Congress and the Executive I

The Struggle Over Presidential Authority: Article I and Article II

Vetoes (Davidson 296-299).

Statements of Administration Policy (Trump examples)

1— Strongly Support Passage
2— Support Passage
3— Do not Object to Passage
4— No Position on Passage
5— Oppose
6— Strongly Oppose
7— Secretary’s veto Threat (single and multiple agency)
8— Senior Advisor’s Veto Threat
9— Presidential Veto Threat

Newt Gingrich, Lessons Learned the Hard Way (1998):

We had not only failed to take into account the ability of the Senate to delay us and obstruct us, but we had much too cavalierly underrated the power of the President, even a President who had lost his legislative majority and was in a certain amount of trouble for other reasons. I am speaking of the power of the veto. Even if you pass something through both the House and the Senate, there is that presidential pen. How could we have forgotten that? For me especially it was inexcusable, because when I was Republican whip during the Bush Administration one of my duties had been precisely to help sustain presidential vetoes.

Item Veto:

Supreme Court struck it down in Clinton v. City of New York.

Guess who was primarily responsible..

Signing statements 

• A de facto item veto?
• As a candidate, Obama opposed signing statements  -- but as president, he issued them
• Trump examples

Other forms of executive action

• National security Hamilton in Federalist 8: "It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority." (more in two weeks)
• Executive orders
• Presidential proclamations  
• National Emergencies Act: special powers 
• National emergency
• Presidential memoranda  and Trump examples
• Agency memoranda (DACA)

But what one administration does unilaterally, another administration can try to undo unilaterally:

• Reversal of DACA

Courts can also undo actions.  The case of DAPA -- US v. Texas

Power to Persuade

LBJ and negotiation

CQ on presidential success (review from a few weeks ago)

Presidential approval and the "decay curve"


The way it used to be: