DOCSLIB.ORG

The Debate Over Selected Presidential Assistants and Advisors: Appointment, Accountability, and Congressional Oversight

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Debate Over Selected Presidential Assistants and Advisors: Appointment, Accountability, and Congressional Oversight The Debate Over Selected Presidential Assistants and Advisors: Appointment, Accountability, and Congressional Oversight Barbara L. Schwemle Analyst in American National Government Todd Garvey Legislative Attorney Vivian S. Chu Legislative Attorney Henry B. Hogue Specialist in American National Government March 31, 2014 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R40856 Selected Presidential Assistants and Advisors Summary A number of the appointments made by President Barack H. Obama to his Administration or by Cabinet secretaries to their departments have been referred to, especially by the news media, as “czars.” For some, the term is used to convey an appointee’s title (e.g., climate “czar”) in shorthand. For others, it is being used to convey a sense that power is being centralized in the White House or certain entities. When used in political science literature, the term generally refers to White House policy coordination or an intense focus by the appointee on an issue of great magnitude. Congress has noticed these appointments and in the 111th Congress examined some of them. The Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, for example, conducted hearings on the “czar” issue on October 6, 2009, and October 22, 2009, respectively. One issue of interest to Congress may be whether some of these appointments (particularly some of those to the White House Office), made outside of the advice and consent process of the Senate, circumvent the requirements of the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. A second issue of interest may be whether the activities of such appointees are subject to oversight by Congress. This report provides background information and selected views on the role of some of these appointees. Additionally, it discusses some of the constitutional concerns that have been raised about presidential advisors. These include, for example, the kinds of positions that qualify as the type that must be filled in accordance with the Appointments Clause, with a focus on examining a few existing positions established by statute, executive order, and regulation. The report also reviews certain congressional oversight processes and assesses the applicability of these processes to presidential advisors. Legislative and non-legislative options for congressional consideration are presented. Congressional Research Service Selected Presidential Assistants and Advisors Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Background ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Selected Views on Special Assistants and Their Roles .............................................................. 5 Pay and Reporting Requirements for White House Staff .......................................................... 9 Vetting of Appointees .............................................................................................................. 10 Background Investigations ................................................................................................ 11 Financial Disclosure .......................................................................................................... 15 Outside Employment Limitations ............................................................................................ 16 Appointments Clause and Presidential Advisors ........................................................................... 19 Officer/Employee .................................................................................................................... 20 Principal Officer/ Inferior Officer ........................................................................................... 23 Analyses of Certain Presidential Advisors .............................................................................. 24 Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy .................................................... 24 Director of Urban Affairs .................................................................................................. 25 Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation .......................................................... 26 Summary of Presidential Advisor Analyses ...................................................................... 28 Congressional Oversight of Presidential Advisors ........................................................................ 28 Congress’s Oversight Authority............................................................................................... 28 The Relationship Between Advice and Consent and Congressional Oversight ...................... 30 Potential Legal Bases for the Denial of Access to Presidential Advisors ................................ 31 The Deliberative Process Privilege ................................................................................... 32 Executive Privilege ........................................................................................................... 32 Application to Potential Congressional Oversight of Presidential Advisors ..................... 40 Options for Congressional Consideration ...................................................................................... 41 Legislative Options .................................................................................................................. 41 Option: Report and Wait Provision ................................................................................... 41 Option: Add Advice and Consent Positions in the EOP .................................................... 42 Option: Reduce and/or Confirm Presidential Staff............................................................ 43 Oversight Options .................................................................................................................... 44 111th Congress Hearings ................................................................................................................ 