Holding the BUREAUCRACY Accountable [AP Gov Review Unit 2 Topics 14-15 (2.14-15)]
Summary
TLDRThis video explains how the federal bureaucracy is held accountable by the three branches of government, with a focus on Congress and the president. It covers how Congress uses its oversight powers, such as committee hearings and control over agency budgets, to ensure the bureaucracy implements laws as intended. The president checks the bureaucracy through formal powers like appointments and informal tools like executive orders. The video also briefly discusses how the judicial branch can review bureaucratic actions for constitutionality, concluding with a call to viewers to continue learning and subscribe for future content.
Takeaways
- 📜 Congress exercises oversight over the federal bureaucracy mainly through committee hearings and the power of the purse.
- 🗣️ Congressional committees can call agency heads to testify, which allows for transparency and accountability in law implementation.
- 💰 The power of the purse allows Congress to control funding for agencies, impacting their ability to operate effectively.
- 🏛️ The President oversees the bureaucracy by appointing agency heads, ensuring they align with the administration’s goals.
- 🔄 The President can remove certain agency leaders if they are not implementing policies as intended, though there are limits for regulatory commissions.
- 📜 Executive orders are informal powers the President can use to guide bureaucracy in line with policy objectives.
- ⚖️ The judiciary can review bureaucratic actions through judicial review, ensuring regulations comply with the Constitution.
- ⏱️ Bureaucratic slowdown is often due to compliance monitoring, which is a necessary but time-consuming process.
- 👥 Congressional and presidential oversight are checks on the power of the bureaucracy, preventing unchecked rule-making.
- ⚖️ Courts generally rule in favor of bureaucratic agencies unless there is clear constitutional violation in their actions.
Q & A
How does the federal bureaucracy implement laws?
-The federal bureaucracy implements laws through their delegated discretionary authority and rule-making procedures.
What is the role of Congress in overseeing the federal bureaucracy?
-Congress oversees the federal bureaucracy to ensure that laws are implemented as intended, using committee hearings and the power of the purse to check the bureaucracy.
How can Congress use committee hearings to check the bureaucracy?
-Congress can call directors of agencies to testify and give reports on their progress in carrying out the law, which can range from friendly check-ins to intense scrutiny during hearings.
What is the 'power of the purse' and how does it relate to Congress's oversight of the bureaucracy?
-The 'power of the purse' refers to Congress's responsibility for funding bureaucratic agencies. They can decrease funding for agencies that aren't executing laws appropriately.
How has the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 affected Congress's power over budgetary decisions?
-The Act gave Congress more power over budgetary decisions at the expense of the president's power, allowing them to exert greater control over agency funding.
What are some ways the President can ensure the bureaucracy aligns with their policy agenda?
-The President can appoint new heads of agencies sympathetic to their policy agenda, use formal powers like appointment, and informal powers like executive orders.
Can you provide an example of how a President used their formal powers to reorganize the bureaucracy?
-In 2017, President Donald Trump fired James Comey, the director of the FBI, because he believed Comey was not handling the Russia investigation in alignment with his agenda.
How can the President use executive orders to influence the bureaucracy?
-Presidents can use executive orders to bring the bureaucracy in line with their policy agenda, as seen with President Lyndon B. Johnson's Executive Order 11246, which mandated affirmative action in federal contracts.
What is the biggest cause of bureaucratic slowdown in the implementation of laws?
-The biggest cause of bureaucratic slowdown is compliance monitoring, where regulatory agencies must ensure that industries are following imposed rules.
How can the judicial branch check the power of the bureaucracy?
-The judicial branch can check the bureaucracy by allowing individuals to appeal to the courts if a rule or regulation is deemed unconstitutional, exercising judicial review.
What is the significance of the Supreme Court's role in checking the bureaucracy?
-The Supreme Court's role is significant as it can declare a rule or regulation unconstitutional through judicial review, providing a check on the bureaucracy's power.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Federal Bureaucratic Accountability
The speaker welcomes viewers to a video on the federal bureaucracy and its accountability to the other branches of the U.S. government as part of an AP Government curriculum. The goal is to explain how Congress exercises oversight over the executive branch and how the president ensures that the executive agencies align with the administration’s goals. The federal bureaucracy wields significant power in implementing and executing laws through delegated discretionary authority and rule-making, and this video will explore how this authority is checked.
🏛️ Congressional Oversight: Committees and Hearings
Congress checks the federal bureaucracy to ensure agencies implement laws as intended. One method is through committee hearings, where agency heads testify about their progress. These hearings can range from routine check-ins to intense scrutiny, such as the example of a Judiciary Committee hearing with the FBI regarding the mishandling of abuse cases in Olympic gymnastics. This is an example of Congress holding an agency accountable for failing to properly implement the law.
