Chapter 14: The Bureaucracy—AP US Government and Politics



The Budget and the Federal Bureaucracy

AP US Government and Politics

Big Picture Questions/Outline

1. How is the Federal Government’s budget created?

2. What Congressional agencies are involved in the budget process?

3. The bureaucracy is sometimes referred to as the “fourth branch” of the federal government. Why? What do bureaucrats do?

4. Where and how is the bureaucracy referred to in the Constitution? How has the bureaucracy changed since then?

5. How do the three branches of government check the power of the bureaucracy?

a. Congressional control

i. Federal oversight

ii. Budget/appropriations

b. Executive control

c. Judicial control

6. How does discretionary authority used by federal bureaucrats check the power of all three branches?

7. What is the scope of the federal bureaucracy today?—2.7 million federal employees

d. Civil service employees (90%)

e. Non-civil service (10%)

i. Presidential appointees such as Under-Secretaries—require Senate confirmation (3500)

ii. Independent regulatory commissioners—require Senate confirmation but the President cannot fire them (100)

8. Why is there a high rate of turnover in many high-level federal government positions?

f. Privatization

g. baby boomers retiring

9. How is the bureaucracy organized?

h. Cabinet Departments

i. Independent Executive Agencies

j. Independent Regulatory Commissions

k. Government Corporations

10. What is an iron triangle? Why do many political scientists now use the term issue network instead? How is a policy network broader than an issue network?

over…

Words to Know/Vocabulary List—Unit 4.3: The Bureaucracy

Chapter 14

Budget

Deficit

Expenditure

Revenue

Income Tax

Federal Debt

Entitlement Program

Social Security

Medicare

House Ways and Means Committee

Senate Finance Committee

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Appropriations

Chapter 15

Administrative discretion

civil service system

executive departments

executive order

federal bureaucracy

Government corporations

Hatch Act

Implementation

Independent executive agencies

Independent regulatory commissions

Iron triangles

Regulation

Rule making (as a quasi-legislative process)

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