Objectives:
Explain how Congress uses its oversight power in its relationship with the executive branch.
Explain how the president ensures that executive branch agencies and departments carry out their responsibilities in concert with the goals of the administration.
Starter: How many paid holidays and vacation days does the U.S. government mandate by law?
1.How accurate was your prediction?
2.What was most surprising about this information?
3.What is the big story this chart tells?
4.Why do you think the US has such a low level of vacation time compared to all other wealthy nations?
5.What is one consequence of not having any mandated paid vacation time?
6.Overall, is this good or bad news?
7.What about U.S. history or the U.S. political system help explain why we are so different in terms of time off from the rest of the wealthy world?
8.If workers get paid time off, who pays for it?
9.Do you consider countries like Norway, Germany, or Sweden, all which get over 25 paid days off a year, to be lazy or economically weak countries?
10.What questions do you have about this chart and information?
11.Describe the different ways liberals and conservatives might react to this chart.
12.Based on paid vacation time, explain which country from this list would you most like to live in.
Recap: Explain how the federal bureaucracy uses delegated discretionary authority for rule-making and implementation.
Review: Grab a partner and get ready to practice describing some concepts
Quiz Today: Bureaucracy
Word of the Day
subpoena
- Define it.
- Use it in a sentence.
- If you were arrested for conspiring with other people to commit a crime, who might the judge subpoena?
- Who might be subpoenaed to appear before the House Intelligence Committee in the Trump impeachment inquiry?
Checks on the Bureaucracy
The United States has a system of divided supervision in which both the president and Congress exercise authority over the federal bureaucracy. Formal and informal powers of Congress, the president, and the courts over the bureaucracy are used to maintain its accountability. The system of divided supervision creates checks and balances while at the same time often encouraging agencies to play one branch of government against the other.
2AB 4B
2AB 4B
Don't Cut My Department!
In this era of government shutdowns and rumors of government shutdowns, we're going to do the one thing that the Congress and President cannot...get tough with the budget and trim it down to size! However, it will be at the expense of one or many key agencies.
Project Template
- Each group will select a federal agency to research and defend before a congressional budget committee (played by the remainder of the class)
- Jacobson will locate the 2019 budget of each agency and will add them up; this sum will represent 100% of all funding we are eligible to cut.
- After hearing testimony from each agency, the budget committee must reduce federal spending by 20%. This cut may be across the board or may target specific agencies.
- The group who does the best job of protecting their agency's budget wins!
Project Template
Closer: Explain how the president ensures that executive branch agencies and departments carry out their responsibilities in concert with the goals of the administration.
On Deck
Next Topic: Policy and the Branches of Government
Textbook: Read Section 14.6 (pp. 437-438)
Project due in 2 class periods
Journal Review due in 3 class periods
Textbook: Read Section 14.6 (pp. 437-438)
Project due in 2 class periods
Journal Review due in 3 class periods