ABSTRACT
The president could nominate executive heads, the Senate could veto them by majority vote. Legislative and executive power has become even more scrambled in the two centuries since the Philadelphia convention as Congress accumulated vast authority over foreign and military policy, and Congress in seized much of the executive appointment power and retrieved some of its authority over war making, the budget, and administrative organization. Congress not only possesses the basic legislative and fiscal authority; it has developed, as part of the intermix of powers, a number of extraconstitutional or de facto powers. President Richard Nixon vetoed the resolution, labeling it an unconstitutional intrusion into presidential authority and an action that would seriously undermine the "nation's ability to act decisively and convincingly in times of international crisis." The conclusion is inescapable: it is difficult to reorganize machinery to create more partnership between the executive and legislative branches because of the diffusion of power in both branches, especially the legislative.
