Regarding his administration's request to Congress for presidential reorganization authority, Obama wanted to leave independent regulatory agencies alone, although had his request been enacted, he could have moved some of their statutory programs pursuant to consolidation. He could have also proposed abolishing cabinet-level departments and some or all of their statutory programs, but again pursuant to consolidation. His ask to Congress for reorganization authority included its expiration after two years, and it was primarily for his plan to consolidate particular executive organizations: he said he'd arrange six of them into a new take on the Commerce Department. That'd mean eliminating the old Commerce Department--meaning he technically needed that abolishment power--though Republicans feared he wouldn't stop there.

Among other things, the third-phase history especially shows how just a few clauses in a bill, if passed, can mean the difference between just some boring technicalities and huge executive branch power-grabs, like the unexpiring capacity contemplated for Bush 43 to take down anything labelled intelligence-y, an obsession of that era akin to how efficiency is painted as an unquestionable good now.