How the White House Works Essay

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White House is specifically the senior government officials who form the staff and the advisors to the President. The White House staff therefore handles many important functions in the context of the government. This paper will outline the different members of the White House staff, and the roles that they play in helping run the nation.

The Executive

No discussion of the White House could omit the President, First Lady, Vice-President and Second Lady. The President has the highest office of power in the land. He lives at the White House with his family, and has his office there as well.. The First Lady had little formal power, but is an influential person in the governance of the nation. First Ladies have traditionally used their positions and exposure to launch different initiatives, ranging from anti-drug campaigns to school lunch programs. The Vice President performs a key role within government. An important figurehead and the person who would replace the President in event of tragedy, the Vice President also is tasked with overseeing certain programs, building political consensus with Congress, and working with members of the White House staff on special projects. Vice President Biden, for example, convened the President's Cabinet for efforts to reduce gun violence (White House.gov, 2016). The Second Lady performs a role similar to that of the First Lady, though perhaps with a somewhat lower profile. Dr. Jill Biden has an initiative called Joining Forces, which seeks to assist military families in need (Ibid.)

The President sets the strategic direction for the country, but is not in any position to do it all himself. This is why the White House is comprised of a large number of bodies, and advisors, to assist with policy-setting. The President might have "10 top priorities on which he makes virtually all decisions ... 25 secondary priorities over which he has an influence. On those 25, the President might set the outline for the decision-making and then allow the Chief of Staff, with the work of the advisors and different departments, to resolve conflicts, reconcile issues and make the final decision on behalf of the President (Heineman, 2013).

Chief of Staff

The most important position besides those four is the White House Chief of Staff. The current holder of this role is Denis McDonough, who has held the post since February, 2013. McDonough worked in various high-level national security positions prior to assuming this post. Unlike the President, the Chief of Staff does not live at the White House (White House.gov, 2016). The White House Chief of Staff oversees the Executive Office of the President, which is responsible for supporting the President's work and agenda. This includes hiring key White House staff, managing communications and information flow, negotiating with Congress, and working with executive branch agencies (Mathews, 2013). The position is also viewed as being essential to facilitating the top agenda items of the President, meaning that there is a lot of negotiating with Congress and executive branch leaders.

The Chief of Staff is an important position, considered to be one of significant power, in part because of the access to the President. The Chief of Staff controls access to the Oval Office, for example. By working closely with the President, the Chief of Staff has considerable influence over how the executive branch functions, and is responsible for ensuring that it runs well. There are several offices within the executive branch, including advisors, the First Lady's office, and several bodies in charge of policy. The Chief of Staff oversees all of these, highlighting the power that the position holds (Wiley, 2016).

Arguably, the Chief of Staff is a more important role than that of the Vice-President, because the role incorporates more operational functions. The process works as follows. Setting policy requires gaining input for a wide variety of sources. These different advisors, and agencies, each provide information to the White House. The Chief of Staff essentially serves as the gatekeeper for this information, this controlling the flow of information to the President . For This helps the President manage his time, but it also influences national policy. It is important, therefore, for the President and the Chief of Staff to have similar views regarding big picture strategy issues.

Where the Chief of Staff is called upon to play a decision-making role, the Chief must gather information from the different stakeholders within government, and the advisors, in order to make a decision. The Chief will sometimes only receive guidance from the President, but will have to make his/her own decisions.

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For the most part, the Chief also determines which issues are Presidential in nature, and which are sub-Presidential. On the latter, the Chief might be the only one setting policy, as the President will not be involved at any point because the issue simply is not important enough.

The Chief's role is typically one of translating policy to politics (Heineman, 2013). The policy part, whether set by the President or otherwise, is focused on determining what the government wants to do. The politics is then how the government is going to build a consensus to get it done. This is why Rahm Emmanuel was credited for the key work on the Affordable Care Act, because as Chief of Staff he had to ensure that it had enough votes to pass through the House and Senate. The Chief of Staff thus plays a key role in actually getting things done -- whether or not he has decision-making authority over the issue. This role requires a high level ability to process and prioritize information, as well as the type of political skills that will allow for policy direction to be implemented.

There are two Deputy Chiefs of Staff, Anita Breckenridge and Kristie Canegallo. These function as assistants to the President, and play an important role in helping the Chief of Staff with implementation of different policy initiatives that either the President or the Chief of Staff has made. Ms. Breckenridge also has a direct role in scheduling for the President and oversight of the different operational departments at the White House, including those relating to the physical premises, IT and other aspects of daily life at the White House.

Senior Advisors

There are three senior advisors at the White House. While there are entire groups of advisors on a wide range of issues, the three Senior Advisors play a special role in terms of amassing knowledge and perspectives on a wide range of key issues. They tend to specialize in specific things. For example, Valerie Jarrett specializes in equality issues, entrepreneurship and public health. Brian Deese specializes in a range of domestic and international policy issues, including climate, conservation and energy policies. Shailagh Murray is involved on the communications side. These three Senior Advisors therefore play a unique role in providing advice to the President and the Chief of Staff on key issues, helping make a contribution to the setting of a national strategic direction.

Executive Office of the President

The EOP is a critical body within the White House, headed by the Chief of Staff. There are many entities and sub-offices within the EOP. These include, but are not limited to, the Council of Economic Advisers, Council on Environmental Quality, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. There are councils such as those on domestic policy, that exist to provide advice to the President. These offices play important roles in the flow of information within the White House, and through gatekeepers like the Chief of Staff, they provide information that the President needs to balance the key issues and make strategic decisions.

The EOP also consists of a number of functional offices. These include the offices needed to keep the White House working, such as those relating to communications, scheduling, Presidential correspondence, Oval Office operations, the visitor's office and those sorts of functions. These functional units are critical to ensuring that the President is able to make the most use of his limited time. Much work that the President's office does is delegated, and this goes through the EOP.

National Security Council

The NSC is one of the most important advisory bodies within the White House structure. It councils on national security and foreign policy matters. The NSC is chaired by the President, and key staff members like the Vice President, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury, making this one of the most important bodies. This Council exists to set policy on matters of national security, by gathering information, weighing the different security, political and economic interests and then making a determination about the strategic direction that needs to be taken. There are regular meetings, for example with intelligence advisors, to ensure that these key people in government are aware of the current situation with respect to national security.

Council of Economic Advisors

Another important body is the Council of Economic Advisors. This group provides the President….....

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