Nominating Conventions
 A meeting held by each party to officially select
the candidate who will run
 General Election
 1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday of November
 Electoral College
 Elects the President
The Electoral College
 Popular vote
 total number of people voting for a candidate - occurs
but has no role in deciding the president
 538 votes exist in the Electoral College
 Each state gets the same number of electors as
representatives in Congress
 435 Representatives + 100 Senators + 3 from Washington
D.C.
 NC – 15 electoral votes
 A candidate needs 270 to win (majority)
 Winner Take All – every state but Maine &
Nebraska
 If a candidate wins the majority vote in a state,
all electoral votes go to that candidate
 Vote in December – Joint session of Congress counts votes
Meeting of Electoral College
Which of the following is a
potential problem with the
Electoral College?
1. Its Non-Democratic
2. A candidate may
get the most votes
but not win
3. Electors are not
bound
4. 3rd party candidates
have no chance
Problems with the Electoral College
 Seems non-democratic – votes are
not proportional
 May get the most votes and still lose
 Electors are not bound – could
change their ballot
 3rd party candidates have really no
chance
Electors of the Electoral College
 24 States that don’t have  NORTH CAROLINA laws requiring electors 15 Electoral Votes
Law - § 163-212
to vote for the popular  State
(Violation cancels vote;
vote. “faithless electors”
elector is replaced and is
 ARIZONA - ARKANSAS DELAWARE - GEORGIA IDAHO
- ILLINOIS -INDIANA - IOWA KANSAS - KENTUCKY LOUISIANA - MINNESOTA MISSOURI NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY - NEW YORK NORTH DAKOTA PENNSYLVANIA - RHODE
ISLAND - SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE - TEXAS - UTAH WEST VIRGINIA -
subject to $500 fine.)
 NEW MEXICO - 5
Electoral Votes
 State Law - § 1-15-5 to 115-9 (Violation is a fourth
degree felony.)
The presidential election, however, is not decided on the basis of the number of people
who vote for each candidate but on the basis of the electoral college. Under the US
electoral system, each state in the union contributes a certain number of electors to the
electoral college, who vote according to the majority in their state. The candidate
receiving a majority of the votes in the electoral college wins the election. The electors
are apportioned roughly according to states' populations, as measured by the census,
but with a small but deliberate bias in favor of smaller states.
We can represent the effects of the electoral college by scaling the sizes of states to be
proportional to their number of electoral votes, which gives a map that looks like this:
Offices in the Executive
Branch
 Includes the White House Office
 Serves the President
Executive Office of the
President (EOP)
 Created by FDR – 1939
 Assists the President in doing his job
 Includes over 2000 employees and $100 million
budget
 Prepares reports, drafts bills, checks the work of
various executive agencies
Executive Office of the
President (EOP)
 Chief of Staff – decides what issues are brought to
the President
 Press Secretary – provides reporters with news
 Office of Management & Budget – prepares the
nation’s budget & makes reports to the President
on the fiscal soundness of the nation
 National Security Council – provides for the safety
of the nation – CIA – gathers information on other
nations
 Core of EOP is the White House Office – 500 people
who work for the President
White House Positions
 Chief of Staff –
Denis McDonough
 Press Secretary –
Jay Carney
 Senior Advisors to
the President –
Valerie Jarrett and
Jennifer Palmieri
Office of Management and
Budget (OMB)
 Prepares the federal budget and helps
the President monitor government
spending
 Federal budget lays out the
administrations plans and goals for
the upcoming year
National Security Council (NSC)
 Helps President coordinate the military and
construct foreign policy.
 Includes the V.P., Sec. of State, Sec. of Defense,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and top
commanders of each of the armed forces.
 Forms our nations foreign policies and principles
of the U.S. Supervises the CIA.
Council of Economic
Advisers (CEA)
 Contains three independent members or
economists
 Advise the President about economic
matters: employment in the U.S., tax
policy, inflation, trade with other
countries, etc.
Department Heads
 Must be approved by the Senate
 Any advice given to the President will
usually be on issues related to their
departments
 President will determine when they meet
and how much to rely on their advise.
The Federal Bureaucracy
 The Executive Branch is shaped like a
triangle.
 Top down: President
depts
hundreds of executive agencies
The Federal Bureaucracy (cont.)

