We've all heard of Presidential Executive Orders. Some of the more famous ones were the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, or the Equal Employment Opportunity order signed by Lyndon B. Johnson. Executive orders are legally binding orders given by the President to Federal Administrative Agencies. They have the full force of law when they fall within the jurisdiction of the Executive branch, or within powers that have been explicitly delegated to the President through Acts of Congress. Over the years, Presidents have authorized thousands of Executive Orders with Franklin Delano Roosevelt leading the pack at 3,522. In more recent years, Bill Clinton issued 364 executive Orders and George W. Bush 291. Democrats like to point out that President Obama as of December 2015 has issued only 227 Executive Orders, or just over half the number of those issued by Ronald Reagan.
But if we stop here, then we have only half the story. There is another form of legislation that a President can take. It is called a presidential memorandum. Like, an executive order, these are legally binding orders given by the President to manage and govern the actions, practices and policies of the various departments an agencies found under the executive branch. Presidential memoranda and executive orders are almost identical, except that presidential memoranda are not formally published. Historically, these have been referred to as presidential letters, but today they have taken on a more legislative form. While President Obama, may have issued less executive orders than recent presidents, he has penned more Presidential memoranda than any previous president. For example, in 2014 Obama signed a memorandum to help make student loan debt more affordable. This memorandum allowed nearly 5 million federal direct student loan borrowers to cap their student loan payments at 10 percent of their income. In his first six years in office, Obama issued 198 presidential memoranda, or 33% more than George W. Bush issued in eight years. This seems to be part of a larger trend, while America is fixated on executive orders, presidents have been using more and more presidential memoranda. Executive orders are trending downward while memoranda are trending upwards.
In President Barack Obama's 2014 state of the union address, by tone and content, he made it very clear that he intended to bypass congressional action and attack many items on his own. While he didn't directly mention presidential memoranda as a tool, history shows that he used these to back up his words. Here are a few excerpts from Obama's speech.
"Some require congressional action, and I am eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do."http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=104596
"But I'll act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible."
"I'll cut red tape to help States get those factories built and put folks to work, and this Congress can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas."
"And while we're at it, I'll use my authority to protect more of our pristine Federal lands for future generations."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_order
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_memorandum
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/06/09/president-obama-student-loan-debt-no-hardworking-young-person-should-be-priced-out-h
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/16/obama-presidential-memoranda-executive-orders/20191805/
http://cdn.redalertpolitics.com/files/2015/03/Obama_Dobs-10.jpg
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