Office of the President of the United States

                   1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 

                   Washington, D.C. 20500

 

Dear Cabinet Members:

 

Please be informed at the next cabinet meeting you will be asked to prepare a report on your highest priority program.  The purpose of this meeting is to inform me of the program that ranks the highest priority for the coming fiscal year. As you are well aware in this time of fiscal constraint, we in government must set our priorities on all programs under our administration.  Please be prepared to give me details on why your highest-ranking program needs to maintain or increase its current budget.  Prepare all necessary documentation for your presentation with any supporting graphics and testimonials that you believe necessary to make your case for continued support for this program.  You will have five minutes at this cabinet meeting to present your case.  Be prepared to defend your department’s position and answer any questions that I may have for you.

 

I look forward to seeing you and I await your recommendations on how the federal government can continue its most critical programs in these times of economic restraint.  Make sure that we all work for the best interests of this country and work hard to achieve the goals that each department has set to fulfill its constitutional obligations to the people.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

The President of the United States

 

 

                                        ADVISING THE PRESIDENT: A MOCK CABINET MEETING

 

 

YOUR TASK

 

Washington, D.C. is an extremely competitive, political town and you must work hard to keep your agency an important part of government.  It’s the beginning of the legislative calendar and you must compete with other agencies and departments for a part of the total budget and influence from the President.  It is your (and your partner, if you have one) responsibility to gain support for the needs and programs of your department with Congress during the next year.  It’s up to you, as an agency head, to identify a pressing current issue, and the budgetary needs before your department/and then post and prepare for a mock Cabinet meeting with the President.  Explore possible courses of action to remedy this problem and the potential cost to accomplishing the goals set forth in each course of action you are proposing to solve.  You may prepare charts, tables, posters, and graphs to explain your plans to the President.

 

The following list of players and roles in the Mock Cabinet Meeting are:

 

-         the President (your teacher) who will preside over the cabinet meeting and will listen

to each report and consult with you in making his final decision based on the soundness of the proposals and the presenter’s ability to defend the positions it is arguing. The president will reward the departments who best present their problems and budgetary needs during the mock cabinet meeting.

-         the Cabinet members who will advise the President on their number of problems/

concerns about each department.

 

 

 

 

PROCESS

 

You are a member of the President’s Cabinet made up of the heads of the executive departments.  Your task is to become familiar the roles, purposes, and responsibilities of the Secretary of your department.  Your will need to address at least one current issue or piece of legislation that the department is currently working on. You will be given 2 days to work on this, either in the library or class.  You (and your partner, if you have one) will need to role-play the part of the Secretary of your department at our Mock Cabinet Meeting.  You will need to complete the questions below in writing and submit this sheet on the day of the meeting.  Be prepared also to present a visual aid during the meeting.

 

NAME:

CABINET DEPARTMENT:

 

1.      Who is the current Secretary of the department?

 

2.      Give a brief history of the department.  When was the department founded?  Which President added the department to the Cabinet?

 

3.      What are the main responsibilities of the department?

 

4.      How much of the total (in dollars) of the federal budget does your department control?

 

5.      Give one current piece of legislation or issue that the department is currently working on.

 

 

EVALUATION                                                                                                   

 

Your grade will be dependent upon your careful preparation of your proposal and action plans in the cabinet meeting.  You will be graded based upon your research and understanding of both your department and the current issue you have identified. Also graded will be your ability to prepare a visual aid for your presentation.  You also will be evaluated on your ability to answer any questions the President may have about your department or issues that you have researched.  Your data should validate your presentation suggestions.  If the President chooses to cut your funding, you must try to convince him or her that your program is too important to be cut and that the President must eliminate some other department’s program.

 

 

RESOURCES

The President’s Cabinet Departments can be individually accessed via the Internet through the following homepages:

 

The President’s Cabinet:                    http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/cabinet.html

Department of Agriculture:                http://www.usda.gov/

Department of Commerce:                  http://www.doc.gov/

Department of Defense:                     http://www.defenselink.mil/

Department of Education:                  http://www.ed.gov/

Department of Energy:                       http://www.energy.gov/

Department of Health:                        http://www.os.dhhs.gov/

Department of Housing:                     http://www.hud.gov/

Department of the Interior:                 http://www.doi.gov/

Department of Justice:                        http://www.usdoj.gov/

Department of State:                            http://www.state.gov/

Department of Transportation:          http://www.dot.gov/

Department of Treasury:                     http://www.ustreas.gov/

Department of Veterans Affairs:        http://www.va.gov/

Department of Homeland Security:   http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/

 

The White House and related executive Internet sites are as follows:

 

Welcome to the White House:          http://www.whitehouse.gov/

White House Press Releases:            http:sunsite.unc.edu/whitehouse/white-house.html

The United Nations:                            http://www.un.org/

 

Current news stories on events dealing with the executive branch can be reached through an Internet search and news services.

 

Other Possible Resources

 

-          Daily newspapers and news magazines

 

-          Daily news casts on commercial television, cable networks, C-Span and public radio/television

 

-          News/public affairs programs are also important sources of information.

 

-      Books on the Presidential Cabinet on hold at the library

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

After all the Cabinet members have made their reports the President with the advice of his/her executive team will make a final decision on which departments will receive more emphasis. The class will then critique and assess the presentations as to which ones were the most persuasive.  The class will also judge and discuss the realistic aspects of the meeting and the proposals that were made during the mock cabinet meeting.

Webquest created by Mr. Bechtler for Mrs. Lincoln's 7th grade Social Studies class at Grover Cleveland Middle School.