Policy Development Offices – Executive Branch for America

Domestic Policy Council (DPC)

The headquarters for the United States Domestic Policy Council is in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Before the formal creation of the Domestic Policy Council (DPC), a form of domestic policy staff had existed in the White House since the 1960s. President Lyndon B. Johnson assigned a senior-level aide to organize staff and develop domestic policy ideas. In 1970, through an executive order, President Nixon created the Office of Policy Development, a large entity in the White House with jurisdiction over economic and domestic policy. The DPC was formally created by President Clinton in 1993 through Executive Order 12859.

The DPC covers a wide range of issues with staff that is typically assigned to policy portfolios that fall under a particular cabinet agency. Some examples include education, veterans’ affairs, labor, energy, transportation/infrastructure, agriculture, interior (Native American, fish and wildlife, national parks), health and human services, housing and urban development, and the environment.

Some agencies oversee issues that span multiple policy councils in the White House. For example, immigration, which primarily falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State, is typically covered by both the DPC and the NSC. The complexity of policy issues and territorial jurisdiction often results in overlap and the duplication of duties. Some examples of other issues across multiple agencies that are within the DPC’s portfolio include, but are not limited to, abortion, the second amendment, and artificial intelligence.

Depending on the administration, some issues are spearheaded at the agency level and some issues are led at the DPC level. It simply depends on how important a particular issue is for an administration.

The “head” of the DPC is known as the director. He manages the day-to-day tasks of the DPC and sets priorities based on various directives from the president, Congress, industry, or stakeholders. The DPC director serves as the principal and top representative in meetings with the president on issues relating to DPC.

The president is the final decision maker on policy and is the traditional arbiter when cross-jurisdictional agencies and issues boil to a head. The president may side with one agency’s viewpoint on an issue over another for a number of reasons.

National Security Council (NSC)

The United States National Security Council was created in 1947 by President Harry S. Truman.

The National Security Council (NSC) was formally established by the National Security Act of 1947 under President Harry Truman. Following the conclusion of World War II, and as a response to growing tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, this law significantly restructured the United States’ national security systems. The creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Military Establishment (the predecessor to the Department of Defense), and the Department of the Air Force were among the major changes enshrined by the National Security Act.

The NSC is the main foreign policy body in the White House, but it also touches on a wide breadth of additional topics. For example, the NSC has a branch called the Homeland Security Council, which was originally a separate entity until it was incorporated into the NSC by President Obama in 2009. The Homeland Security Council handles issues such as immigration and natural disasters.

Each president has the authority to structure and use the NSC as he chooses. However, it was during the Cold War, under President Nixon and Henry Kissinger, that the NSC took on a much more active role.

Over the years, the NSC has grown to become the largest bureaucratic body within the White House. What started as a small presidential policy staff of about ten in the early 1960s now employs the most staff of all the policymaking councils. Under the Obama administration, the size of the NSC staff totaled more than 400 people, approximately 200 of whom were focused on policy. At the end of the Obama administration and throughout the Trump administration, the White House worked to reduce the size of the policy staff for efficiency purposes.

Similar to the DPC, the NSC staff is organized by policy matter. However, one large difference between the NSC and DPC is the number of people. In the DPC, there may be one or two staffers working on an issue, while the NSC will have an entire team dedicated to one issue or topic. This team is referred to as a “directorate.”

Directorates are split into two categories: regional and functional. A regional directorate focuses on a particular region or area of the globe. Some examples of regional directorates include the Middle East and Northern Africa ( MENA), the Western Hemisphere, and Central Europe. Some countries that have high national security implications have separate directorates, such as China or Iran.

Rather than a particular location, functional directorates are based on a policy area. For instance, energy and climate change, border and transportation security, democracy and human rights, and international organizations are examples of functional directorates.

Each administration organizes NSC’s main directorates around the president’s priorities, or the development and evolution of current events. However, the council makeup is fairly consistent from administration to administration.

The NSC is a much less political body than the DPC. Many of the NSC staff are career government employees who are detailed (loaned) from an agency based on their subject matter expertise. The NSC leadership, which includes the National Security Advisor (NSA) and most of his immediate staff, are all political appointees.

The NSC does initiate a good amount of PCC processes because of the sheer amount of staff and expertise that they have.

National Economic Council (NEC)

The National Economic Council (NEC) was formed by President Clinton in 1993. The NEC is the principal group dedicated to the president’s domestic economic agenda. Similar to the DPC, the staff is largely political and is smaller in size than the NSC.

Typically, the NEC staff is separated into international economic and domestic economic issues. Depending on the administration, sometimes the lead on international economic issues is co-chaired by someone from the NSC. Within each of these divisions, the NEC staff is further broken up into subject matter areas. For example, staff can be assigned to cover international or domestic transportation and infrastructure, tax, labor, economy, budget, financial policy, or trade.

While the NEC is the policy-crafting arm, the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) is the data and analytics arm that crunches the numbers. The head of the CEA is almost always an economist, however, the NEC is not exclusively led by an economist.

The NEC, like the DPC, orchestrates executive orders and oversees policy implementation at the various agencies under its jurisdiction.

Council of Economic Advisors (CEA)

While the CEA does not craft policy, it produces much of the empirical data that is used in the creation of policy. The CEA has a more academic focus and is less of a political body than the other policy councils.

The CEA publishes the president’s annual economic report, which provides an overview of the nation’s economic progress. The report also analyzes economic developments, reviews the impact of federal policies and programs on the strength of the U.S. economy, and recommends practices that support American workers.

Cabinet Affairs

Cabinet affairs is the main link between an individual cabinet agency and the White House. The Office of Cabinet Affairs coordinates travel, meetings, and various other big-picture and day-to-day functions of the cabinet agencies with the White House. Often, the White House liaison is the point person that the cabinet affairs team works through to ensure efficient communication. The agencies are vast and expansive, so it is the White House liaison’s job to ensure the secretary and agency at large are following mandates from the White House and its various policy councils.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

The OMB was formerly the Bureau of Budget, established in 1921, and was officially moved into the White House in 1939 by President Harding. It formally became known as the Office of Management and Budget under President Nixon in 1970.

The OMB also has a policy and program analysis function that ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with the president’s budget and administration policies. OMB additionally manages agencies’ financials, paperwork, and IT.

OMB leadership consists of the director and two deputy directors. The office is broken up into five resource management offices: the Office of Federal Financial Management (responsible for money that comes into the government and the money that the government spends), the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (shapes the policies and practices that federal agencies use to acquire goods and services), the Office of E-Government and Information Technology (develops and provides direction for the use of internet-based technologies that make it easier for citizens and businesses to interact with the federal government), the Office of Performance and Personnel Management (coordinates an administration’s performance review process for government agencies and their employees), and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, also known as OIRA (responsible for reviewing federal regulations, reducing paperwork burdens and overseeing policies relating to privacy and information quality.

OMB handles the “boring” but essential functions of the federal government. This includes a wide-breadth of functions including but not limited to: agency strategic planning, procurement, performance measurement, information management, evaluation, policy research, and accounting and budgetary functions. The OMB is an incredibly helpful tool for assisting the president and senior staff with managing these important, but often overlooked, functions across the sprawling bureaucracy.