On Executive Orders And Czars Research Papers Examples

In the United States, executive orders are issued by presidents to aid officers and agencies in the Executive branch in managing the operations in the government. Executive orders are like specialized written instructions issued by a CEO of a company addressed to its department heads or directors.
When the president grants an executive order, the agency or part of the government that it is referring to will take full force of the law, sometimes discretely, sometimes publicly. Like other laws, the judiciary also reviews the order and has the power to decline it if unconstitutional or erroneous. Most EO’s passed are related to the government’s internal affairs in situations such as emergencies, calamities, enemy strikes, and in fine tuning policies.
In the history of the United States, the president with the most number of executive orders is Frankilin Roosevelt with about 3,721 passed in his 12 years in office. The current president, Barrack Obama issued 205 executive orders over the past 6 years.
The most odd and controversial of Obama’s executive orders is his first order in 2009 a day after being sworn into presidency. What makes it very unusual is the fact that it is about transparency. Many conspiracy theorists have jumped at it saying it was ordered to “seal his records” or his birth certificate from public view. In a way it is really odd that the president’s very first order is about secrecy. One would really be confused because, out of all his progressive platforms in transforming the federal government from claws of the Bush regime, keeping files from public view is the first thing that came into his mind.
If you don’t analyse it properly you’ll be swept in the conspiracy bandwagon but looking at it twice, the EO was really deisgned to loosen up or reverse the strict EO that Bush passed during his term in office. Barrack merely wants to sift through what documents should and should not be open for public’s knowledge.
‘Czar’, on the otherhand, is an unofficial political term coined and made popular by the US media to refer to high-level officials appointed by the president to take care of specific policies and issues. A Czar usually gets a 6-figure salary. According to reports, the highest paid czar in Obama’s administration is the intelligence czar, Dennis Blair getting a staggering $197,700 payment for his services (this is more or less 10 million in some third world countries). Some czars are generous enough to do pro-bono work like economic czar, Paul Volcker and Pay Czar, Kenneth R. Feinberg. At present, 32 czars had been named and their titles exposed by the media. These are the following:

Afghanistan Czar – Richard Holbrooke of Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan

AIDS Czar – Jeffrey Crowley, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (Salary:$102,000)
Auto Recovery Czar – Ed Montgomery, Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers
Border Czar * – Alan Bersin, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs
California Water Czar – David J. Hayes, Deputy Interior Secretary (Salary: unknown)
Car Czar – Ron Bloom Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, replacing Steven Rattner , Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury (Salary: unknown)

Central Region Czar – Dennis Ross , Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region (Salary: unknown)

Climate Czar – Todd Stern , Special Envoy for Climate Change (Salary: unknown)
Domestic Violence Czar – Lynn Rosenthal , White House adviser on Violence Against Women (Salary: unknown)
10. Drug Czar * – Gil Kerlikowske , Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Salary: unknown)

Economic Czar * – Paul Volcker , Chairman of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (Salary: NONE)

Energy and Environment Czar – Carol Browner , Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change (Salary: $172,200)
Faith-Based Czar * – Joshua DuBois , Director of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (Salary: $98,000)
Government Performance Czar – Jeffrey Zients , Chief Performance Officer (Salary: unknown)
Great Lakes Czar – Cameron Davis , Special advisor to the U.S. EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan (Salary: unknown)
Green Jobs Czar – Van Jones , Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (Salary: unknown)

Guantanamo Closure Czar – Daniel Fried , Special envoy to oversee the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay (Salary: unknown)

Health Czar – Nancy-Ann DeParle , Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform (Salary: $158,500)
Information Czar – Vivek Kundra , Federal Chief Information Officer (Salary: unknown)
Intelligence Czar – Dennis Blair , Director of National Intelligence (Salary: $197,700)
Mideast Peace Czar – George Mitchell , Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (Salary: unknown)
Pay Czar – Kenneth R. Feinberg , Special Master on executive pay (Salary: NONE)
Regulatory Czar – Cass R. Sunstein * , Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (Salary: unknown)
Science Czar – John Holdren , Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (Salary: unknown)

Stimulus Accountability Czar – Earl Devaney , Chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board (Salary: unknown)

Sudan Czar – J. Scott Gration , Special Envoy to Sudan (Salary: unknown)
TARP Czar – Herb Allison , Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability (Salary: unknown)
Technology Czar – Aneesh Chopra , Chief Technology Officer (Salary: unknown)
Terrorism Czar – John Brennan , Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (Salary: $172,200)
Urban Affairs Czar – Adolfo Carrion Jr. , White House Director of Urban Affairs (Salary: $158,500)
Weapons Czar – Ashton Carter , Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (Salary: unknown)
WMD Policy Czar – Gary Samore , White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control (Salary: unknown)
Czars are experts in their specific fields and issues. The presidents rely on them to do ad hoc work and implement his state on certain policies and issues that needs to be addressed in the country. As a president, he needs loyal officials around him as their policies might not be performed properly by other officials from different political party. Most presidents appoint czars to make laws and executive orders based according to his platforms. Some critics question the existence of this culture saying it is unconstitutional yet presidents do it anyway.
Therefore, executive orders and czars are considered special powers entitled to the president of the United States to help him play his cards in decision making geared towards his promised political platforms and stands. These powers do not deliberately manifest in the constitution of America, however, it has been the practice of presidents to have a privilege in directing how he manages responsibilities in a massive federal government composed of many governments (51 to be exact). Though some say that they use these special powers to navigate the constitution for them to maintain in power, democracy in United States probably won’t let it happen.

Works Cited

Jefferson, T. “List of Obama’s Czar.” Glenbeck.com. 20 Jul 2009. Web. 16 Apr 2015
“Executive Order”. Wikipedia. Web. 16 Apr 2015
“Barack Obama.” Wikipedia. Web. 16 Apr 2015