The Pendleton Act and Its Consequences
President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed up by tech billionaire Elon Musk, has generated a great deal of controversy in the United States. While DOGE’s mandate is to get control of the federal bureaucracy and reduce wasteful federal spending — which should not be controversial — many opponents are claiming that the president, and by extension the executive branch, does not have the authority to rein in the federal bureaucracy. This raises an important question: If the U.S. Constitution gives all federal executive power to the president, then how is the president limited in exercising that power over the executive-branch agencies and departments?
Much of this current controversy is a consequence of a law passed in the latter part of the 19th century — the Pendleton Act — which set up the U.S. Civil Service System. Since that time, Congress has chipped away at presidential control over the executive branch. Now, executive agencies are populated by federal bureaucrats who not only have usurped executive power, but also issue federal “regulations” or “rules” that are treated as laws.
When the current Constitution went into effect in 1789, the federal government was quite small. For the next several decades, Americans had little contact with the federal government except for the Post Office and the federal census every 10 years.
JBS Member?
Sign in with your ShopJBS.org account.
Subscribe Now
- 12 Issues Per Year
- Digital Edition Access
- Digital Insider Report
- Exclusive Subscriber Content
- Audio provided for all articles
- Unlimited access to past issues
- Cancel anytime.
- Renews automatically
Subscribe Now
- 12 Issues Per Year
- Print edition delivery (USA)
*Available Outside USA - Digital Edition Access
- Digital Insider Report
- Exclusive Subscriber Content
- Audio provided for all articles
- Unlimited access to past issues
- Cancel anytime.
- Renews automatically