💰 Congressional Oversight: Power of the Purse
Another way Congress holds the bureaucracy accountable is through the power of the purse, controlling the funding of federal agencies. Agencies must receive funding authorization from Congress, and if Congress feels an agency is not fulfilling its duties properly, it can reduce its budget. This control became more pronounced after the passage of the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which strengthened congressional authority over budget decisions at the expense of presidential power.
👔 Presidential Oversight: Appointment Power
The president has several ways to oversee the federal bureaucracy, including appointing new heads of agencies who align with the president’s policy goals. While there are limits, such as the inability to fire regulatory commission heads without cause, the president can make significant changes in leadership. The example of President Donald Trump firing FBI Director James Comey in 2017 is cited as a case of the president using this formal power to influence the direction of a key agency.
📝 Presidential Oversight: Executive Orders and Informal Powers
Beyond formal appointments, the president can use informal powers like executive orders to ensure the bureaucracy supports the administration’s policy agenda. The video cites President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246, which required federal contractors to take affirmative action in hiring women and minorities. While the president wants the bureaucracy to operate within their will, sometimes bureaucratic agencies’ accountability to Congress creates friction, which can lead to inefficiencies.
⚖️ Judicial Oversight: The Court’s Role in Checking Bureaucracy
The judiciary can also check the power of the bureaucracy through judicial review, ruling on whether bureaucratic regulations or actions are unconstitutional. While courts often side with agencies unless there is a clear constitutional violation, they can still play a crucial role in holding the bureaucracy accountable. Citizens can challenge agency rules in court if they feel these rules infringe on their rights, ensuring a level of oversight from the judicial branch.
📖 Review and Next Steps for AP Government Students
The speaker encourages students to click on a review packet link for further study in preparation for their AP Government exam. The video concludes by summarizing key points from Unit 2, Topics 14 and 15, emphasizing the need for students to subscribe to ensure the continuation of these educational videos. The speaker signs off with their signature catchphrase, ‘Heimler out.’
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Federal Bureaucracy
💡Congressional Oversight
💡Committee Hearings
💡Power of the Purse
💡Delegated Discretionary Authority
💡Executive Orders
💡Appointment Power
💡Judicial Review
💡Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974
💡Compliance Monitoring
Highlights
Overview of congressional oversight and its relationship with the executive branch.
Congress holds bureaucratic agencies accountable through committee hearings.
The power of the purse allows Congress to control agency funding if laws are not implemented as intended.
The Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 strengthened Congress's budgetary control over the executive branch.
Presidential oversight of the bureaucracy includes formal powers like appointing new heads of agencies.
Informal presidential powers, such as executive orders, help align the bureaucracy with the administration's policy agenda.
Example: President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey in 2017 to align the FBI's actions with his agenda.
Example: President Lyndon B. Johnson's Executive Order 11246 mandating affirmative action for federal contractors.
The role of compliance monitoring in slowing down bureaucratic processes, but ensuring rule enforcement.
Judicial review allows courts to strike down bureaucratic regulations if found unconstitutional.
Courts often rule in favor of agencies unless there's a clear constitutional violation.
The bureaucracy's power comes from delegated discretionary authority and rule-making procedures.
Congress checks the bureaucracy by ensuring laws are implemented as intended, often through agency testimony.
The Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the FBI’s mishandling of an abuse scandal highlights congressional oversight in action.
Congress can decrease funding for agencies that are not executing laws effectively.
