Federal Councils in the executive branch

Instead of a President of the United States, there would be a Presidential Council of the United States. Instead of 9 members, an alternative would be to have 15 members, one to lead each Cabinet organization. However, I believe better results would be achieved by keeping all members of the Presidential Council neutral, combined as a plural executive, not as a group of separate executives each with their own Cabinet interest. The alternate approach could incline each member of the Presidential Council to favor their Cabinet organization when discussing and voting for issues.

Another factor is that Cabinet organizations can come and go but the Presidential Council size should be constant. In addition, 15 years would be too long a term for the members of the Presidential Council. Therefore, Cabinet departments should be led by their own councils.

Councils protect the office and their members

A Presidential Council is much safer than having an individual President, who is clearly a target. In addition, if the President is assassinated, sick, senile, or mentally ill, it creates a dilemma for the country. A President is not easily removed if they do not cooperate.

If a member of the Presidential Council were removed for any reason, the remaining 8 members would continue their duties. A new member would be chosen randomly from the pool of candidates in short order. Even if all 9 members were taken out, they would simply be replaced by new members from the presidential pool. As Presidential Councils would not make laws and as no one could know whom the replacements would be, there would be no motivation to assassinate members of the Council for political reasons. Accordingly, some members of the Swiss Federal Council feel sufficiently safe to take the subway to work without a protective detail!

No vice president

The vice president as the successor of the President would not be needed because replacement council members would be selected randomly from the pool. A voting tiebreaker would not be needed for the Senate, as the Legislature would change to Federal Councils as described later in this chapter. The 9 members of the Presidential Council could handle any duties performed today by the vice president. Therefore, no vice president would exist.

Duties of Federal Councils in the executive branch

The Presidential Council would be over the cabinet as the President is now. Most presidential duties would remain the same. The Presidential Council would not make new laws through executive orders as part of the legislative process as the President does now. Nor could they veto laws created by the people.

The executive cabinet organizations

Each of the 15 cabinet-level executive department head positions would become Federal Councils that report to the Presidential Council. There would be a Council of State, a Council of the Treasury, a Council of Defense, etc. The senior member of each council would meet with the Presidential Council as requested as the secretaries of the Cabinet do today. However, whenever the Presidential Council deemed it necessary, they could meet with all members of the Cabinet councils together.

Executive managers under the Cabinet secretaries would also become Federal Councils. These include the Deputy Attorney General, the Deputy Secretary of State, etc. Other top-level executive positions would convert to Federal Councils also, including the Administrator of the EPA, the Director of the office of Management and Budget, the Director of National Intelligence, the Administrator of the SBA, the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The executives over federal government agencies would also be replaced with Federal Councils such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), National Security Agency (NSA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA).

Other organizations

All corporations owned by the federal government would be managed by Federal Councils rather than individuals or councils appointed by the President. Federal Councils would replace the CEO and boards of directors in each corporation. Without this, the corporations could be politically controlled through their boards.

The equivalent of Federal Councils already exists in a number of smaller organizations in the executive branch (and in Congress) that are not under the 15 Cabinet Secretaries. A few examples are the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the Federal Financing Bank, and the Federal Interagency Committee on Education. These would all become Federal Councils.

The end of political appointments

To the victor go the spoils, as the saying goes. The spoils or patronage system is the distribution of government jobs to party members and friends by the President. The United States has many more political appointments than similar democratic republics. This outrageous example of politics resulting from our root cause began with the third President of the US. [1]

Under our Collaborative Democracy, some of the 9,000 appointments in the executive and legislative branches would become Federal Councils. However, the vast majority would become permanent staff positions, hired by the Federal Councils to whom they would report. No political appointments would remain. Hiring would be performed under an equal merit system with fair and open recruitment and competition.

The decision of whether an appointed position would become a Federal Council or a hired staff position would be made by the Federal Council over that position. Their decision could be overturned by a Federal Council higher in the line of authority or by the people through the respective Citizen Governance Website. A decision by the people would always be the final authority.

Dignitaries

The 9 members of the Presidential Council would meet foreign dignitaries visiting the US as a council. The chairperson or another member assigned by the council could represent the US when traveling abroad. However, additional members could attend important meetings in foreign countries as deemed appropriate by the council. The members of the Presidential Council would negotiate with foreign powers and propose treaties, but treaties and their conditions would be decided by the people through the council's Citizen Governance Website.

Ambassador councils

Each US embassy would be administered by an Ambassador Council, a Federal Council of 5 or more ambassadors that share responsibilities for the embassy. The senior ambassador on the council would represent the council and report to the Council of State in the Cabinet. The Ambassador Council would typically meet with foreign dignitaries as a united council. The Ambassador Council for each embassy would have its own ambassador pool of candidates qualified for that country. Ambassador councils would not have Citizen Governance Websites. Changes to embassies and ambassador duties would be made through the Citizen Governance Website of the Council of State.

Executive pardons

Executive pardons are another wild political topic. Today, requests for federal pardons are normally processed through the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Department of Justice. There are many legitimate reasons for pardons in addition to the political favors issued by every president at the end of their term. Strictly speaking, the President has the power to grant clemency. Clemency includes pardons, commutations, remissions, and respites for federal crimes. 

• Pardons forgive past crimes as if no crime occurred whether or not the person was convicted. Those pardoned can legally claim they were never convicted. Pardons can even include crimes in the future that have not yet occurred!

• Commutations wholly or partially cut sentences.

• Remissions lessen financial penalties associated with convictions.

• Respites are temporary liberations from incarceration usually for medical reasons.

Clemency is granted for a number of reasons. In addition to political favors, clemency can show mercy, reverse injustice, or nullify a law. For example, President Obama frequently issued commutations for sentences related to federal drug convictions. As a result, he received 36,000 requests for clemency, many times that of any other president. However, from the record of clemency actions by each President, President Franklin Roosevelt granted 3,796 clemencies, almost twice as many as President Obama's 1,927. [2] I'm guessing part of the reason was because he served as President for 13 years.

While the power of clemency is needed, it is also a tremendous political power allowing a President to grant personal favors and show unjust special treatment. Leaving this power with the Presidential Council would subject them to influence by the elite and possible corruption. Therefore, the power would rest with the people to make the clemency decisions on the Citizen Governance Website of the Pardon Attorney.

The Pardon Attorney office would become a Federal Council. Its primary responsibility would be to frame up the decisions and to recommend actions to the people. As the Pardon Attorney office must be involved anyway and as the people would be the decision makers regardless of which Citizen Governance Website were used, involving the Presidential Council would be inefficient and a duplication of effort.

However, this decision regarding federal pardons along with many similar decisions could be made by the people through a Citizen Governance Website after our Collaborative Democracy is in place. Our first objective would be to change the governing decision process in our country. Afterward, we could use our new governing process to make whatever changes are needed through the appropriate Citizen Governance Website.