1 The Federal BureaucracyFrom a purely technical point of view, a bureaucracy is capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency, and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of exercising authority over human beings. --Max Weber

2 We Hate the BureaucracyAmericans have a favorable impression of their most recent encounter with the federal bureaucracy (as, for example, when a senior citizen applies for social security), but they have a low opinion of the bureaucracy as a whole. A Pew Research Center poll found, for example, that roughly two-thirds of Americans believe that government programs are “usually inefficient and wasteful.”

3 TEA PARTY NOTWITHSTANDING, BUREAUCRACY IS A NECESSITY!Ambitious programs ~ space exploration, social security, interstate highways, and universal postal service would not be possible if the federal government lacked a bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is found wherever there is a need to manage large numbers of people and tasks. Every large private organization is also a bureaucracy. As one of thousands of services provided by the federal bureaucracy, the National Hurricane Service monitors hurricane activity and provides early warning to affected coastal areas.

4 The Federal Bureaucracy is not that huge.At present, the U.S. federal bureaucracy has about 2.5 million employees, who have responsibility for administering thousands of programs. The president and Congress get far more attention in the news, but the federal bureaucracy has a more direct impact on Americans’ everyday lives.

5 The federal bureaucracy grew slowly until the 1930s, when an explosive growth began in the number of programs that required ongoing administration by the federal government. Source: Historical Statistics of the United States and Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1986, 322; recent figures from U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Figure excludes military personnel.

6 Growth of the BureaucracyFACT: the number of Federal employees has not changed markedly since the late 1960s. This fact is deceiving, however, in that the federal government has increasingly contracted some of its work to privately owned firms. At an earlier time, for example, the U.S. armed forces operated their own food services. Today, these services are operated primarily by private firms. Also, State and Local bureaucracies have grown tremendously.

7 Blame it on FDR! The biggest spurt in the bureaucracy’s growth took place in the 1930s. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal included creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and numerous other federal agencies.

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9 Blame it on LBJ (At least he’s more recent.)Three decades later, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society initiatives, which thrust the federal government into policy areas traditionally dominated by the states, resulted in the creation of additional federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development

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12 Five Types of US Agency cabinet department, independent agency,regulatory agency, government corporation, presidential commission.

13 Cabinet Agencies Cabinet departments vary greatly in their visibility, size, and importance. The Department of State, one of the oldest and most prestigious departments, is also one of the smallest, with approximately 25,000 employees . The Department of Defense has the largest workforce, with more than 600,000 civilian employees (apart from the more than 1.4 million uniformed active service members). The Department of Health and Human Services has the largest budget; its activities account for more than a fourth of all federal spending, much of it in the form of social security and Medicaid payments.

14 Independent agencies The heads of these agencies are appointed by and report to the president but are not members of the cabinet. In general, the independent agencies exist apart from cabinet departments because their placement within a department would pose symbolic or practical problems NASA, for example, could conceivably be located in the Department of Defense, but such positioning would suggest that the space program exists solely for military purposes.

15 Regulatory agencies These are usually created when Congress recognizes the need for ongoing regulation of a particular economic activity. They develop law-like regulations and then judge whether individuals or organizations are complying with them. The EPA, for example, can impose fines and other penalties on business firms that violate environmental regulations. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversees the stock and bond markets,. In addition to their administrative function, regulatory agencies have a legislative function and a judicial function

16 Government CorporationsThese are similar to private corporations in that they charge clients for their services and are governed by a board of directors. But government corporations receive federal funding to help defray operating expenses, and their directors are appointed by the president with Senate approval. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures individuals’ savings accounts against bank failures, National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), provides passenger rail service. U.S. Postal Service, with roughly 700,000 employees

17 STATE Bureaucracies Although the federal bureaucracy is often criticized as being “too big,” it is actually smaller on a per-capita basis than even the smallest state bureaucracy. There are 83 federal employees for every 1,000 Americans. Illinois, with 103 state employees for every 1,000 residents, has the smallest state bureaucracy on a per-capita basis. Hawaii has the largest—428 state employees per 1,000 residents.