46 Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution ................................. 46 Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs .................................... 52 Contacts Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 59 Congressional Research Service Selected Presidential Assistants and Advisors Introduction1 Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution provides that the President shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. A number of the appointments made by President Barack H. Obama to his Administration or by Cabinet Secretaries to their departments have been referred to, especially by the news media, as “czars.”2 For some, the term is being used to convey an appointee’s title (e.g., climate “czar”) in shorthand. For others, it is used to convey a sense that power is being centralized in the White House or certain entities. When used in political science literature, the term generally refers to White House policy coordination or an intense focus by the appointee on an issue of great magnitude. Congress has noticed these appointments and in the 111th Congress examined some of them. The Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, for example, conducted hearings on the “czar” issue on October 6, 2009, and October 22, 2009, respectively.3 Legislative action has focused on prohibitions on the use of appropriated funds to compensate certain appointees. P.L. 113-76, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, enacted on January 17, 2014, prohibits the use of funds to pay the salaries and expenses for the (1) Director, White House Office of Health Reform; (2) Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change; (3) Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury assigned to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy; and (4) White House Director of Urban Affairs.4 A similar provision was included in P.L. 112-74, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012, enacted on December 23, 2011.5 Division C of the law included the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations Act. The Office of Management and Budget’s 1 Barbara L. Schwemle, Analyst in American National Government in the Government and Finance Division (7-8655), wrote this section. 2 The use of the term “czar” to refer to government officials is not new. In the 19th century, for example, these officials had that moniker attached to their names: Nicholas Biddle, President of the Bank of the United States, during the “bank wars”; Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, during Reconstruction; and Thomas Reed, Speaker of the House of Representatives, during disputes over the rules for the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Chapter 23: War and Revolution, 1914-1919
    The Twentieth- Century Crisis 1914–1945 The eriod in Perspective The period between 1914 and 1945 was one of the most destructive in the history of humankind. As many as 60 million people died as a result of World Wars I and II, the global conflicts that began and ended this era. As World War I was followed by revolutions, the Great Depression, totalitarian regimes, and the horrors of World War II, it appeared to many that European civilization had become a nightmare. By 1945, the era of European domination over world affairs had been severely shaken. With the decline of Western power, a new era of world history was about to begin. Primary Sources Library See pages 998–999 for primary source readings to accompany Unit 5. ᮡ Gate, Dachau Memorial Use The World History Primary Source Document Library CD-ROM to find additional primary sources about The Twentieth-Century Crisis. ᮣ Former Russian pris- oners of war honor the American troops who freed them. 710 “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” —Winston Churchill International ➊ ➋ Peacekeeping Until the 1900s, with the exception of the Seven Years’ War, never ➌ in history had there been a conflict that literally spanned the globe. The twentieth century witnessed two world wars and numerous regional conflicts. As the scope of war grew, so did international commitment to collective security, where a group of nations join together to promote peace and protect human life. 1914–1918 1919 1939–1945 World War I League of Nations World War II is fought created to prevent wars is fought ➊ Europe The League of Nations At the end of World War I, the victorious nations set up a “general associa- tion of nations” called the League of Nations, which would settle interna- tional disputes and avoid war.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Nixon's Drug War: Politics Over Pragmatism
    Richard Nixon's Drug War: Politics over Pragmatism Edmund Carlton April 20, 2012 Abstract: This thesis is an historical observation Richard Nixon's role as the instigator of America's Drug War. This Drug War is a war fought both against international drug smugglers and America's own citizens. This thesis will summarize some major trends of the politicization of the drug issue and give an in-depth analysis of how race played a role in both winning Richard Nixon the presidency in 1968 as well as how that victory has inflected itself back on to the American race dynamic. This thesis will utilize the substantial wealth of academic publications on the subject and will serve as a survey of sorts of the major drug politic academia discussing the years 1967-1972. I will also be utilizing films from this era in order to illustrate the social and race dynamic that were being negotiated in post-Civil Rights Act America. This thesis will utilize two primary documents from Richard Nixon, a Reader's Digest article from October, 1967, and a pivotal message to Congress given on July 14th, 1969 which accompanied the proposal of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act which was passed a year later in 1970. Table of Contents Introduction P. 3 THE RELEVANT HISTORY OF DRUGS IN FILM p. 8 Its Racial Implications p.13 THE RHETORICAL PRE-AMBLE TO RICHARD NIXON's PRESIDENTIAL p.15 CAMPAIGN: The Reader Digest article "What Has Happened to America" White Backlash p. 22 RICHARD NIXON'S PIVOTAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS p.
    [Show full text]
  • Nixon's Caribbean Milieu, 1950–1968
    Dark Quadrant: Organized Crime, Big Business, and the Corruption of American Democracy Online Appendix: Nixon’s Caribbean Milieu, 1950–1968 By Jonathan Marshall “Though his working life has been passed chiefly on the far shores of the continent, close by the Pacific and the Atlantic, some emotion always brings Richard Nixon back to the Caribbean waters off Key Biscayne and Florida.”—T. H. White, The Making of the President, 19681 Richard Nixon, like millions of other Americans, enjoyed Florida and the nearby islands of Cuba and the Bahamas as refuges where he could leave behind his many cares and inhibitions. But he also returned again and again to the region as an important ongoing source of political and financial support. In the process, the lax ethics of its shadier operators left its mark on his career. This Sunbelt frontier had long attracted more than its share of sleazy businessmen, promoters, and politicians who shared a get-rich-quick spirit. In Florida, hustlers made quick fortunes selling worthless land to gullible northerners and fleecing vacationers at illegal but wide-open gambling joints. Sheriffs and governors protected bookmakers and casino operators in return for campaign contributions and bribes. In nearby island nations, as described in chapter 4, dictators forged alliances with US mobsters to create havens for offshore gambling and to wield political influence in Washington. Nixon’s Caribbean milieu had roots in the mobster-infested Florida of the 1940s. He was introduced to that circle through banker and real estate investor Bebe Rebozo, lawyer Richard Danner, and Rep. George Smathers. Later this chapter will explore some of the diverse connections of this group by following the activities of Danner during the 1968 presidential campaign, as they touched on Nixon’s financial and political ties to Howard Hughes, the South Florida crime organization of Santo Trafficante, and mobbed-up hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and Miami.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bush Revolution: the Remaking of America's Foreign Policy
    The Bush Revolution: The Remaking of America’s Foreign Policy Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay The Brookings Institution April 2003 George W. Bush campaigned for the presidency on the promise of a “humble” foreign policy that would avoid his predecessor’s mistake in “overcommitting our military around the world.”1 During his first seven months as president he focused his attention primarily on domestic affairs. That all changed over the succeeding twenty months. The United States waged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. troops went to Georgia, the Philippines, and Yemen to help those governments defeat terrorist groups operating on their soil. Rather than cheering American humility, people and governments around the world denounced American arrogance. Critics complained that the motto of the United States had become oderint dum metuant—Let them hate as long as they fear. September 11 explains why foreign policy became the consuming passion of Bush’s presidency. Once commercial jetliners plowed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it is unimaginable that foreign policy wouldn’t have become the overriding priority of any American president. Still, the terrorist attacks by themselves don’t explain why Bush chose to respond as he did. Few Americans and even fewer foreigners thought in the fall of 2001 that attacks organized by Islamic extremists seeking to restore the caliphate would culminate in a war to overthrow the secular tyrant Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Yet the path from the smoking ruins in New York City and Northern Virginia to the battle of Baghdad was not the case of a White House cynically manipulating a historic catastrophe to carry out a pre-planned agenda.
