Cite

Executive Order 13359 Amended 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.23) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 13359—Amendment to Executive Order 13173, Interagency Task Force on the Economic Development of the Central San Joaquin Valley

George W. Bush

•

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

•

2 min read (346 words)

•

69 Fed. Reg. 62391

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (346 words) • ● Amended

🎯 Primary Mandate

Executive Order 13173 of October 25, 2000, is amended as follows: Section 1.

View all 4 directives ↓

⚖️ Constitutional Footing

🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority

Express or Implied Congressional Authorization

📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Framers' constitutional debate ↓

🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors

Armed Forces & Military Establishments Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Inspect unabridged text ↓

Legal Status & Amendment History

Amended

Actions on this order

Amended by EO 13831

What this order changed

Amends EO 13173 (October 25, 2000)

Source: Office of the Federal Register executive order disposition notes. Orders before 1994 show only actions recorded by later orders.

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President George W. Bush on October 20, 2004, this order concerns Amendment to Executive Order 13173, Interagency Task Force on the Economic Development of the Central San Joaquin Valley. Executive Order 13173 of October 25, 2000, is amended as follows: Section 1. Section 1(b) is amended to read as follows: "The Task Force shall consist exclusively of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban…

Constitutional Assessment: Scrutinized through Article II, Section 2, this action exercises the President's constitutional role as Commander in Chief. Early Framers recognized broad executive discretion in commanding military forces during conflict, provided it remains bounded by congressional declarations and respects civilian domestic courts.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

▪

Executive Order 13173 of October 25, 2000, is amended as follows: Section 1.

▪

The Chair of the Task Force shall be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

▪

Each of the Federal departments and agencies, as appropriate, shall designate one staff person, for the years 2004 through 2006, to work on issues of the Task Force and to ensure the participation of the staff person's department or agency in the operations of the Task Force." Sec. 2.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Economy & Finance 🏷️ Housing 🏷️ Energy & Environment

🏛️

The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority)

"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Strong Prerogative Support

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)

The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Eternal Vigilance Required

📐

Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone

39 / 100 friction index

Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Low Friction

Operates within delegated statutory execution without modifying legislative appropriations or taxing powers.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.

Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.

Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

High Friction

Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.

Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Moderate Friction

Applies regulatory or compliance standards to private contractors or commercial entities.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.

Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization

⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).

ℹ️

How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.

Total Words

346

2,147 characters

Estimated Read Time

2 min

@ 200 words / min

Flesch-Kincaid

19.3

Post-Graduate Legal

Language Tone Score

+0.23

Constitutional Fidelity

How is this scored?

Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

📑Sections Outline (3 sections)

Sec. 1 Sec. 2 Sec. 3

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve the operation of the Interagency Task Force on the Economic Development of the Central San Joaquin Valley, it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 13173 of October 25, 2000, is amended as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

Section 1(b) is amended to read as follows: "The Task Force shall consist exclusively of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Director of National Drug Control Policy, the Administrator of General Services, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, or their designees, and such other senior executive branch officials as may be determined by the Task Force. The Chair of the Task Force shall be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Each of the Federal departments and agencies, as appropriate, shall designate one staff person, for the years 2004 through 2006, to work on issues of the Task Force and to ensure the participation of the staff person's department or agency in the operations of the Task Force."

Sec. 2. #sec-2

Section 1(c)(1) is amended by inserting "regulations," after "analyze".

Sec. 3. #sec-3

Section 5 is amended to read as follows: "Judicial Review. This order is intended only to improve the internal management of the Federal Government and is not intended to, and does not, create any right, benefit, or trust responsibility, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by a party against the United States, its agencies, entities, its officers or employees, or any other person." GEORGE W. BUSH The White House, October 20, 2004. [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 9:08 a.m., October 22, 2004]

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 13,359, 69 Fed. Reg. 62,391 (Oct. 20, 2004).