The Presidency and Policy Formulation: The Task Force Device

Abstract

EVERY MODERN PRESIDENT since Franklin D. Roosevelt has made important contributions to the presidency. This article concerns an innovation in the process of formulating presidential legislative programs in domestic policy areas-the systematic use of White House task forces. After an initial venture by John F. Kennedy, the task force device was extensively used by President Lyndon B. Johnson; it seems likely to be continued in some form by Richard M. Nixon. Use of the task forces, although hardly revolutionary, is a departure from past practices that may have some important consequences for national domestic policy making. We will examine the early use of the task forces, focusing on the policy areas of education and housing. Our findings are based in part on interviews with participants in the policy process in those areas.1 Students of American government are familiar with the general pattern of presidential policy formulation, including the method of developing the President's legislative program that became routinized in the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations. Until recently, the legislative program was formulated almost exclusively on the basis of proposals prepared by the departments and agencies and submitted to the President through the Bureau of the Budget.2 The Bureau and the White House staff analyzed these proposals, and from their analysis and subsequent presidential choices,