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The United States federal executive departments are the principal units of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. They are analogous to ministries common in parliamentary or semi-presidential systems but (the United States being a presidential system) they are led by a head of government who is also the head of state. The executive departments are the administrative arms of the president of the United States. There are currently 15 executive departments.
Each department is headed by a secretary whose title echoes the title of their respective department, with the exception of the Department of Justice, whose head is known as the attorney general. The heads of the executive departments are appointed by the president and take office after confirmation by the United States Senate, and serve at the pleasure of the president. The heads of departments are members of the Cabinet of the United States, an executive organ that normally acts as an advisory body to the president. In the Opinion Clause (Article II, section 2, clause 1) of the U.S. Constitution, heads of executive departments are referred to as "principal Officer in each of the executive Departments".
The heads of executive departments are included in the line of succession to the president, in the event of a vacancy in the presidency, after the vice president, the speaker of the House, and the president pro tempore of the Senate. They are included in order of their respective department's formation, with the exception of the Secretary of Defense, whose position in the line of succession is based on when the Department of War was formed.
To enforce a strong separation of powers, the federal Constitution's Ineligibility Clause expressly prohibits executive branch employees (including heads of executive departments) from simultaneously serving in Congress, and vice versa. Accordingly, in sharp contrast to virtually all other Western democracies (parliamentary systems) where ministers are selected to form a government from members of parliament, [1] U.S. legislators who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve as heads of executive departments must resign from Congress before assuming their new positions. [2] If the emoluments for a new appointee's executive branch position were increased while the appointee was previously serving in Congress (e.g., cost of living adjustments), the president must implement a Saxbe fix. [3]
As is evident from the chart below, several executive departments (Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation) have disproportionately small employee headcounts in contrast to the size of their budgets. This is because many of their employees merely supervise contracts with private independent contractors or grants (especially categorical grants) to state or local government agencies who are primarily responsible for providing services directly to the general public. In the 20th century, when the federal government began to provide funding and supervision for matters which were historically seen as the domain of state governments (i.e., education, health and welfare services, housing, and transportation), Congress frequently authorized only funding for grants which were voluntary in the sense that state or local government agencies could choose to apply for such grants (and accept conditions attached by Congress), or they could decline to apply. [4] In the case of HHS's Medicare program, Congress chose to contract with private health insurers because they "already possessed the requisite expertise for administering complex health insurance programs", and because American hospitals preferred to continue dealing with private insurers instead of a new federal bureaucracy. [5]
Department | Seal | Flag | Formed | Employees | Total budget | Head | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Title | Titleholder | |||||||
State | July 27, 1789 | 30,000 (2023) | $58.1 billion [6] (2023) | Secretary of State | Antony Blinken | |||
Treasury | September 2, 1789 | 100,000 (2023) | $16.4 billion [7] (2023) | Secretary of the Treasury | Janet Yellen | |||
Interior | March 3, 1849 | 70,000 (2023) | $35 billion [8] (2023) | Secretary of the Interior | Deb Haaland | |||
Agriculture | May 15, 1862 | 100,000 (2023) | $242 billion [9] (2023) | Secretary of Agriculture | Tom Vilsack | |||
Justice | July 1, 1870 | 113,543 (2012) | $37.5 billion [10] (2023) | Attorney General | Merrick Garland | |||
Commerce | February 14, 1903 | 41,000 (2023) | $16.3 billion [11] (2023) | Secretary of Commerce | Gina Raimondo | |||
Labor | March 4, 1913 | 15,000 (2023) | $97.5 billion [12] (2023) | Secretary of Labor | Julie Su | |||
Defense | September 18, 1947 | 3,200,000 (2023) | $852 billion [13] (2023) | Secretary of Defense | Lloyd Austin | |||
Health and Human Services | April 11, 1953 | 65,000 (2023) | $1.772 trillion [14] (2023) | Secretary of Health and Human Services | Xavier Becerra | |||
Housing and Urban Development | September 9, 1965 | 9,000 (2023) | $61.7 billion [15] (2023) | Secretary of Housing and Urban Development | Marcia Fudge | |||
Transportation | April 1, 1967 | 55,000 (2023) | $145 billion [16] (2023) | Secretary of Transportation | Pete Buttigieg | |||
Energy | August 4, 1977 | 10,000 (2023) | $45.8 billion [17] (2023) | Secretary of Energy | Jennifer Granholm | |||
Education | October 17, 1979 | 4,200 (2023) | $79.6 billion [18] (2023) | Secretary of Education | Miguel Cardona | |||
Veterans Affairs | March 15, 1989 | 235,000 (2023) | $308.5 billion [19] (2023) | Secretary of Veterans Affairs | Denis McDonough | |||
Homeland Security | November 25, 2002 | 250,000 (2023) | $101.6 billion [20] (2023) | Secretary of Homeland Security | Alejandro Mayorkas |
Department | Formed | Removed from Cabinet | Superseded by | Last Cabinet-level head | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Title | Titleholder | |||||
War | August 7, 1789 | September 18, 1947 | Department of the Army Department of the Air Force | Secretary of War | Kenneth Claiborne Royall | |
Army | September 18, 1947 | August 10, 1949 | Department of Defense (as executive department) became and still are military departments within the Department of Defense | Secretary of the Army | Gordon Gray | |
Air Force | Secretary of the Air Force | Stuart Symington | ||||
Navy | April 30, 1798 | August 10, 1949 | Department of Defense (as executive department) became and still is a military department within the Department of Defense | Secretary of the Navy | Francis P. Matthews | |
Post Office | February 20, 1792 | July 1, 1971 | United States Postal Service | Postmaster General | Winton M. Blount | |
Commerce and Labor | February 14, 1903 | March 4, 1913 | Department of Commerce Department of Labor (The Department of Commerce is considered a continuation of the Department of Commerce and Labor under a new name.) | Secretary of Commerce and Labor | Charles Nagel | |
Health, Education, and Welfare | April 11, 1953 | October 17, 1979 | Department of Education Department of Health and Human Services (The Department of Health and Human Services is considered a continuation of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under a new name.) | Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare | Patricia Roberts Harris |
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
The Cabinet of the United States is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The Cabinet meets with the president in a room adjacent to the Oval Office. The president chairs the meetings but is not formally a member of the Cabinet. The heads of departments, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, are members of the Cabinet, and acting department heads also participate in Cabinet meetings whether or not they have been officially nominated for Senate confirmation. The president may designate heads of other agencies and non-Senate-confirmed members of the Executive Office of the President as members of the Cabinet.
The Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The office consists of several offices and agencies, such as the White House Office, the National Security Council, and the Office of Management and Budget.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, policies, and procedures to see whether they comply with the president's policies and coordinates inter-agency policy initiatives.
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemployment benefits, reemployment services, and occasionally, economic statistics. It is headed by the secretary of labor, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet.
The United States Department of Transportation is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet.
The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity.
The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services by the Department of Education Organization Act, which President Jimmy Carter signed into law on October 17, 1979.
In the United States government, independent agencies are agencies that exist outside the federal executive departments and the Executive Office of the President. In a narrower sense, the term refers only to those independent agencies that, while considered part of the executive branch, have regulatory or rulemaking authority and are insulated from presidential control, usually because the president's power to dismiss the agency head or a member is limited.
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, five major self-governing territories, several island possessions, and the federal district and national capital of Washington, D.C., where most of the federal government is based.
In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of the United States Constitution gives presidents broad executive and enforcement authority to use their discretion to determine how to enforce the law or to otherwise manage the resources and staff of the executive branch. The ability to make such orders is also based on expressed or implied Acts of Congress that delegate to the president some degree of discretionary power. The vast majority of executive orders are proposed by federal agencies before being issued by the president.
In the United States, federalism is the constitutional division of power between U.S. state governments and the federal government of the United States. Since the founding of the country, and particularly with the end of the American Civil War, power shifted away from the states and toward the national government. The progression of federalism includes dual, cooperative, and new federalism.
Sylvia Mary Burwell is an American government and non-profit executive who has been the 15th president of American University since June 1, 2017. Burwell is the first woman to serve as the university's president. Burwell earlier served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Barack Obama nominated Burwell on April 11, 2014. Burwell's nomination was confirmed by the Senate on June 5, 2014, by a vote of 78–17. She served as Secretary until the end of the Obama administration. Previously, she was the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2013 to 2014.
Executive Schedule is the system of salaries given to the highest-ranked appointed officials in the executive branch of the U.S. government. The president of the United States appoints individuals to these positions, most with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. They include members of the president's Cabinet, several top-ranking officials of each executive department, the directors of some of the more prominent departmental and independent agencies, and several members of the Executive Office of the President.
The United States federal budget for fiscal year 2009 began as a spending request submitted by President George W. Bush to the 110th Congress. The final resolution written and submitted by the 110th Congress to be forwarded to the President was approved by the House on June 5, 2008.
The policies of the United States of America comprise all actions taken by its federal government. The executive branch is the primary entity through which policies are enacted, however the policies are derived from a collection of laws, executive decisions, and legal precedents.
The United States Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 2010, titled A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise, is a spending request by President Barack Obama to fund government operations for October 2009–September 2010. Figures shown in the spending request do not reflect the actual appropriations for Fiscal Year 2010, which must be authorized by Congress.
Patrick Pizzella is a former American government official who served as the 36th United States Deputy Secretary of Labor from April 17, 2018 to January 20, 2021. He was formerly a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority appointed by President Barack Obama. He held positions in several agencies during four prior Administrations. In 2019, after the resignation of Alexander Acosta, Pizzella served as the acting United States Secretary of Labor for more than 2 months. He currently serves as the elected Mayor of the village of Pinehurst, North Carolina.
The history of the federal government of the United States, including the constitution, the United States Code, the office of the presidency, the executive departments and agencies, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the lower federal courts. It includes government roles, structure, and policy in all aspects, including evolution of the governmental structure, formation of new agencies and departments, assumptions of new roles and functions, enactments of new codes, regulations, and laws, and inception of entirely new roles of government in American society from 1776 to the present day.
Chairman Stevens. Thank you very much. I think both of you are really pointing in the same direction as this Committee. I do hope we can keep it on a bipartisan basis. Mr. Dean, when I was at the Interior Department, I drafted Eisenhower's Department of Natural Resources proposal, and we have had a series of them that have been presented.
The administration is today transmitting to the Congress four bills which, if enacted, would replace seven of the present executive departments and several other agencies with four new departments: the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Community Development, the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Economic Affairs.
Overhaul the more than 100 separate departments, boards, commissions, administrations, authorities, corporations, committees, agencies and activities which are now parts of the Executive Branch, and theoretically under the President, and consolidate them within twelve regular departments, which would include the existing ten departments and two new departments, a Department of Social Welfare, and a Department of Public Works. Change the name of the Department of Interior to Department of Conservation.
In my State of the Union Address, and later in my Budget and Economic Messages to the Congress, I proposed the creation of a new Department of Business and Labor.
The new Department of Economic Affairs would include many of the offices that are now within the Departments of Commerce, Labor and Agriculture. A large part of the Department of Transportation would also be relocated here, including the United States Coast Guard, the Federal Railroad Administration, the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Transportation Systems Center, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Motor Carrier Safety Bureau and most of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Small Business Administration, the Science Information Exchange program from the Smithsonian Institution, the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Office of Technology Utilization from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would also be included in the new Department.