INSTRUCTIONS: No need to format into an Essay type. Just a plain text of around 600 words and relate to course material.
PROMPT: As we examined in the previous unit, executive orders (and related executive actions) are considered by many a troubling element of expanding presidential power. However, executive orders are also often welcomed by those that approve of the action being authorized. This is especially true when they involve campaign promises or actions for core constituencies for the party in power.
As you know, Congress also has some bureaucratic oversight responsibilities, but typically delegates power to the bureaucracy with abandon. On occasion, however, they find themselves at odds with Presidents who then seek to marshal this delegated power for their own purposes. States, too, often take exception to presidential actions via bureaucratic channels. And when it is thought that the president has exceeded the powers granted to them either via the constitution or via legislative warrant, the Courts are called in.
Consider Bidens student loan forgiveness plan. The administrative action (the forgiveness of up to $20k in federal student loan debt for individuals) was justified by the Biden administration as authorized by the HEROs Act – a legislative response to the COVID emergency. Critics have suggested that the law does not authorize this executive action and the president (via the Secretary of Education) doesn’t have this power otherwise. The Courts have been called to weigh in and, as of the writing of this prompt, have paused any loan forgiveness processes pending further litigation.
For general background, see this: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/bidens-student-loan-forgiveness-plan-faces-challenge-in-federal-court Links to an external site.
And this press release from the Biden Administration: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USED/bulletins/32970c3 Links to an external site.
And this from a USA Today columnist opposed to the plan detailing the legal challenge: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2022/09/27/lawsuit-may-block-bidens-power-play-cancelling-student-loan-debt/8122883001/ Links to an external site.
What do you think? Should the president be tightly reigned in on executive actions – executive orders, or other non-legislative policy making? Or, when it comes to central campaign promises be given significant latitude to accomplish goals by directed cabinet or other bureaucratic agencies to act? How should the Courts interpret presidential power to achieve major actions with vague legislative warrant?
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