Which is more important, the EXOP or the Cabinet?

The Executive Office of the President

Direct & coordinate the federal bureaucracy; created by the 1939 Reorganisation Act

Advisers:

œ Provide information and analysis of the key issues facing the administration

œ Providing guidance in specialist policy areas

œ Evaluating political/legal significance of presidential decisions

œ Writing speeches/presenting the President’s view to the public

œ Liaising with Congress to gain support for the President’s programmes

œ Filtering out who can get presidential access

œ Monitoring work of the executive department and agencies, ensuring they are carrying out the political agenda

Positives of the EXOP…

Beneficial to the Head of Government to have complete confidence in the closest advisors and to be certain everything in the administrations political agenda is implemented.

Power in Washington is measured by access to the President, the White House staff use their position to exert pressure on his behalf; however, it proves difficult for long standing close friends to present criticism – leading to presidential isolation resulting in only few advisers having direct access (this was the case for Nixon & Reagan)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – largest & most important agency:
Prepare the budget that President would present to Congress (spending priorities)
Reviews policy proposals, ensuring they are in line with President’s goals
Director – confirmed by the Senate : Shaun Donovan

The Council of Economic Advisers – long term economic planning, aiding other executive departments with long term plans – Jason Furman

The National Security Council (NSC) – co-ordinating foreign/military policy; considerable importance, particularly for Bush in the aftermath of 9/11 as a result of suspicions between CIA, FBI – assistant to the President, Security Affairs Susan Rice

Departments have been at the detriment of Presidents – GW Bush set up the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives because he wanted to see religious groups to settle disputes

Currently, Obama has failed to save the Department of Homeland Security from partial shutdown, as Congress fail to renew it.

Restrictions on choosing the Cabinet

President can’t adjust the number of departments, responsibilities or promote his policies
Heads of departments should have compatible backgrounds with the department
Powerful pressure groups are consulted in the selection of the candidates and will lobby
Should be representative – EGG formula, Ethnic group; Gender; Geographical region

Limitations on the usefulness of the Cabinet

o   Heads of Department/Cabinet secretaries are usually POLICY specialists and they’re basically shit in areas unrelated to policy – not as useful in helping the President make decisions

o   May lack a close relationship with the President/each other; resulting in lack of confidential material shared with the cabinet

o   Members of the Cabinet form strong ties to Congressional committees/pressure groups; due to the long-term planning that takes place in departments who appear to be at odds with the President who is in office for a maximum of eight years.

o   Growing tendency for divided Cabinet – as each Head of Department gets increasingly committed to their own departmental priorities rather than a shared agenda

o   Friction between departments due to competition for funds for their programmes 

o   Heads of Departments are accountable to BOTH Congress and the President

Due to these shortcomings, policy making is often the result of bilateral meetings with the President and the top tier Cabinet Members for Defence (Ashton Carter), State (John Kerry), Treasury (Jack Lew) and Justice (Eric Holder).

Usefulness of the Cabinet

·         Embodying the presidential platform; Bush – campaign theme of compassionate conservatism

·         Being ‘in touch’ – having a representative Cabinet from every corner of American society. Obama’s first Cabinet was the most racially diverse Cabinet, with seven women initially.

·         Presenting an image of open, collective government – Cabinet meetings are photographed; key decisions are made by people who not subject to Senate ratification

·         Cabinet is called by the President to discuss major initiatives that affect every department – including annual budget

·         Cabinet meetings give opportunity for a check on legislation, information exchange – enforcing a sense of coherence, particularly if the administration is going through political turbulence.

How important is the Cabinet?

Yes, the Cabinet has importance	No, the EXOP has more importance
Cabinet members in charge of huge departmental budgets including Health (Burwell), Defence (Carter), Justice (Holder), State (Kerry) have colossal amounts of importance, due to the significance of their departments	However, the EXOP is in charge of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) so the Council of Economic Advisers, under Furman is of similar importance.
The Cabinet is of more importance as the EXOP need not be confirmed – which means the EXOP can get too close and will not give honest feedback. The EXOP becomes sycophantic and will then fail to see political realities outside the presidential/EXOP bubble. Depletes the effectiveness & power of the president	EXOP are the close political allies, who would see the President every single day, giving them greater importance on the day to day dealings. Contrastingly, Clinton’s cabinet didn’t meet more than three times in a year while he was in power – suggesting the distance and the spatial leadership he exerted
Individual cabinet members are extremely powerful alone – pushing their significance in their respective departments, particularly in court cases. For instance Shelby County v Holder Hobby Lobby v Burwell Pinpointing on them and giving them a greater media influence	The EXOP are likely to be the president’s allies – whereas within the Cabinet, if a Secretary of State was to fall out with the President they would lose their job emphasising the greater importance of the EXOP. Chuck Hagel lost his Defence post as a result of poor dealings over what to do about ISIS. Hagel was subsequently replaced by Carter. Sebelius fell out with Obama for the poor reception of the HealthCare.org, and he felt she wasn’t pulling her weight. Sebelius was subsequently replaced by Burwell.
Cabinet must be confirmed – through senatorial courtesy trials. Hagel for instance, was filibustered for his position in defence during these trials. The Cabinet must be selected through the EGG formula.	The EXOP has more powerful politicians who have greater experience in their fields and in political office – the crème de la crème is selected for positions in the EXOP.