    [Show full text]
  • Cause One: Nicholas Ii, Czar of Russia
    THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ILLUSTRATED TIMELINE CAUSE ONE: NICHOLAS II, CZAR OF RUSSIA 19TH CENTURY RUSSIA In the 19th century, Russia was a vast, multinational empire controlled by the Romanov Dynasty. A dynasty is when control of a country is passed from family member to family member. For centuries, Russia was relatively isolated from the affairs of Western Europe due to their cold climates and long distances. They were a strongly agricultural country who still relied on the principals of serfdom to plant crops. This policy of tying the peasants to the land had long since been abolished in the rest of Europe and prevented Russia from advancing. Serfdom was finally abolished in 1861. NICHOLAS II TAKES CONTROL - 1894 Nicholas II had ruled Russia as Czar since the death of his father in 1894. Like his father, Nicholas wanted an autocratic rule in which he alone made all the laws and determined all foreign policy. When he took control, Russia was very far behind the industrial production of the Western European countries such as Britain and Germany. Nicholas increased industrial production in Russia but at the same time created a larger class of urban poor. Most people in Russia, however, still lived on farms. BLOODY SUNDAY - JANUARY 9, 1905 The urban poor worked in factories for long hours, horrible conditions and little pay. In 1905, they asked the Czar for help by presenting a petition to the Winter palace. The Czar was not at home and his generals ordered the troops to open fire on the people. Over 500 unarmed people were killed in an incident that became known as Bloody Sunday.
    [Show full text]
  • Obama and Climate Policy Reform: a Continuing Education in American Politicking
    OBAMA AND CLIMATE POLICY REFORM: A CONTINUING EDUCATION IN AMERICAN POLITICKING Colin Robertson The strange death of climate change legislation is a cautionary tale in American politicking. It is a reminder that the will and weight of the US presidency can be thwarted by the counterweights of regionalism, money and public indifference. Until we make a technological breakthrough, we face a “glorious mess” of federal regulation, litigation and continuing incrementalism at the state level. Canadians should pay heed. How America manages its grids and pipelines and how it prices carbon all have a direct effect on Canadian interests. We need to leverage our partnership to be, not an American clone, but “compatibly Canadian.” L’étrange abandon de toute réforme des lois sur le climat chez nos voisins du Sud en dit long sur les particularités de leurs mœurs politiques. Il vient ainsi rappeler que le contre-pouvoir des régions, les intérêts financiers et l’indifférence de l’opinion publique peuvent éclipser l’influence et la détermination du président. Seule une percée technologique pourrait y réguler le « bric-à-brac » actuel de règlements fédéraux, de litiges et de mesures disparates appliquées par les États. Le Canada doit surveiller la situation de près, car le mode de gestion des réseaux, des pipelines et du prix du carbone des Américains influe directement sur ses intérêts. Dans notre partenariat avec les États-Unis, nous devons faire valoir la « compatibilité » de nos politiques climatiques plutôt que de cloner la leur. n the sunny, uplit days following Barack Obama’s elec- In the public mind, “protecting the environment” had tion, reform of climate policy was perhaps the most surged in annual Pew survey rankings for 2006, 2007 and I anticipated promise in the agenda of hope that would 2008, with 56 percent of Americans identifying it as change not just America but the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Shell Whitepaper4 Copy
    WHO ADVISED THE CANDIDATES ON ENERGY Introductio by Jared Anderson Energy was a major issue during the 2012 US Presidential campaign, with both candidates repeatedly touting the multiple benefits associated with increased domestic oil and natural gas output, the need for renewable energy and more. But there was virtually no coverage of the ocials who advised President Obama and Governor Romney on these issues. This exclusive AOL Energy series delves into who these ad- visors are, where they came from and the nature of their relationships with the candidates. With one hailing from business and the other rapidly rising through politics, their contrasting backgrounds and way of approaching impor- tant issues provides an insider look at where Obama and Romney received advice and information on a crucial elec- tion issue. Pag 1. Wh Obam an Romne Listene t o Energ By Elisa Wood It's hard to imagine two people less alike than Harold Hamm and Heather Zichal, the top energy advisers to the presidential candidates. Hamm, energy czar for Mitt Romney, is a billionaire oil man who rose to success with only a high school diploma. Raised as a sharecropper's son, he is now the 35th richest person in America. Heather Zichal, President Barack Obama's deputy assistant for energy and climate change, is the daughter of a medical doctor. She was an intern for the Sierra Club while at Rutgers University. After graduating, she soared up Washington's policy ranks to a top White House position in little over a decade. Who exactly are Hamm and Zichal? What influence do they wield? And what do energy and environmental insiders think about them? First Hamm Testifying before Congress on energy independence in September, Hamm said, "Good things flow from American oil and natural gas." And they certainly have for Hamm, age 66, who is founder, chairman and CEO of Continental Resources, an Oklahoma City independent oil and natural production company that has put Hamm on Forbes' list of wealthiest Americans and on Time Magazine's list of the most influential.
