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- As chief executive, the president also can grant reprieves and pardons for federal crimes.
- A reprieve postpones legal punishment.
- A pardon releases a person from legal punishment. People who receive them have usually been convicted of a federal crime.
- The president may also grant amnesty; Amnesty is a pardon for a group of people who have committed an offense against the government.

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- Presidents issue executive orders, which are presidential directives that have the force of law without the approval of Congress.
- Executive orders may be issued to detail the specific actions federal agencies must take to implement a law.
- Executive orders have also been used to make dramatic new policy.
- At the same time, presidents cannot issue all executive orders they would like.
- Such orders must be related in some way to either powers given to the president in the Constitution or delegated to him or her by Congress.

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- No president could directly supervise the daily activities of the many agencies in the executive branch.
- Instead, the president appoints about 2,200 top-level federal officials who run the executive branch.
- Presidents try to appoint officials who share their political beliefs because they will be committed to carrying out their goals. Selecting the right people can be one of a president’s most important tasks.
- This power is partially limited by the Senate, however, which must confirm many top-level appointments.
- Presidents can also control the implementation of the laws by firing officials they have appointed.

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- The president leads the executive branch of government that carries out the laws that Congress passes and runs the programs Congress creates.
- These laws and programs range over a great many areas of public concern from Social Security, taxes, housing, flood control, and energy to civil rights, health care, education, and environmental protection.
- More than 2 million people work for the federal government, from FBI agents to air traffic controllers to clerks for the Social Security Administration.
- The president is in charge of these employees and the federal departments and agencies for which they work.

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- The U.S. president is both head of state and chief executive
- As head of state, the president represents the nation and performs many ceremonial roles. As chief executive, the president directs the activities of the thousands of executive branch employees who carry out the laws.
- Modern presidents play an important role when a natural disaster such as a hurricane strikes or a tragedy like a mass shooting or bombing occurs.

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Checks and Balances on Presidential Powers

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Checks and Balances on Presidential Powers

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- The House and Senate can impeach the president.
- When a president is impeached, the House of Representatives initiates the impeachment, and the Senate investigates the accusation and then votes about whether or not to remove the president from office.

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- All presidents like to claim that their ideas and policies represent a mandate from the people.
- They say that since they won the election, the people must agree with their plans and priorities.
- A mandate, or a perceived mandate, can be an informal source of presidential power.
-  Modern presidents use the mass media to communicate their message and to gain popular support for what they want to do even after they are elected.

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- The power of executive privilege is not named in the Constitution. Nonetheless, presidents since George Washington have claimed it.
- This is the right to with hold from Congress or the courts information about communications between the president and his or her advisers.

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- Presidents have enlarged presidential authority by justifying their actions in terms of inherent powers. Inherent powers are those claimed by the president that are not clearly expressed in the Constitution.
- Presidents assert that these powers can be inferred from loosely worded phrases in the Constitution such as “the executive power shall be vested in a President” and from the very nature of the president’s job.
- When a president exercises an inherent power not stated in the Constitution, Congress and the courts may either try to limit the power or go along with it.

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- Founders had seen the problems caused by the Articles of Confederation’s failure to provide for an independent executive. Without an executive, the national government had no one to carry out the acts of Congress.
- Many of the Founders distrusted direct participation by the people in decision making. They feared that mass democratic movements might try to redistribute personal wealth and threaten private property.