The Bureaucracy
This term describes the practice in which elected officials reward supporters with government jobs, a system later replaced by merit-based hiring.
What is the patronage system?
FEMA belongs to this type of bureaucratic agency under the Department of Homeland Security
What is a cabinet department?
This president appointed Michael Brown, who had no emergency management experience, to lead FEMA before Hurricane Katrina
Who is George W. Bush?
To curb the politicization of the bureaucracy during the New Deal, Congress passed this law in 1939 limiting political activity by federal employees.
What is the Hatch Act?
This bureaucratic policymaking conception is dominated by congressional committees, interest groups, and bureaucratic agencies, making it difficult for outside forces to influence policy.
What is the Iron Triangle?
Through this process, bureaucratic agencies issue regulations that apply to citizens and other government bodies and carry the force of law.
What is rulemaking?
NASA and the EPA fall under this category of agencies that operate independently but are not part of the cabinet.
What are independent executive agencies?
This future Supreme Court justice, appointed by Ronald Reagan to lead the EEOC in 1982, was criticized for weakening the agency’s civil rights enforcement.
Who is Clarence Thomas?
This historical act created a merit-based civil service after the patronage system caused corruption.
What is the Pendleton Act?
This metaphor describes the informal, constantly changing relationships among bureaucracies, interest groups, and other actors in policymaking, like in immigration policy.
What are issue networks?
This term describes the idea that bureaucratic agencies carry out laws because Congress cannot implement them directly.
What is delegation?
This term describes the organizational feature of bureaucracies where authority flows from top leaders down to lower-level employees
What is a hierarchy?
As EEOC chair under President Obama, this Asian American leader prioritized closing pay gaps by requiring employers to report better wage data.
Who is Jenny Yang?
This 1946 law requires federal agencies to publish proposed rules in the Federal Register and allow at least 30 days for public comment.
What is the Administrative Procedure Act?
This group consists of high-level administrators the president uses to ensure agencies comply with his orders.
What is the Senior Executive Service?
What is the main purpose of the federal bureaucracy?
What is implementing and enforcing laws passed by congress?
This independent officer within many agencies is responsible for investigating waste, fraud, and abuse
What is an inspector general?
This historian and civil rights leader, appointed chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by President Bill Clinton, led major investigations into police brutality, tribal land conditions, and the 2000 Florida election.
Who is Dr. Mary Frances Berry?
This law, originally passed in 1968, bans discrimination in housing based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or ability, and a 2019 HUD proposed rule changed how plaintiffs must prove discrimination.
What is the Fair Housing Act?
This term describes someone who publicly exposes corruption or mismanagement from within a bureaucracy as an inside agent
What is a whistleblower?
This presidential tool requires all federal agencies to have their budget requests and legislative proposals approved by the Office of Management and Budget before being sent to Congress.
What is central clearance?
What are the four divisions of federal bureaucracy?
What is the cabinet department, independent regulatory commissions, independent executive agencies, and government corporations.
In late 2019, this Inspector General of the Intelligence Community reviewed a whistleblower’s complaint about President Trump’s call with Ukraine and forwarded it to Congress, eventually contributing to Trump’s impeachment.
Who is Michael Atkinson?
Passed in 1978 under President Jimmy Carter, this law created the Senior Executive Service to help presidents control the bureaucracy but has faced criticism for underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities.
What is the Civil Service Reform Act?
This independent, nonpartisan agency in the legislative branch audits executive branch spending and issued a 2019 report critiquing the Department of Health and Human Services’ response to Hurricane Maria.
What is the Government Accountability Office (GAO)?