EXECUTIVE BRANCH
The branch of the U.S. government that is composed of the president and all the individuals, agencies, and departments that report to the pres-
ident, and that is responsible for administering
and enforcing the laws that Congress passes.
The U.S. government is composed of three
branches: legislative, judicial, and executive. The
legislative branch consists of the U.S. Congress,
which is responsible for creating laws. The judi-
cial branch is composed of the federal courts,
which are responsible for ruling on the validity
of the laws that Congress passes and applying
them in individual cases. The executive branch
differs from both in scope and function.
The Executive Branch and the Constitution
The executive branch has undergone
tremendous changes over the years, making it
very different from what it was under GEORGE
WASHINGTON. Today’s executive branch is much
larger,more complex, and more powerful than it
was when the United States was founded.
When the writers of the Constitution were
initially deciding what powers and responsibili-
ties the executive branch—headed by the presi-
dent—would have, they were heavily influenced
by their experience with the British government
under King George III. Having seen how the
king and other European monarchs tended to
abuse their powers, the designers of the Consti-
tution wanted to place strict limits on the power
that the president would have. At the same time,
they wanted to give the president enough power
to conduct foreign policy and to run the federal
government efficiently without being hampered
by the squabbling of legislators from individual
states. In other words, the Framers wanted to
design an executive office that would provide
effective and coherent leadership but that could
never become a tyranny.
The Framers outlined the powers and duties
of the executive branch in Article II of the Con-
stitution. The specific powers given to the presi-
dent are few, and the language that is used to
describe them is often brief and vague. Specifi-
cally, the president has the authority to be com-
mander in chief of the armed forces; to grant
pardons; to make treaties; and to appoint ambas-
sadors, Supreme Court justices, and other gov-
ernment officers.More generally, the president is
responsible for making sure “that the Laws be
faithfully executed” (§ 3), though the Framers
did not specify how the president was to accom-
plish this goal. The Framers also made no spe-
cific provisions for a staff that would assist the
president; the Constitution says only that the
president may “require the Opinion, in writing,
of the principal Officer in each of the executive
Departments, upon any Subject relating to the
Duties of their respective Offices” (§ 2).
To ensure that the president could never
become too powerful, the Framers made many
PRESIDENTIAL POWERS dependent upon the will
of Congress. For example, the president is given
the power to make treaties with foreign coun-
tries, but those treaties must be approved by the
Senate by a two-thirds majority. Similarly, the
power of Congress is limited by the need for
presidential approval. Congress can create laws,
but those laws generally must be signed by the
president; if the president refuses to sign a bill, it
still can become law if Congress votes to override
the president’s VETO by a two-thirds majority.
The Framers did not divide powers among the
branches so much as they required the separate
branches to share power, resulting in a complex
system of checks and balances that prevents any
one branch from gaining power over the others.
Modern presidents have greater powers than
did their predecessors, as the executive branch
has grown over the years to take on more tasks
and responsibilities. For the most part, however,
the power of the executive branch at any given
time has depended on the leadership skills of the
current president; the particular events and
crises faced by the president; and the country’s
desire for, or resistance to, strong executive
branch power at that point in history. Though
the executive branch does have specific legal
powers, the principal power of each president is
simply that individual’s ability to persuade oth-
ers—primarily those in Congress—to follow
recommendations. Whereas early presidents
were selected by a small number of electors,
modern presidents are selected by hundreds of
electors who represent citizens nationwide; as a
result, they have the advantage of a popular
mandate, giving them a bully pulpit that no
member of Congress can match.
Divisions of the Executive Branch
The lack of specific, detailed language in the
Constitution describing the power and respon-
sibilities of the executive branch has given pres-
idents a great deal of flexibility to increase its
size and scope over the years, in terms of both
the range of its authority and the number of
people, offices, and agencies employed to carry
out its responsibilities. Today, the executive
branch consists of well over 3 million people
who work in one of three general areas: the
Executive Office of the President (EOP); the
cabinet and 15 executive departments; and an
extensive collection of federal agencies and cor-
porations responsible for specific areas of the
government, such as the ENVIRONMENTAL PRO-
TECTION AGENCY and the U.S. POSTAL SERVICE.
Executive Office of the President The Exec-
utive Office of the President (EOP) is not a sin-
gle office or department, but a collection of
agencies that are all directly responsible for
helping the president to interact with Congress
and to manage the larger executive branch. Spe-
cific elements have changed over the years; cur-
rently, the EOP consists of nine separate
divisions: the White House Office, the OFFICE
OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET (OMB), the
Council of Economic Advisers, the NATIONAL
SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC), the Office of Policy
Development, the OFFICE OF THE U.S. TRADE
REPRESENTATIVE (USTR), the Council on Envi-
ronmental Quality, the Office of Science and
