The president’s job description 425so that they would eventually be enough to fully fund the program. In this case, all the
president needed to do to implement the law was to ask FEMA bureaucrats to devise
a multiyear rate increase plan, then order them to collect the higher premiums from
policyholders.
More commonly, the president’s authority to implement the law requires using
judgment to translate legislative goals into programs, budgets, and regulations.
For example, over the last 30 years, Congress has enacted a series of laws that give
presidents broad authority to raise or lower tariffs—a president’s decisions on tariff
policy go into effect unless Congress enacts a law reversing any changes. So, when
President Trump decided in spring 2018 to impose new tariffs on imports of steel and
aluminum, but later exempted some of America’s allies from these tariffs, his decisions
reflected prior decisions by members of Congress (as expressed in law) to delegate tariff
policy to the president.After Congress failed to pass the
DREAM (Development, Relief, and
Education for Alien Minors) Act,
President Obama issued an executive
order to stop the deportation of
some young illegal immigrants in
2012—an order reversed by President
Trump in 2017. Although the scope
of both presidents’ orders were
constrained by subsequent court
decisions, they stand as an example
of how presidential power derives
from control over how laws are
implemented.Appointments
The president appoints ambassadors, senior bureaucrats, and members of the federal
judiciary, including Supreme Court justices.^11 As the head of the executive branch, the
president can appoint individuals to about 8,000 positions, ranging from high-profile
jobs such as secretary of state to mundane administrative and secretarial positions.
About 1,200 of these appointments—generally high-level positions such as cabinet
secretaries—require Senate confirmation. These individuals “serve at the pleasure
of the president,” meaning that the president can remove them from their positions
whenever he or she likes. Thus, when Donald Trump fired Secretary of Veterans Affairs
David Shulkin in March 2018, this action was a legitimate exercise of presidential
authority, as was Trump’s nomination of White House Physician Ronny Jackson to
succeed Shulkin. (Jackson later withdrew his nomination, and Trump later nominated
Robert Wilkie, who was confirmed.)Full_13_APT_64431_ch12_418-453.indd 425 16/11/18 10:33 AM