    [Show full text]
  • The American Invasion of Iraq: Causes and Consequences
    Raymond Hinnebusch THE AMERICAN INVASION OF IRAQ: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES Raymond HINNEBUSCH* As the Middle East has become the centerpiece of its drive for global hegemony, America’s de-stabilizing impact on the region has deepened; equally, the reaction from the Middle East to US policy carries important consequences for US hegemony globally. The Iraq war is the pivotal event around which these developments centre. Explaining the US Invasion of Iraq The invasion of Iraq can only be properly understood by bringing together three levels of analysis: 1) US global grand strategy 2) the US strategic position in the Middle East; and 3) the interests of Bush's ruling coalition. Understanding the Iraq war, in turn, exposes the inner mainsprings of US Middle East policy and the region's pivotal role in overall US global strategy. US Global Grand Strategy and the Middle East The starting point for understanding the invasion of Iraq is the grand strategy of the US under Bush to undertake a coercive assertion of global hegemony. The Project for a New American Century frankly acknowledges this reach for hegemony. The Bush doctrine and the 2002 National Security Strategy, formulated in response to the 9/11 attacks, make explicit the coercive turn: the call for "full spectrum dominance;" the strategy of dealing with resistance to the US not simply through traditional containment, but via "preventive wars;" the resort to unilaterialism, with ad-hoc "coalitions of the willing;" the view that states not with the US in the war on terrorism are against it; and the claim that only the US liberal model is legitimate, with sovereignty exempting no nation from the demand that it conform.
    [Show full text]
  • Lessons-Encountered.Pdf
    conflict, and unity of effort and command. essons Encountered: Learning from They stand alongside the lessons of other wars the Long War began as two questions and remind future senior officers that those from General Martin E. Dempsey, 18th who fail to learn from past mistakes are bound Excerpts from LChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: What to repeat them. were the costs and benefits of the campaigns LESSONS ENCOUNTERED in Iraq and Afghanistan, and what were the LESSONS strategic lessons of these campaigns? The R Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University was tasked to answer these questions. The editors com- The Institute for National Strategic Studies posed a volume that assesses the war and (INSS) conducts research in support of the Henry Kissinger has reminded us that “the study of history offers no manual the Long Learning War from LESSONS ENCOUNTERED ENCOUNTERED analyzes the costs, using the Institute’s con- academic and leader development programs of instruction that can be applied automatically; history teaches by analogy, siderable in-house talent and the dedication at the National Defense University (NDU) in shedding light on the likely consequences of comparable situations.” At the of the NDU Press team. The audience for Washington, DC. It provides strategic sup- strategic level, there are no cookie-cutter lessons that can be pressed onto ev- Learning from the Long War this volume is senior officers, their staffs, and port to the Secretary of Defense, Chairman ery batch of future situational dough. The only safe posture is to know many the students in joint professional military of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and unified com- historical cases and to be constantly reexamining the strategic context, ques- education courses—the future leaders of the batant commands.
