Executive Branch Basics
Who leads the Executive Branch?
President
consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress
Electoral College
Define the Cabinet
an informal advisory body brought together by the President to serve his needs, primarily made up of the department heads
Who must approve Presidential appointments?
Senate
How many electoral votes are there in total and how many are needed to win a presidential election?
538 and 270
What are the two main roles each Cabinet member plays?
1. Advising the President
2. Running an Executive Department
How many votes are required to ratify treaties negotiated by the President? Who votes to ratify treaties?
Written directives from the president that have the force of law, typically used to manage federal operations or to enforce current law passed by Congress
Executive Order
What are the qualifications for being president?
35 years old;
Natural born US citizen; and
Lived in US at least 14 years
Where do the electors come from?
The 50 states and Washington D.C.
What are the traditional units of federal administration, and each of them is built around some broad field of activity. They are the major mechanism through which the domestic and foreign policies crafted by Congress and the President are carried out
Executive Departments
After the President vetoes a bill passed by the House and the Senate, the bill can still become law if what happens?
Both the House and the Senate must vote again for the law by a two-thirds majority
Signing bills into law, vetoing bills via direct veto or pocket veto is call the President's ________ powers?
Legislative
How many terms does a President serve for and how many terms can the President serve?
Term length = 4 years
Term Limits = two 4-year terms or 10 total years in the office of the Presidency
How are the number of electors determined?
Each State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators
# of Reps in House + 2 Senators
What are the two terms for the person who heads the 15 executive departments? Fourteen of the departments are headed by this title, while one is headed by this title.
Secretary and Attorney General
When this chamber votes by simple majority because it believes the President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States have committed treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. This is called what?
2. Impeachment
The President's powers to command the military, negotiate with foreign nations (treaties and executive agreements), recognize countries, appoint ambassadors, receive foreign ambassadors and other public ministers is called __________ powers
Foreign Affairs
What happens if the presidential candidates do not win a majority of the electoral votes?
The House of Representatives will decide who will be President.
What are the steps of the process of determining who wins the presidential election?
1. After the general election, each State's Executive prepares a Certificate of Ascertainment listing the names of all the individuals on the slates for each candidate
2. The electors meet in their respective States, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots
3. Each State’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress
4. The Vice President of the United States, as President of the Senate, presides over the count in a strictly ministerial manner and announces the results of the vote.
Which person is the first head of executive departments in the line of succession?
Secretary of State
After impeachment has been voted on, this chamber holds the trial. The Chief Justice of the SCOTUS presides over the trial. The vote to convict and remove the President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors is a two-thirds majority
the Senate
President cannot be forced to share information with other branches of government if sharing that information might harm the need to protect military, diplomatic or sensitive national security secrets. This power is called invoking:
Executive Privilege