Originally Posted by
GallopingGhostler
Very simply this, he nominates candidates to the various secretary positions, who are confirmed or rejected by the Senate. Thus, he does have say in the process. He surrounds himself with advisers that he has confidence will advise him properly, of whom he also has input too. Yes, he does not have the right to fire per say his secretaries, but is involved with the selection process. To blindly say he has no or little control over the process is not correct.
Regarding firing a federal employee, it can be done because I have seen it done. The process is arduous, but not impossible.
But the president's appointed secretary again has little control over the career civil servants by design. They set the tone and the emphasize what they would like the department to do or the direction they want it to go but have little control if the permanent staff if they wish to go in another direction. FAA regulation isn't something the secretary can control or override. Congress passes laws but the permanent agency staff interprets the laws and Congress is bad about leaving details missing or quite vague. The new so called strengthening of the previous act intended to protect our hobby still seems vague to me and fall short of what it could be. I blame Congress for that not the FAA. Agencies like the FAA interpret the laws in the end and some elements within the agency may exploit the vagueness to meet their own agendas or just plain misinterpret what Congress intended.
I think Congress need to specifically state in their law if the aircraft is below a certain size, operated below a certain elevation above the retain, and NOT for commercial use and the operator has minimum liability coverage (like for drivers) thru a policy they own or thru a fee paid to an public entity (think AMA here) they should be except for FAA regulation when outside certain types of controlled airspace.
While firing a federal employee is possible it can easily delayed or forestalled for years if not beyond a secretary's term in office. I have seen that happen.