Eleventh Hour: The Politics of Policy Initiatives in Presidential Transitions

Notes

notes Short citations in these notes include year of publication for ease of matching to the reference listing that follows. introduction 1. Clinton, 2001, “Remarks on Action to Preserve America’s Forests,” 18. 2. Clinton’s executive actions are discussed at length in chapter 6 of the present volume. For a comprehensive list of national monument designations in his final year in office, see John T. Wooley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project (online), Santa Barbara, California , http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/proclamations.php?year=2000&Submit=DISPLAY. 3. Clinton, 2001, “Remarks on Action to Preserve America’s Forests,” 19. 4. This was the lead sentence of a news report on the Clinton speech. See Rogers and Hutcheson, 2001, “Clinton in Thick of Fight.” The story quotes lobbyist Chuck Cushman of the American Land Rights Association as comparing the forest preservation initiative to “Sherman’s march to the sea.” 5. Representative James Hansen of Utah, quoted in Rogers and Hutcheson, 2001, “Clinton in Thick of Fight.” 6. Clinton, 2001, “Remarks on Action to Preserve America’s Forests,” 18. 7. Moe, 1985, “The Politicized Presidency.” 8. See Nie, 2008, Governance of Western Lands. 9. Dombeck et al., 2003, From Conquest to Conservation. 10. Light, 1999, President’s Agenda. chapter 1 1. The coal industry, which supported Bush and Cheney in the previous year’s election, was one of the groups represented on the influential task force. See Warshaw, 2009, Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney. 2. Coleman, 2001, “Gov. Bob Wise.” 3. Ward, 2001, “DEP Backs Off.” 4. Dennis G. Rice, policy and regulatory analyst, US Department of Interior, Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, interview with author, December 23, 2010. 5. Nie, 2008, Governance of Western Lands. 6. See Klotz, 1997, “On the Way Out”; Cochran, 2001, “Cinderella Constraint”; Howell and 176 • notes to pages 8–12 Mayer, 2005, “Last One Hundred Days”; Brito and de Rugy, 2008, “Midnight Regulations ”; O’Connell, 2008, “Political Cycles of Rulemaking.” 7. Mendelson defines agency burrowing as the attempts by departing presidents to entrench policies by making patronage appointments and moving political appointees into civil service positions. See Mendelson, 2003, “Agency Burrowing.” 8. Cooper, 2002, By Order of the President. 9. For the now dated but seminal work on the power of persuasion, see Neustadt, Presidential Power. 10. For recent studies that examine a range of prerogative powers, see Howell, 2003, Power without Persuasion; Cooper, 2002, By Order of the President; and Shull, 2006, Policy by Other Means. Others that focus narrowly on executive orders are Mayer, 2001, With the Stroke of a Pen, and Warber, 2006, Executive Orders and the Modern Presidency. 11. Light, 1999, President’s Agenda. 12. Nathan, 1983, The Administrative Presidency. 13. Warshaw, 1994, “The Carter Experience.” 14. Hugh Heclo has noted a tendency for newly elected presidents to affirm their belief in cabinet government, which he attributes to the desire to reassure the public that the new president is not power-hungry, rather than to a concrete plan to manage his administration : “It is significant that no president has ever left office extolling the virtues of cabinet government” (see Heclo, 1983, “One Executive Branch or Many?” 26). 15. Friedman, 1995, Regulation in the Reagan-Bush Era. 16. Pfiffner, 2005, The Modern Presidency. 17. The successful enactment of George W. Bush’s first-term agenda was facilitated by key personnel who wasted no time taking the reins of the White House policy apparatus. There were dedicated advisors for each of his domestic policy priorities. Lawrence Lindsey, who chaired the National Economic Council, managed the president’s tax cut legislation. The education reform was managed by Margaret Spellings, and until his resignation at the end of 2001, the Office of Faith-based Initiatives was led by John DiIulio (Warshaw, 2009, Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney). 18. Pfiffner, 1996, The Strategic Presidency. 19. Ibid. 20. Light, 1999, President’s Agenda. 21. President Obama was likely sensitive to this when he decided to pursue health care reform legislation during his first year in office despite pleas from his senior advisors to delay such a bold policy proposal (Alter, 2010, The Promise). 22. O’Connell, 2008, “Political Cycles of Rulemaking.” 23. Light, 1999, President’s Agenda. 24. Of these sources, public opinion is the best indicator to predict which emerging problems will receive the president’s attention, particularly in election years. See Yates and Whitford, 2005, “Institutional Foundations.” notes to...