American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH| 311

annual State of the Union address, at least one member of the cabinet is assigned

to be somewhere else, so that in the event of a catastrophe someone in the line of

succession would survive to assume the presidency.

In the event that the vice president must be replaced due to resignation,

impeachment, or incapacity, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment allows the president

to nominate a new vice president, who must be confi rmed by majority votes in the

House and the Senate.

The Executive Branch

As head of the executive branch, the president runs a huge, complex organization

with hundreds of thousands of employees. This section describes the organiza-

tions and staff who help the president exercise his vast responsibilities, from man-

aging disaster-response eff orts to implementing policy changes.^44 Among these

employees are appointees who hold senior positions in the government. These

individuals serve as the president’s eyes and ears in the bureaucracy, making sure

that bureaucrats are following presidential directives.

Many other executive branch employees work within the Executive Office

of the President, which has employed about 1,800 people in recent administra-

tions. About one-third of these employees are concentrated in two offices, the

Office of Management and Budget, which develops the president’s budget pro-

posals and monitors spending by government agencies, and the Office of the

United States Trade Representative, which negotiates trade agreements with

other nations.^45

The Executive Offi ce of the President

Nuts and Bolts 10.3 lists the organizations that make up the Executive Offi ce of
the President (EOP) and one of its main components, the White House Offi ce.
Both include offi ces that have clear policy-related or political missions.
One of the most important duties of EOP staff is helping the president and
candidates from his party achieve their policy goals and get re-elected. Consider
the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). During 2006, representa-
tives from the office traveled throughout the country to hold joint press con-
ferences with Republican and Democratic members of Congress to announce
federal grants for drug abuse prevention programs. However, three months
before t h at yea r ’s m idt er m elec t ion s, w it h R epubl ica n s i n da n ger of losi n g m ajor-
ity control of the House and Senate, ONDCP offi cials began holding press confer-
ences exclusively with Republican legislators.^46 An e-mail from the head of the
offi ce revealed that this strategy was an attempt to help vulnerable Republican
candidates. In other words, people in the ONDCP did not abandon their offi cial
duties, but they also did everything they could to help Republicans in the 2006
election.
The most infl uential EOP staff occupy the offi ces in the West Wing of the White
House. The West Wing contains the president’s offi ce, known as the Oval Offi ce,

EXPLAIN HOW THE

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF

THE PRESIDENT (EOP),

THE VICE PRESIDENT,

AND THE CABINET HELP

THE PRESIDENT

Executive Offi ce of the Presi-

dent (EOP) The group of policy-

related offi ces that serves as

support staff to the president.