Holding the BUREAUCRACY Accountable [AP Gov Review Unit 2 Topics 14-15 (2.14-15)]

Summary

This 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

00:00

📚 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.

05:01

🏛️ 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.’

Keywords

💡Federal Bureaucracy

The federal bureaucracy refers to the agencies and departments within the executive branch that are responsible for implementing and enforcing laws. In the video, the federal bureaucracy is presented as a powerful entity with the ability to shape how laws are executed through delegated discretionary authority and rule-making procedures. The video focuses on how the other branches of government check and balance this power.

💡Congressional Oversight

Congressional oversight is the process by which Congress monitors and supervises the federal bureaucracy to ensure laws are being properly implemented. The video explains that Congress exercises this oversight mainly through committee hearings and the power of the purse, ensuring that agencies align with legislative intent and execute their responsibilities effectively.

💡Committee Hearings

Committee hearings are sessions where congressional committees call on federal agency heads to testify about their actions and progress in implementing laws. This is a key mechanism for congressional oversight mentioned in the video, where Congress checks whether agencies are fulfilling their roles properly, sometimes involving high-profile investigations, as seen with the FBI's mishandling of an abuse scandal involving gymnasts.

💡Power of the Purse

The 'power of the purse' refers to Congress’s control over federal funding. The video explains that agencies need authorization from Congress to spend taxpayer money, allowing Congress to limit or increase funding based on an agency's performance. This power is a critical tool for holding the bureaucracy accountable, especially after the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

💡Delegated Discretionary Authority

Delegated discretionary authority allows bureaucratic agencies to make decisions and rules that have the force of law, based on the broad mandates set by Congress. The video highlights this concept to explain the vast power the bureaucracy holds, which makes congressional and presidential oversight crucial.

💡Executive Orders

Executive orders are directives issued by the president to federal agencies, guiding how they should implement laws and policies. The video uses President Lyndon B. Johnson's Executive Order 11246, which mandated affirmative action, as an example of how the president can use this power to influence the bureaucracy and ensure it aligns with the administration’s agenda.

💡Appointment Power

The appointment power allows the president to appoint heads of federal agencies, giving them influence over the bureaucracy. In the video, this is highlighted as a formal power the president uses to ensure that agencies carry out policies in line with the administration’s goals, such as President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey in 2017.

💡Judicial Review

Judicial review is the process by which courts assess whether the actions and rules of bureaucratic agencies are constitutional. The video mentions that individuals affected by bureaucratic regulations can challenge them in court, though courts typically uphold agency decisions unless there’s a clear constitutional violation.

💡Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974

This act gave Congress greater control over federal spending by limiting the president’s ability to withhold funds and giving Congress more power over the budget. The video refers to this law as a way Congress enhances its oversight of the bureaucracy, ensuring that agencies are financially accountable.

💡Compliance Monitoring

Compliance monitoring refers to the bureaucracy’s responsibility to ensure that industries and organizations follow the rules and regulations set by federal agencies. The video explains how this process can slow down policy implementation, but it’s a necessary function to ensure that rules are enforced and followed.

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