2.4-2.7 - The Executive Branch v. 2025

Which member of the President's White House staff is considered the "gatekeeper?"

• Chief of Staff

• National Security Advisor

• Chief Counsel

• Press Secretary

To influence policy making by the federal courts, the president may do all of the following EXCEPT

• A) take partisanship into account in making judicial appointments

• B) fire and replace federal judges

• C) take political ideology into account in making judicial appointments

• D) make public statements about issues that might appear before the courts

In selecting members of the White House staff, Presidents primarily seek people who

• give the White House ideological balance

• have extensive governmental experience

• can bring a nonpartisan perspective to policy deliberations

• are personally loyal to the President

Which of the options above accurately compares the formal and informal powers of the president?

• Formal Power: Vetoing legislation to prevent a bill from becoming law | Informal Power: Using a pocket veto to prevent a bill from becoming law

• Formal Power: Using the bully pulpit to influence public opinion | Informal Power: Appointing ambassadors and receiving diplomats from other nations

• Formal Power: Acting as commander in chief of the military | Informal Power: Signing executive agreements with foreign nations

• Formal Power: Using the power of the purse to support government programs | Informal Power: Using signing statements to shape legislation

Which of the following scenarios illustrates how social media has changed the way presidents relate to the public?

• A. A president appearing on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon show to make jokes about the news

• B. A president hosting a rally in Pennsylvania to increase support for policies helping the working class

• C. A president allowing film crews to cover a visit to where a tornado destroyed a town in Kansas to highlight federal aid distribution

• D. A president announcing a major policy initiative via social media rather than calling a press conference

Refer to the line graph titled 'PRESIDENTIAL VETOES AND BILLS PASSED IN CONGRESS.' Which of the following statements is best supported by the line graph?

• The number of vetoes has generally decreased since 1945, but so has the number of bills passed by Congress.

• The number of vetoes has generally increased since 1945, but so has the number of bills passed by Congress.

• The number of vetoes has generally increased since 1945, even though the number of bills passed by Congress has decreased.

• The number of vetoes has generally decreased since 1945, but the number of bills passed by Congress has increased.

Refer to the passage for the following question.

In many places, classrooms are overcrowded and curricula are outdated. Most of our qualified teachers are underpaid, and many of our paid teachers are unqualified. So we must give every child a place to sit and a teacher to learn from. Poverty must not be a bar to learning, and learning must offer an escape from poverty.

But more classrooms and more teachers are not enough. We must seek an educational system which grows in excellence as it grows in size. This means better training for our teachers. It means preparing youth to enjoy their hours of leisure as well as their hours of labor. It means exploring new techniques of teaching, to find new ways to stimulate the love of learning and the capacity for creation....

. . . While our Government has many programs directed at those issues, I do not pretend that we have the full answer to those problems.

But I do promise this: We are going to assemble the best thought and the broadest knowledge from all over the world to find those answers for America. I intend to establish working groups to prepare a series of White House conferences and meetings... on the quality of education, and on other emerging challenges. And from these meetings and from this inspiration and from these studies we will begin to set our course toward the Great Society.

The solution to these problems does not rest on a massive program in Washington, nor can it rely solely on the strained resources of local authority. They require us to create new concepts of cooperation, a creative federalism, between the National Capital and the leaders of local communities.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, May 22, 1964Which of the following explains President Johnson’s motivation for the speech in relation to his role as the head of the executive branch?

• President Johnson believes that Congress will soon pass a bill on education reform, and he would like to be able to claim credit for it.

• President Johnson is seeking to use the bully pulpit as a means of promoting his agenda on public education.

• President Johnson is issuing an executive order calling on local governments to increase training for teachers and address poverty among students.

• President Johnson is expecting the Supreme Court to soon rule on the constitutionality of a law passed by the previous administration.

We have learned a lot about the President., so here is a question about the VP.

Which of the following is a constitutional duty of the Vice President?

• Appointing Cabinet members

• Serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

• Presiding as President of the Senate

• Pretending to look interested in everything the President says.

Since the 1970's, Presidents have made use of executive orders at an increasing rate because executive orders...

• are noncontroversial measures that can be easily implemented

• are rarely defeated in Congress

• avoid judicial review

• do not need to be passed by Congress

Executive agreements have been cited as evidence that

• interest groups have too much power in the contemporary governmental system

• the courts have few means of limiting presidential power

• the executive branch has become too large and bureaucratic

• modern presidents often try to avoid legislative checks and balances on their authority