The White House Office is the collective name for the President's assistants. It was created by Reorganization Act No. 1 of 1939, on the recommendation of the Brownlow Commission, a Presidential study group. It concluded that to perform his many functions “the President needs help."
Until 1939 the President had no senior aides on his payroll, though Congress did provide salaries for clerks and for the residence staff. Presidents relied on assistant secretaries, the top-level political appointees of the executive departments, who were informally assigned to handle Presidential business, such as liaison with Congress.
In 1937 the Brownlow Commission recommended that the President be assisted by six senior aides, who ideally would have “a passion for anonymity” in their work. By the end of World War II the number had increased to 45, by the end of Dwight Eisenhower's administration it was up to 400, and there were more than 600 staffers during Richard Nixon's administration.
To run the White House Office, President Eisenhower appointed a chief of staff, assisted by a deputy chief of staff. (John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson did not follow Eisenhower's innovation, but all Preidents since then have had a chief of staff.) There are also five or six senior political advisers known as “counselors to the President” or “special assistants” who have direct access to him. There are about 50 deputies to these top officials and about 100 assistants to these deputies. These senior aides (including White House speech writers) earn salaries equal to those of under secretaries and assistant secretaries of the departments. The remaining 400 or so staffers serve primarily as managers, secretaries, clerks, or technicians.
The White House Office prepares the President's speeches, does the advance work for the President's public appearances, and handles his schedule and appointments. The Office of Congressional Liaison helps the President persuade Congress to pass his legislative program, and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs keeps in contact with governors and mayors. The Political Affairs Office keeps the President in close touch with his party's leaders. The Public Liaison Office helps the President gain support from special interest groups and their lobbyists. The Cabinet Secretariat makes sure that department secretaries implement Presidential decisions. The press secretary organizes news conferences and is responsible for preparing the President for questions he may face. The White House counsel ensures that the President is familiar with the legal and constitutional issues involved in decisions he makes.
Other units in the White House include the White House Military Office, which handles the “football,” a briefcase that contains communications codes that allow the President to launch a nuclear attack; the White House physician, responsible for monitoring the President's physical condition; and the White House Communications Agency, which keeps the President in touch with military, diplomatic, intelligence, and other national security communications networks.
The senior staff works out of the East and West Wings and the basement of the White House itself, and lower-level aides work in the Old Executive Office Building next door.
See also Counsel, Office of; Decision making, Presidential; Executive Office Buildings; Executive Office of the President; Office of Administration; Physician to the President; Press secretary; Speech writers, Presidential; White House
Sources
- Bradley Patterson, The Ring of Power: The White House Staff and Its Expanding Role in Government (New York: Basic Books, 1988)