Departments and agencies carry out government
programs in 3 ways:
1. Develop procedures for putting new laws into
practice
2. Administer day-to-day operations of
government
3. Regulate or police various governmental
activities
This all helps shape government policy
Federal Bureaucracy
 “Red Tape” – inefficiency caused by
rules and regulations
 Each person has a designed function &
must operate within a chain of command
Independent agencies
 Not a part of any cabinet, but still have to
report out to the President
 3 types: Executive Agencies
Government Corporations
Regulatory Commissions
Executive Agencies
 Specialized areas of government
 President chooses the head of each
agency
 Examples
 EPA – Environmental Protection Agency
 FDA – Food and Drug Administration
 CDC – Center for Disease Control and
Prevention
 Others – NASA, FED, NSA, FDA
Regulatory Commissions
 DOES NOT REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT
 President appoints the head of regulatory
commissions but only Congress can remove
(impeach)
 Protects the public by making and enforcing rules for
certain industries
 Ex. FCC, FAA
 Controls certain types of business
 Must be impartial with no political pressure
 Run by a board appointed by the President and
approved by the Senate
 US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Government Corporations
 Similar to private corporations – but the
government owns and runs them.
 General manager & board of directors runs each
corporation
 They charge for services, but are not supposed to
make a profit, all $ goes back into the business
 Examples
 Post Office
 Sallie Mae, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac
Law Enforcement Agencies
 Assist in enforcing laws
 Federal
 FBI – handles violations of federal law
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Counterfeiting
Bank Robbery
Espionage & spying
Kidnapping
 SBI – state – violations of state law
 Highway patrol
 Murder if suspect & body stay in state
 County – the county
 Local Police
Civil Service System
 Spoils System – giving federal jobs to
people that helped the winner – “To the
Victor belong the Spoils”
 Government grew more and more
incompetent as people who weren’t
qualified filled positions (late 1800s)
 Americans demanded change
(Progressives)
Civil Service System Cont.
 Reformed system came about – called the Merit
System
 Pendleton Act (1883) – instituted the Merit
system where those most qualified get the jobs
 Jobs are divided into 2 categories
 Classified – jobs given based on exams &
kept no matter who is president
 Unclassified – jobs filled by appointment
as in the spoils system – Appointed
positions
Civil Service System Cont.
 Hatch Act (1939)
 Forbids civil servants from working in a
campaign or participating in party politics
 Office of Personnel Management –
administers tests and hires workers
 Merit System Protection Board – handles
promotions based on merit
Political Appointees
 Top department jobs usually go to political
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appointees
Employment usually ends when the President
leaves office
90% of national government employees are civil
service workers
Hiring is usually based on open, competitive
examinations and merit.
Before 1883, hiring was based on “who you knew”
The President and Cabinet
President’s Cabinet Departments
 15 Executive department heads – advisers
 Makes the president’s job easier by dividing the
work
 Head of the Dept of Justice is the Attorney General.
All other heads are have the title of secretary
 Department of Homeland Security – most recent
addition – terrorism
 President Washington’s Cabinet – Department of
State, Department of Treasury and Department of
War
Cabinet Cont.
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State – Secretary of State – manages relations with
other countries
Treasury – Secretary of Treasury – manages the nations
money
Defense – Secretary of Defense – manages the military
John Kerry
Jack Lew
Chuck Hagel
Cabinet Cont.
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Justice – Attorney General – legal affairs and the chief
law enforcement officer in the US
Interior – Secretary of the Interior – manages public
lands and natural resources
Agriculture – Secretary of Agriculture – designed to help
farmers
Eric Holder
Sally Jewell
Tom Vilsack
Cabinet Cont.
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Commerce – Secretary of Commerce – trade and
promotes US business and tourism
Labor – Secretary of Labor – deals with working
conditions and wages
Transportation – Secretary of Transportation – manages
highways, railroads, airlines, and sea traffic
Penny Pritzker
Thomas E Perez
Anthony Foxx
Cabinet Cont.
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Energy – Secretary of Energy – tries to find alternative
sources of energy
Health and Human Services – Secretary of HHS – well
being and health of Americans
Veterans Affairs – Secretary of Veterans Affairs –
services for armed forces veterans
Ernest Moniz
Sylvia Matthews Burwell
Robert McDonald
Cabinet Cont.
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Education – Secretary of Education – advice and
funding for schools
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development – special needs and
problems of cities
Homeland Security – Secretary of Homeland Security –
oversees America’s defenses against terrorist attacks
Arne Duncan
Julian Castro
Jeh Johnson
State of the Union
 President addresses Congress every year to discuss his/her
goals and concerns
 Required by the Constitution
 “He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State
of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures
as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Article II, Section 3
 Congress is in joint session – both houses are together to
hear the President speak