The Constitution Doesn't Mention Czars

Wall Stret Journal ^ | GEORGE P. SHULTZ

[Sub-Driver]

The Constitution Doesn't Mention Czars Unaccountable White House aides are a product of a broken cabinet-nomination process. This is not the form of government the Founders intended. By GEORGE P. SHULTZ

A pattern of governance has emerged in Washington that departs substantially from that envisaged in our Constitution. Under our basic concept of governance: (1) a president and vice president are elected; and (2) the departments of government are staffed by constitutional officers including secretaries, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and others who are nominated by the president and confirmed for service by the consent of the Senate. They are publicly accountable and may be called to testify under oath about their activities.

Over time, this form of governance has changed. Presidents sometimes assume that the bureaucracy will try to capture a secretary and his or her immediate staff so that they will develop a departmental, rather than a White House, point of view. So presidents will name someone in the White House to oversee the department and keep a tight rein on its activities.

In national security and foreign policy, the National Security Council (NSC) was established after World War II by the National Security Act of 1947. As late as 1961, under President Dwight Eisenhower, the NSC was supported by a small staff headed by an executive secretary with a "passion for anonymity" and limited to a coordinating role. In subsequent administrations, that passion disappeared and staff members took on operational duties that formerly were the responsibility of constitutionally confirmed cabinet officials. This aggrandizement of the staff function then spread into fields far beyond national security.

More recently, the situation has been worsened by the difficulty of getting presidential nominees to cabinet and subcabinet positions approved and in place

[Palter]

From Wiki: List of U.S. executive branch czars

Summary table - Number of czars per administration

President's name	In office	Number of czar titles	Number of appointees	Appointees not confirmed by Senate
Franklin Roosevelt	1933–1945	11	19	17
Harry Truman	1945–1953	6	6	5
Dwight Eisenhower	1953–1961	1	1	0
Lyndon Johnson	1963–1969	3	3	1
Richard Nixon	1969–1974	3	5	5
Gerald Ford	1974–1977	2	2	2
Jimmy Carter	1977–1981	2	3	2
Ronald Reagan	1981–1989	1	1	1
George H. W. Bush	1989–1993	2	3	0
Bill Clinton	1993–2001	8	11	7
George W. Bush	2001–2009	33	49	28
Barack Obama	2009–	37	41	32

[fuzzybutt]

Or the IRS, DEA, ATF, EPA, NSA, NEA or any other commie front group.

[xzins]

None of them are exempt from Congressional review:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

[Republic]

What does it mean when it says the congress may ‘vest’ the appointment..? Thanks

[xzins]

grant the authority to make

[Republic]

Thanks-I find it difficult to squeeze out where the president has the right to grant authority to make law to adventure like the EPA or TSA under Homeland Security or any of those groups that so bind up our lives with their rules and regs.

I was hoping in this case, 'vest' meant UNDUE the appointments by the president of those who are not required to sit before the senate and be confirmed. Ie-I know cabinent positions must be vetted, ambassadors, etc, but these czars and crap.....who are not mentioned in the Constitution should have NO POWER to RULE. And I was hoping the word vest also carried the meaning of trash, disband, throw-out, whatever.

If the czars fall under advisors to the president category, or WH staff basically, then they should have NO POWER TO DO ANYTHING REGARDING RULE MAKING.