Download Free Congressional Question Period For Members Of The Presidents Cabinet Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Congressional Question Period For Members Of The Presidents Cabinet and write the review.

In the early years of the U. S. government, the President and members of his Cabinet appeared occasionally on the floor of the House and Senate to advise on treaties and to consult on pending legislation. [...] Critics of the system argue that "open" questions tend to create fiercely partisan debates and result in a lack of depth in the scrutiny of the Prime Minister, due to the questions jumping around from issue to issue.38 The availability of the Prime Minister for frequent questioning is a relatively new development in the British Question Time. [...] A resolution calling for the Secretaries of War and of the Treasury to appear before the House to answer questions pursuant to the House investigation of the defeat of General St. [...] The 1789 act establishing the Treasury Department permitted the Secretary of the Treasury, alone among the Cabinet Secretaries, to report to the Congress in writing or in person. [...] In 1943, Secretary of State Hull addressed a joint meeting of the House and Senate, and General Marshall appeared at the Library of Congress to report informally to the House on the conduct of the war, and to answer Members' questions.
In May 2008, Senator and presidential candidate John McCain stated that, as President, he would ask Congress to grant me the privilege of coming before both Houses to take questions and address criticism, much the same as the Prime Minister of Great Britain appears regularly before the House of Commons. Such a question period, in which the chief executive official appears before the legislature to answer questions, is a feature of most parliamentary systems. Prime Ministers Questions is a major component of British politics, receiving substantial press, radio, and television coverage. In many national parliaments, including the British House of Commons, questions are also directed to other Cabinet Ministers, serving as a major form of legislative oversight and constituency service. In the early years of the U.S. government, the President and members of his Cabinet appeared occasionally on the floor of the House and Senate to advise on treaties and to consult on pending legislation. But the practice fell into disfavor as stronger notions of the separation of powers took hold. A variety of proposals have been offered in the 19th and 20th centuries to establish a formal question period in one or both congressional chambers, but no proposal has ...
The US Constitution never established a presidential cabinet—the delegates to the Constitutional Convention explicitly rejected the idea. So how did George Washington create one of the most powerful bodies in the federal government? On November 26, 1791, George Washington convened his department secretaries—Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph—for the first cabinet meeting. Why did he wait two and a half years into his presidency to call his cabinet? Because the US Constitution did not create or provide for such a body. Washington was on his own. Faced with diplomatic crises, domestic insurrections, and constitutional challenges—and finding congressional help lacking—Washington decided he needed a group of advisors he could turn to. He modeled his new cabinet on the councils of war he had led as commander of the Continental Army. In the early days, the cabinet served at the president’s pleasure. Washington tinkered with its structure throughout his administration, at times calling regular meetings, at other times preferring written advice and individual discussions. Lindsay M. Chervinsky reveals the far-reaching consequences of Washington’s choice. The tensions in the cabinet between Hamilton and Jefferson heightened partisanship and contributed to the development of the first party system. And as Washington faced an increasingly recalcitrant Congress, he came to treat the cabinet as a private advisory body to summon as needed, greatly expanding the role of the president and the executive branch.