18 Patronage and the Merit SystemPendleton Act (1883)- Merit System: All Federal Employees must take Civil Service Tests to “earn” employment- Eliminates Patronage. Hatch Act (1939, amended 1993) prohibited them from holding key jobs in election campaigns. It protects Federal employees from being fired for participating, or not participating in campaigns.

19 Patronage The merit system is overseen by two independent agencies.The Office of Personnel Management supervises the hiring and job classification of federal employees. The Merit Service Protection Board hears appeals from career civil servants who have been fired or face other disciplinary action. The Death of President Garfield. The Pendleton Civil Service Act resulted from public outrage over the role patronage had played in Garfield’s death

20 Firing Federal EmployeesIt is very difficult to fire a Federal employee after his/her probationary term The Government must provide just cause, and incur legal fees to answer numerous appeals to the Merit Protection Service What are the positive and negative effects of job security for Government employees?

21 From beginning to end, the budgetary process lasts a year and a half.No agency or program can exist without funding. Although agencies play an active role in the budgetary process, the elected branches have final authority over the budget.

22 The president does not have any real say over most of the budgetTwo- thirds of involves mandatory spending--required by law, as in the case of social security payments to retirees. The president has no authority to suspend or reduce such payments. OMB focuses on the one-third of the budget that involves discretionary spending, which includes spending on defense, foreign aid, , education, national parks, space exploration, and highways.

23 It all begins with OMB In January, the president’s budget, which has been reviewed in excruciating detail by OMB (Office of Management and Budget), is submitted to Congress. When it is of the opposite party, its priorities will differ substantially from those of the president. Upon reaching Congress, the president’s budget proposal goes to the House and Senate budget committees. Their job is to recommend overall spending and revenue levels. Once approved by the full House and Senate, the levels are a constraint on the rest of Congress’s work on the budget. OMB Director Peter Orszag Holding a Briefing On FY2010 Federal Budget

24 This is where the Subcommittees come inThe House Appropriations Committee through its thirteen subcommittees reviews the budget, which includes hearings with officials from each federal agency. Each subcommittee has responsibility for a particular substantive area, such as defense or agriculture. A subcommittee may cut an agency’s budget if it concludes that the agency is overfunded or may increase the budget if it concludes that the agency is underfunded. The subcommittees’ recommendations are then reviewed by the House Appropriations Committee as a whole. The budget is also reviewed by the Senate Appropriations Committee and its subcommittees. However, the Senate is a smaller body, and its review of agency requests is less exacting than that of the House. To a degree, the Senate Appropriations Committee serves as a “court of last resort” for agencies that have had their funding requests cut by OMB or by the House Appropriations Committee.

25 Congress’s Answer to OMBThroughout this process, members of the House and Senate rely on the Congressional Budget Office, the congressional equivalent of OMB. If the Congressional Budget Office believes that OMB or an agency has miscalculated the amount of money needed to carry out its mandated programs, it will alert Congress to the discrepancy.

26 Final Stage….? After the House and Senate appropriations committees have completed their work, they submit their recommendations to the full chambers for a vote. If approved by a majority in the House and in the Senate, differences in the Senate and House versions are then reconciled in conference committee .The reconciled version of the budget is then voted upon in the House and Senate and, if approved, is sent to the president to sign or veto. Under normal circumstances the threat of a presidential veto can be enough to persuade Congress to accept many of the president’s recommendations. In the end, the budget inevitably reflects both presidential and congressional priorities. Neither branch gets everything it wants, but each branch always gets some of what it seeks.

27 The bureaucracy does not simply administer policy. It also makes policy.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a broad mandate under the Federal Communication Act to regulate various forms of communication. On its own authority, it has developed different regulatory regimes for telephones, broadcast television, cable television, and the Internet. For a lengthy period, for example, the FCC required broadcasters to adhere to a fairness standard; if they aired one side of a political issue, they were also required to air opposing sides. The FCC later rescinded this doctrine. Both of these FCC rulings were based on the same legislative act. Congressional hearings on reviving the Fairness Doctrine came in for much satire by Conservative Cartoonists.

