Cabinet

//**1600 Pennsylvania Avenue**// //**Washington, D.C. 20500**// //**202-456-1414**// ||
 * [[image:http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/cabinet/pres-sea.gif]] || //**Office of the President of the United States**//


 * Andy Harter**

Washington, D.C. is and 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 budget and a high profile emphasis from the president. It is through his "bully pulpit" that you will garner support for the needs and programs of your department with Congress during the next year. It's up to you, as agency chief, to identify a pressing current issue before your department/and then post and prepare an option paper or presentation for the president. Explore possible courses of action to remedy this problem and the potential cost to accomplish the goals set forth in each course of action you are proposing to solve this pressing social problem. You may prepare charts, tables and graphs to explain your plans to the President. The following list of players and roles in this simulation are: You are a member to the President's Cabinet made up of the heads of the fourteen executive departments and the Ambassador to the United Nations. Your task is to advise the President on one "current" pressing problem or concern facing your department or post. You may meet informally with the other members of the Cabinet to brainstorm possible important issues for each one of the Cabinet posts. After you have reached some degree of consensus on the issue each of you will bring before the President, you can proceed to develop a presentation. Your advice to the President will take the form of an Action Plan with possible alternative courses of action to meet the budget constraints. The political situation in this simulation has the President of one party, a Congress of another party and the public opinion polls showing an overwhelming majority of the people favoring a government that maintains a balanced budget with no new taxes.
 * YOUR TASK**
 * the President (your teacher) who 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 Cabinet members who will advise the President on their number one problem/concern.
 * PROCESS**

You must come prepared to advance your department/post's most pressing problem or concern in light of the budget constraints in today's political climate. The more information that you can gather on the problem or concern the more impact you will have in advancing your cause with the President and his executive team. (See the president's message accompanying this lesson.) To do a good job of achieving a favorable response from the President and his executive team, it will be important to investigate the current problems and concerns facing your department/post and select one that may have the President's interests at heart. Research the department/post using newspapers, news magazines and the Internet related to the stories that you uncover concerning problems and concerns. As a part of the government bureaucracy, you are always lobbying for more funds to accomplish the mission of your post. However, today's political climate is calling for smaller government that accomplishes more with less. It may be necessary to cut back your proposed action plans if the President and his team think that they are too expensive and/or too bureaucratic for today's political climate.
 * LEARNING ADVICE**

You must come prepared to advance your department/post's most pressing problem or concern in light of the budget constraints in today's political climate. The more information that you can gather on the problem or concern the more impact you will have in advancing your cause with the President and his executive team. (See the president's message accompanying this lesson.) To do a good job of achieving a favorable response from the President and his executive team, it will be important to investigate the current problems and concerns facing your department/post and select one that may have the President's interests at heart. Research the department/post using newspapers, news magazines and the Internet related to the stories that you uncover concerning problems and concerns. As a part of the government bureaucracy, you are always lobbying for more funds to accomplish the mission of your post. However, today's political climate is calling for smaller government that accomplishes more with less. It may be necessary to cut back your proposed action plans if the President and his team think that they are too expensive and/or too bureaucratic for today's political climate.
 * LEARNING ADVICE**

Your grade will be dependent upon your careful preparation of your proposal and action plans in the cabinet meeting. Be prepared to demonstrate that you have the answers to the President's questions on your department/post problem or concern. Your data should validate your presentation's suggestions.
 * EVALUATION**

After all the cabinet members have made their reports and the President with the advice of his/her executive team has made the final decision, the class will critique the presentations as to which ones were most persuasive. The class will also judge the realistic aspects of the meeting and the proposals, which were made in this mock cabinet meeting.
 * CONCLUSION**

Look aback over the process just completed. Are there any changes that you would make in how each player handled the responsibilities of his/her role? The following are some things that might be considered by each person.
 * REFLECTION**
 * 1) How do simulations help students to retain more knowledge and understanding of the workings of government?
 * 2) How did the Internet help you research your role?
 * 3) If you were to do this type of lesson again, what advice would you give other students?

Current news stories on events dealing with the executive branch can be reached through an Internet search and news services. > >
 * RESOURCES**
 * The President's Cabinet Departments can be individually accessed via the Internet through the following homepages:**
 * The President's Cabinet: || [] ||
 * Department of Agriculture: || [] ||
 * Department of Commerce: || [] ||
 * Department of Defense: || [] ||
 * Department of Education: || [] ||
 * Department of Energy: || [] ||
 * Department of Health and Human Services: || [] ||
 * Department of Housing and Urban Development: || [] ||
 * Department of the Interior: || [] ||
 * Department of Justice: || [|http://www.usdoj.gov] ||
 * Department of State: || [] ||
 * Department of Transportation: || [] ||
 * Department of the Treasury: || [] ||
 * Department of Veterans Affairs: || [] ||
 * Department of Homeland Security: || [] ||
 * The White House and related executive Internet sites are as follows:**
 * Welcome to the White House: || [] ||
 * White House Press Releases: || [] ||
 * The White House: President, First Lady, Vice President, Second Lady || [|http://www.whitehouse.gov] ||
 * The United Nations can be reached at: || [|http://www.un.org] ||
 * Examples of Other Resources**
 * Daily newspapers and news magazines
 * Library news services like Newsbank, which collect news stories from hundreds of news papers across the nation have search tools to find stories on related subjects from across the nation's newspapers.
 * Daily news casts on commercial television, cable networks, C-Span and public radio/television news/public affairs programs are also important sources of information.