Ch 14 Fed Govt Inquizitive

Which of the following are examples of a member of Congress performing police patrol oversight?

interviewing senior bureaucratic personnel initiating a bureaucratic audit

Indicate whether the following activities are a responsibility of the Treasury Department ("Treasury") or the Federal Reserve ("Fed").

"Fed"-administering monetary policy(Monetary policy deals with banks and credit, which is the realm of the Federal Reserve.) - regulating bank lending activities(The Fed guides interest rates and influences lending activities among private banks.Ironically, elected politicians are often held accountable for economic performance that is well out of their control.) "Treasury"-administering fiscal policy(Fiscal policy refers to taxing and spending policies, which primarily occur in the Treasury Department (which houses the IRS). -printing currency (The Treasury runs the U.S. Mint.)

Which of the following statements about regulatory agencies are accurate?

-A regulatory agency's power is given to it by Congress(What makes an agency "regulatory" is a delegation of powers over a sector of the economy, or a kind of commercial activity, by Congress. The Food and Drug Administration is an example of a regulatory agency; Congress gave it broad powers to supervise food and drug safety.) -Rules made by the regulatory agencies have the force of law(Congress give regulatory agencies the discretion to act on the government's behalf, and its rules carry the same weight.)

In 1883, the - was passed in order to create the merit system for staffing the bureaucracy. It required appointees to be qualified based on -.

-Civil Act Service(The Civil Service Act was adopted to try to help government mimic business in its merit hiring and promotion of job candidates.) -competitive examinations(The merit system primarily used competitive examinations to judge the qualifications of candidates.There are still some jobs in the bureaucracy that are appointed based on political connections, but this is a small number that is vanishing.)

Which of the following statements about executive branch employees are accurate?

-Executive branch members tend to have more education than the rest of than the U.S population (About 80 percent of executive branch employees have more than a college degree, relative to 39 percent of the U.S. population.)-Executive branch members have a higher proportion of veterans than the U.S population as a whole(29 percent of executive branch employees served in the military, relative to 8 percent of the U.S. population.)

How did the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, influence the federal agencies that provide national security?

-It lead to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. (The DHS was established as the primary agency in charge of domestic security.) -It shifted the responsibility of domestic agency from investigating crime to preventing terrorism. (The shift was a massive adjustment, as they require very different skill-sets.)

Which of the following statements about the size and growth of the federal bureaucracy are accurate?

-The federal civilian workforce has decreased over the last 60 years.(Though there are fewer federal civilian workers, the state and local numbers have gone from 4.3 million to 20 million.) -Several recent president have a made a point of campaigning against the size of the federal workforce. (Many recent presidents have claimed to want to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, even though few were successful in doing so.)

Taxing and spending policies are also known as (1) policies, while those policies dealing with banks, credit, and currency are known as (2) policies.

1) Fiscal(Fiscal policy is set by Congress and the president and put into place by agencies like the Department of the Treasury.) 2) Monetary(Monetary policy is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve System.)

Which statements about the approach that presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton took with the bureaucracy are accurate?

Bush applied business school management strategies to the administration. They both attempted to reform the way bureaucracy works.

Which of the following agencies were created by Congress to give them information independent of the information it gets from the executive branch?

Congressional Budget Office Government Accountability Office Congressional Research Service

Which of the following groups or organizations can initiate oversight of executive branch bureaucracy?

Congressional Budget Office congressional committees individual members of Congress private citizens

Match each federal agency or bureau to the type of agency or bureau it is an example of.

Department of Homeland Security = cabinet department U.S. Postal Service = government corporation National Aeronautics and Space Administration = independent agency Consumer Financial Protection Bureau = independent regulatory commission

Most policies enacted through iron triangles tend to match the public interest.

False

The trend in congressional oversight has been toward more police patrol oversight, and less fire alarm oversight.

False (Recently, Congress has been more likely to respond to public outcry to a problem than investigate and address an issue before the problem emerges.)

What approaches did President Obama take in reforming the bureaucracy?

He attempted to strengthen the public agencies. He emphasized scientific expertise in his appointments. He tended to centralize control of the bureaucracy.

Which of the following statements accurately describe the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)?

President Obama encouraged agencies to release more documents under FOIA. It has been used to great effect by the private groups like the National Security Archive. It has uncovered information that paints government agencies in a negative light.

How can politicians and interest groups influence the rule-making process?

Presidents can tell the bureaucracy how to interpret a law. The courts can change the way the bureaucracy interprets a congressional action. Congress can write a bill that gives the bureaucracy little discretion in how it is implemented. Interest groups can comment on a proposed rule in the period leading up to its implementation.

Choose all of the following ways that bureaucracies can pose a challenge to democratic governance.

They are not elected by the people. They can become entrenched organizations that serve their own interests. They can interpret laws and create rules in ways that a majority might oppose.

In which branch of the government is the bureaucracy located?

executive (The executive branch is headed by the president, though most members of the bureaucracy are selected based on merit and not politics.)

In several states, the state government has bid out the right to run the state's prison system to corporations and businesses. Which of the three strategies of promoting reform is this an example of?

privatization (Because a job previously done by the government was given to a private company, it is an example of privatization.)