28 The “Agency Point of View”A key issue about bureaucratic policymaking is the perspective that bureaucrats bring to their decisions. Bureaucrats are responsive to the needs of the agency in which they work, a perspective called the agency point of view. This outlook comes naturally to most high-ranking civil servants. More than 80 percent of top bureaucrats reach their high-level positions by rising through the ranks of the same agency. One study found, for example, that social welfare administrators are three times as likely as other civil servants to believe that social welfare programs should be a top spending priority. Professionalism also cements agency loyalties. High-level administrative positions have increasingly been filled by scientists, engineers, lawyers, educators, physicians, and other professionals. Most of them take a job in an agency whose mission they support, as in the case of the aeronautical engineers who work for NASA or the doctors who work for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

29 The Power of Clientele GroupsFederal agencies were created for the purpose of promoting, protecting, or regulating a particular interest. Nearly every major interest in society—commerce, labor, agriculture, banking, and so on—has a corresponding federal agency. In most cases, these interests are also clientele groups in the sense that they benefit directly from the agency’s programs. Clientele groups can be counted on to lobby Congress and the president on behalf of the agency when its programs and funding are being reviewed.

30 The Department of Agriculture is a classic example of an Agency with ClientsThe Department of Agriculture is a dependable ally of farm interests year after year. The same cannot be said of the president or Congress as a whole, which must balance farmers’ demands against those of other groups, not to mention international concerns regarding the price of food.

31 More Power for OMB In addition to OMB’s role in overseeing the preparation of agency budgets, it acts as a review board for agency regulations and policy proposals. No agency can issue a major regulation without OMB’s verification that the benefits of the regulation outweigh its costs, and no agency can propose legislation to Congress without OMB’s approval. In making these decisions, OMB operates from a presidential perspective. A proposed regulation or bill that conflicts with the president’s policies is unlikely to be approved.

32 Congress also claims ownershipThe most substantial control that Congress exerts over the bureaucracy is through its “power of the purse.” Congress has constitutional authority over spending; it decides how much money will be appropriated for agency programs. Without funding, a program simply does not exist, regardless of how important the agency believes it is. Congress can also void an administrative decision through legislation that instructs the agency to follow a different course of action.

33 Congressional OversightCongress also has control through its oversight function, which involves monitoring the bureaucracy’s work to ensure its compliance with legislative intent. If any agency steps out of line, Congress can call hearings to ask tough questions and, if necessary, take legislative action to correct the problem. Agency heads are required by law to appear before Congress when asked to do so, and the mere possibility of being grilled by a congressional panel can lead administrators to stay in line. The effect is not altogether positive. Bureaucrats are some- times reluctant to try innovative approaches out of a fear that particular members of Congress will disapprove.

34 Accountability through the CourtsThe bureaucracy is also overseen by the judiciary. An injured party can bring suit against an agency on the grounds that it has failed to carry out a law properly. If the court agrees, the agency must change its policy In 1999, Pigford v Glickman a federal court approved a settlement in favor of African American farmers who demonstrated that the Department of Agriculture had systematically favored white farmers in granting federal farm loans.

35 Whistleblowing Although the bureaucratic corruption that is common place in some countries is rare in the United States, a certain amount of fraud and abuse is inevitable in any large bureaucracy. One way to stop these prohibited practices is whistleblowing—the act of reporting instances of official mismanagement. To encourage whistleblowers to come forward with their information, Congress enacted the Whistle- blower Protection Act.

36 THREE POINTS TO REMEMBER:Bureaucracy is an inevitable consequence of complexity and scale. Modern government could not function without a large bureaucracy. Through authority, specialization, and rules, bureaucracy provides a means of managing thousands of tasks and employees. Bureaucrats naturally take an “agency point of view,” seeking to promote their agency’s programs and power. They do this through their expert knowledge, support from clientele groups, and backing by Congress or the president. Although agencies are subject to oversight by the president, Congress, and the judiciary, bureaucrats exercise considerable power in their own right.