The Executive Office of the President

                This particular section concerns the federal bureaucracy under the immediate control of the President. There are essentially two elements to consider; the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and the Cabinet. The former is of much greater importance than the Cabinet, with successive presidents having often made greater use of the EOP than the Cabinet. This is an important point to grasp when considering the distinction between the two organizations.

                The EOP was created in response to the Brownlow commission (1937) which stated that the President needed help to perform his roles and functions. The EOP (sometimes known as the EXOP) is an umbrella term for those agencies that provide help, advice, co-ordination and administrative support to the President. The EOP consists of three main elements; the White House Office (WHO), the National Security Council (NSC) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). One might also include advisors in specific policy areas (such as the Council of Economic Advisors).

                Any proper assessment of the EOP needs to distinguish between the various agencies. Of these, the WHO is the most important. Firstly, its members consist of the President’s most trusted advisors. Regardless of the administration in question, the WHO will always form part of his inner circle. Members of the WHO (such as the Chief of Staff) may well have the President’s ear on important matters such as national security. Secondly, the WHO is effectively a gatekeeper between the White House and the broader federal bureaucracy. It thereby decides who will contact the President. It may also check paperwork before it reaches the President’s in-tray. In addition, the WHO draws up his daily schedule and organizes the management of personnel. The WHO is one of the largest elements of the EOP. In order to serve effectively, members of the WHO must have a desire for anonymity and should sometimes be prepared to tell the Head of State what he does not want to hear.

                The NSC was established in the early years of the cold war and its role could best be described as the ‘honest broker’ in terms of presenting information to the President from a variety of sources. The head of the organization (the National Security Advisor) often plays a crucial role in terms of American foreign policy. Given the salience of foreign policy to the powers of the President, the NSA can play a more influential behind-the-scenes role than the inhabitant of Foggy Bottom. For instance, during the Bush administration Condoleezza Rice acted in a manner akin to the President’s trouble-shooter (Woodward, 2003) and her influence may well have surpassed that of the Secretary of State.

                The OMB is by far the least significant agency within the EOP. It merely has two functions, to advise the President on how to allocate federal funding and to scrutinize federal spending. In terms of the impact upon presidential power, the Director of the OMB must be able to sell the President’s program to members of Congress and in a broader sense the American people. A notable case study to consider is Richard Darman, who persuaded George Bush senior to break his pledge not to raise taxes. In retrospect, the Bush administration never truly recovered from that decision.