Deck 11: Congress and the Bureaucracy

Question 1

What did the Supreme Court rule in NLRB v. Noel Canning (2014)?

A) Congress cannot block executive nominees for more than 90 days.
B) The president cannot make a recess appointment during a pro forma session in the Senate.
C) Executive branch officials cannot engage in campaign activities while on the government payroll.
D) Executive orders must follow a strict protocol or will be considered unconstitutional.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is the Government Accountability Office?

A) a think-tank focused on government accountability
B) an office within the executive branch that investigates fraud
C) the office that helps Congress write a budget each year
D) Congress's chief investigative agency

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What does the Hatch Act do?

A) set the salaries of government employees
B) limited the number of political appointees in each agency
C) restricted the partisan activities of federal employees
D) ended the spoils system and replaced it with the merit system

Answer 3

C

Question 4

All of the following are ways that the size of the federal government is typically measured EXCEPT ______.

A) share of GDP devoted to federal expenditures
B) magnitude of federal budget
C) number of federal employees
D) number of complaints about the federal government

Question 5

Which of the following agency-related tasks does Congress perform?

A) specifies the details of policy making
B) creates a budget
C) appoints agency heads
D) defines the legal mandate of agencies

Question 6

All of the following are steps in the rulemaking process EXCEPT ______.

A) notice in the Federal Register
B) majority approval in the House
C) public comment period
D) cost-benefit analysis

Question 7

Which of the following is a form of congressional oversight?

A) hearings
B) line-item vetoes
C) conference reports
D) signing statements

Question 8

Which of the following is the most common method of congressional oversight?

A) formal hearings
B) nonstatutory controls
C) impeachment
D) appointment of inspectors general

Question 9

Which of the following situations encourages vigorous congressional oversight?

A) conditional party government
B) growing use of the filibuster
C) unified government
D) divided government

Question 10

Which of the following is an example of police patrol oversight?

A) requiring regular reports from agencies and reading them carefully to discover violations
B) using casework as a form of oversight
C) responding to an investigative report in the New York Times with congressional hearings
D) using a complaint from the National Rifle Association to springboard an investigation into a federal agency

Question 11

Which of the following is an example of fire alarm oversight?

A) responding to a high volume of constituent complaints with an investigation into an agency
B) appointing inspectors general to perform regular inquiries into executive branch activities
C) the Agriculture Committee scheduling periodic hearings to audit the expenditures of the Department of Agriculture
D) requiring regular reports from agencies and reading them carefully to discover violations

Question 12

Who is considered to be the government's first line of defense against fraud?

A) the president
B) inspectors general
C) Supreme Court
D) attorney general

Question 13

Impeachment is the most common form of congressional oversight.

Question 14

Each year, executive agencies enact more "laws" through the rulemaking process than does Congress.

Question 15

Despite being ruled unconstitutional, Congress continues to use the legislative veto as a tool of oversight.

Question 16

In the modern era, the size of the national government tends to grow under Democratic presidents and fall under Republican presidents.

Question 17

Contrary to what many people believe, the federal workforce has remained relatively constant in size.

Question 18

Because the bureaucracy is part of the executive branch, Congress has no control over it.

Question 19

Individual senators regularly threaten filibusters or place holds on nominations.

Question 20

Many members of Congress and high-ranking executive officials take lobbying jobs after leaving office.

Question 21

The procedures of congressional oversight are clearly laid out in the Constitution.

Question 22

An executive branch official has never been both impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate.

Question 23

Inspectors general are an example of police patrol oversight.

Question 24

What are some of the barriers to successful congressional oversight?

Question 25

Why is Congress willing to invest in oversight?

Question 26

How has the emerging idea of the "public as watchdog" impacted congressional oversight?

Question 27

Why does Congress choose to delegate rulemaking power to executive bureaucracies?

Question 28

What are the main duties of an Inspector General?

Question 29

What are the three most important purposes of oversight?

Question 30

Why can it be politically difficult for Congress and/or the president to shrink the size of government?

Question 31

What was the patronage system and what is its modern equivalent? How do the older and more modern systems compare?

Question 32

What are the costs and benefits of privatizing government functions through outside contracts?

Question 33

What is "advice and consent" and how can the president bypass it?

Question 34

In what ways can Congress influence the structure and composition of the federal bureaucracy?

Question 35

What are the limitations on political activity by government employees in the bureaucracy?

Question 36

What are some of the costs and benefits of the current nomination and confirmation process for top-level executive appointments? Do you believe this system should be changed, and if so, how?

Question 37

What are some of the major means Congress has to oversee the executive branch? Which of these seem to be most and least effective in the modern Congress? Overall, is the oversight process effective?

Question 38

Identify a recent example of congressional oversight of an executive agency. (Note: depending on the level of students, professor may wish to provide a list of topics.) What tools did members of Congress use in conducting the oversight? Were they successful in changing the behavior of the agency? How did the proceedings reflect the concept of "two Congresses"?