    [Show full text]
  • Creating the New Czar
    International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence ISSN: 0885-0607 (Print) 1521-0561 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujic20 Creating the New Czar Michael Rubin To cite this article: Michael Rubin (2018) Creating the New Czar, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 31:2, 387-395, DOI: 10.1080/08850607.2018.1418556 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/08850607.2018.1418556 Published online: 26 Mar 2018. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ujic20 International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 31: 387–428, 2018 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0885-0607 print/1521-0561 online DOI: 10.1080/08850607.2018.1418556 none defined BOOK REVIEWS Creating the New Czar MICHAEL RUBIN Mikhail Zygar: All the Kremlin’s Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin PublicAffairs, New York, 2016, 371 p., $27.99. During the 2012 U.S. presidential rather than adversary conformed to debates, President Barack Obama the majority view among the foreign mocked the Republican contender, policy elite. Consider the recent former Massachusetts governor Mitt bipartisan record of outreach to Romney, for identifying Russia as Moscow: On 16 June 2001, President the greatest geopolitical threat facing George W. Bush met Russian the United States. “The 1980s are President Vladimir Putin for the first now calling to ask for their foreign time at a summit in Slovenia. While, policy back, because, the Cold War’s in hindsight, U.S.–Russia relations been over for 20 years,” quipped reached their peak in the 1990s Obama.1 during Bill Clinton’s administration, While history shows Obama wrong, Bush wanted more.
    [Show full text]
  • Narcotics Funded Terrorists/Extremist Groups
    A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST AND OTHER EXTREMIST GROUPS A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with the Department of Defense May 2002 Researchers: LaVerle Berry Glenn E. Curtis Rex A. Hudson Nina A. Kollars Project Manager: Rex A. Hudson Federal Research Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 20540−4840 Tel: 202−707−3900 Fax: 202−707−3920 E-Mail: [email protected] Homepage: http://www.loc.go v/rr/frd/ Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Narcotics-Funded Terrorist/Extremist Groups PREFACE This global survey, based entirely on open sources, is intended to provide an assessment of the nexus between selected anti-U.S. terrorist and extremist groups in the world and organized crime, specifically drug trafficking, and how this relationship might be vulnerable to countermeasures. More specifically, the aim is to help develop a causal model for identifying critical nodes in terrorist and other extremist networks that can be exploited by Allied technology, just as counterdrug technology has been used in the war against drug trafficking. To this end, the four analysts involved in this study have examined connections between extremist groups and narcotics trafficking in the following countries, listed by region in order of discussion in the text: Latin America: Triborder Region (Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay), Colombia, and Peru; the Middle East: Lebanon; Southern Europe (Albania and Macedonia); Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; and East Asia: Philippines. These are preliminary, not definitive, surveys. Most of the groups examined in this study have been designated foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • From Czars to Commissars: Centralizing Policymaking Power in the White House
    FROM CZARS TO COMMISSARS: CENTRALIZING POLICYMAKING POWER IN THE WHITE HOUSE Parnia Zahedi INTRODUCTION In the wake of the family separation crisis at the border in the summer of 2018, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted a proposal: the Trump Administration should “appoint a Czar to break thru the bureaucracy & get these kids out of limbo & back in their parents arms.”1 Seven years earlier, Senator John McCain used Twitter to complain President Obama had “more czars than the Romanovs,” a reference to the last Russian dynasty’s tyrannical emperors.2 Despite his high number of czars, President Obama was hardly the first president to employ the use of policy czars as a management tool to centralize White House policymaking power. This centralization has carried into the Trump Administration through both the use of czars and a “shadow cabinet” built of agency “watchdogs” that monitor cabinet secretaries for loyalty.3 From czars to shadow cabinets, the increasing influence of the President over administrative action has led to great controversy amongst Congress, the media, and the public. The czar label’s tyrannical roots4 reflect the central concern of presidents going outside of the Senate “Advice and Consent” process required by Article II of the Constitution to appoint powerful advisors without any accountability to Congress or the public.5 Existing academic literature focuses on this seeming constitutional conflict, with some scholars advocating for the elimination of czars, while others argue that the lack of advice and consent leads to policymaking that occurs “outside of the ordinary, Administrative Procedure Act (APA)-delimited structure of agencies.”6 This paper does not seek to further any constitutional arguments regarding czars, agreeing with scholarship that accepts the constitutionality of these presidential advisors as either 1 Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer), TWITTER (June 24, 2018, 12:09 PM), https://twitter.com/senschumer/status/1010917833423970304?lang=en.
    [Show full text]