Essay 15- Federal Agencies

2006-3 The United States congress and the president together have the power to enact federal law. Federal bureaucratic agencies have the responsibility to execute federal law. However, in the carrying out of these laws, federal agencies have policy making discretion.
(1) Explain two reasons why Congress gives federal agencies policy making discretion in executing federal laws.
(2) Choose one of the bureaucratic agencies listed below. Identify the policy area over which it exercises policy-making discretion and give one specific example of how it exercises that discretion.
a. Environmental Protection Agency
b. Federal Communications Commission
c. Federal Reserve board
(3) Describe two ways in which Congress ensures that federal agencies follow legislative intent.

Currently, our government allows Federal bureaucratic agencies the ability to execute federal law. There are many benefits to this. For example, by allowing Federal bureaucratic agencies to execute federal law, it lets the agencies give their expertise and judgement that the government just couldn't give. Also it frees up time for the government to focus on more pressing issues and is very efficient.

An example of a bureaucratic agency is the EPA. THE EPA is centered around protecting the environment and managing the disposal of waste and chemical pollution. One example of the EPA exercising it's abilities in federal law would the Water Pollution Control Act of 1972.In this act, the EPA regulated the discharge of waste into water sources.

In order for Congress to ensure that federal agencies follow legislative intent, Congress can perform investigations into the agency's conduct. Also Congress can check the agency's budget and see what they have been spending their funding, to make everything checks out.

Scoring Rubric link: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/_ap06_gopo_us_sg.pdf

Essay 14- Entitlement

 2006-2 In recent decades, entitlement programs have constituted a substantial portion of the United States federal budget. Social Security is the largest entitlement program in the US. From the information in the chart above, and your knowledge of the US government and politics, perform the following tasks.
(a) define entitlement program
(b) What is the primary source of revenue for the Social Security program
(c) Identify one threat to the future of the Social security program should the trends depicted in the chart continue
(d) Describe on demographic trend that threatens the future of the Social Security program and explain how it is responsible for the threat that you identified in (c )
(e) Explain how any one of the trends in the chart above would change if the age of eligibility for social security were raised.




Since the formation of social welfare and entitlement programs, it has been a huge expense to our economic system as a country. Entitlement programs are government benefits that certain qualified individuals are entitled to by law, regardless of need. The purpose of programs like this is to provide relief to those who need help to make ends meet or to those who are entitled.

As social securities and welfare continue to be a factor in the budget of every American, it becomes even more important to consider it's lasting availability. The trend of people relying on their social security may not be an option in the future, as our government will not be able to afford to pay everyone's benefits. Another trend of the graph shows that as spending has increased, the amount of money available for social security has gone down.

The current trend is to rely primarily on social security after retirement. If the age requirement for social security went up, people would have to wait to take out social security and might learn not to rely on it as much. This would also help the government and make them able to cover everyone's social security benefits.
Rubric: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/_ap06_gopo_us_sg.pdf