Transcripts
hey there and welcome back to heimlich
history we've been going through unit
two of the ap government curriculum and
that means in this video it's time to
talk about how the federal bureaucracy
is held accountable by the other three
branches of the federal government so if
you're ready to get them brain cows
milked with congressional oversight
let's get to it so in this video here's
what we're trying to do explain how
congress uses its oversight power and
its relationship with the executive
branch and explain how the president
ensures that the executive branch
agencies and departments carry out their
responsibilities in concert with the
goals of the administration so if you've
been watching the previous videos on the
power and responsibilities of the
federal bureaucracy you will no doubt
know that the bureaucracy has a great
deal of power over how laws are
implemented and how they are executed
they do this through their delegated
discretionary authority and their rule
making procedures and if you want to
know more about that then see the
previous video on unit 2 topic 13. so
with all this authority to make rules
that have the force of law how do the
other branches keep this unwieldy
bureaucratic beast in check well the
vast majority of the checking comes from
congress and the president although the
supreme court joins the fund now and
then too and i reckon we ought to look
at each of them in turn so congress is
concerned that the bureaucratic agencies
actually implement the laws as congress
intended when they passed the law and so
in order to exercise this oversight
there are two ways for congress to check
the bureaucracy first is by the use of
committee hearings congress has many
committees that correspond to different
government agencies and will call
directors of those agencies to testify
and give reports on their progress in
carrying out the law sometimes these are
just friendly check-ins and other times
it gets a little crazy for example as i
record this video there's a judiciary
committee hearing involving the fbi with
reference to an abuse scandal among
olympic gymnasts several gymnasts
reported their abuse to fbi agents and
the fbi waited for over a year to do
anything about it and in the period of
their inaction many dozens more gymnasts
were being abused and so the judiciary
committee is hearing testimony from the
gymnast and is going to take the fbi to
task because they so horribly bungled
the implementation of the law but
congress can also check the bureaucracy
by the power of the purse recall from
earlier in this unit that the power of
the purse means that congress is
responsible for funding these
bureaucratic agencies and an agency
cannot spend any taxpayer money until
they receive authorization of spending
measures from congress remember congress
is the entity responsible for the
federal budget and so when the time
comes around to fund certain agencies if
those agencies aren't executing the law
the way congress thinks is appropriate
they can decrease the funding available
to those agencies this is especially
true after the passage of the budget and
empowerment control act of 1974 which
gave congress a lot more power over
budgetary decisions at the expense of
the president's power okay that's how
congress can check the bureaucracy and
now let's have a look at how the
president can do it now remember that
the bureaucracy officially falls under
the authority of the president and so
there are many different means by which
the president can make sure the
bureaucracy is functioning well the
president of course has a policy agenda
to implement and if the bureaucracy
isn't cooperating with that agenda the
president can use both formal and
informal powers to shake things up among
the president's formal powers is
appointment if the bureaucracy isn't
behaving like the president would like
then the president can appoint new heads
of agencies and usually those are going
to be folks sympathetic to the
president's policy agenda now there are
some limits to this the president can't
fire regulatory commission heads without
reason but the president can fire and
hire other bureaucratic positions at
will for example in 2017 donald trump
abruptly fired james comey who was the
director of the fbi because trump
believed comey was not handling the
investigation into russia's interference
with the 2016 election in a manner that
aligned with trump's agenda now that was
a highly contentious firing i admit that
and i'm not commenting on it here i'm
just using it as an example of a way the
president can use his formal powers to
reorganize the bureaucracy the president
can also make use of informal powers
like the executive order to bring the
bureaucracy into line with the
presidential policy agenda for example
civil rights were a huge agenda item for
president lyndon b johnson and in 1964
he signed the civil rights act into law
which prohibited employment
discrimination based on race gender or
religion and you know hey that was a
good thing but the implementation of
this law meant that if discrimination
did occur the agencies responsible for
enforcing it would only know about it
after the fact but johnson decided to
sign executive order 11246 which took
civil rights and employment one step
further this executive order mandated
that any contractors hired by the
federal government had to take
affirmative action not only to avoid
discrimination but also to populate
their organizations with women and
minorities and other discriminated
groups now the president of course would
love it if the bureaucracy would operate
entirely within the presidential will
but since the bureaucracy is also
responsible to congress that doesn't
happen and sometimes that can cause
inefficiencies in the execution of the
law however the biggest culprit for
bureaucratic slowdown is compliance
monitoring when a regulatory agency
imposes rules on an industry they must
go through the laborious process of
following up with the players in those
industries and make sure that they are
complying and that takes a lot of time
it takes a lot of work and thus can slow
down the implementation of policies
however that's not necessarily a bad
thing since the alternative would be for
bureaucratic agencies to create rules
and then never follow up to see if those
under the rules are following them if
that's the case there's really no point
to the rules okay now briefly let's talk
about how the judicial branch can check
the power of the bureaucracy as well
since the rules and regulations being
implemented by the bureaucracy directly
affect the lives of americans with the
force of law that means that people can
appeal to the courts when one of those
rules or regulations is deemed
unconstitutional and this of course
would be the court exercising judicial
review over the bureaucracy now most of
these cases the court rules in favor of
the agency unless there's a blatant
violation of the constitution but it is
possible okay click right over here in
review packet if you want help getting
an a in your class and a five on your
exam in may and now that you know what
you need to know about unit 2 topics 14
and 15 for the ap government curriculum
you might want to subscribe so that i
know that you want me to keep making
these videos for you and if you do well
then i shall oblige heimler out
関連動画をさらに表示
BUREAUCRACY: Discretionary & Rule Making Authority [AP Gov Review Unit 2 Topic 13 (2.13)]
What Is the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government? | History
The ROLES and POWERS of the President [AP Gov Review Unit 2 Topic 4 (2.4)]
The JUDICIAL Branch [AP Gov Review Unit 2 Topic 8 (2.8)]
The Congressional Committee Structure
The Federal BUREAUCRACY [AP Gov Review Unit 2 Topic 12 (2.12)]
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)