CH THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS ADVANCED AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS  “the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.”—Alexander Hamilton (Federalist #76)  Much of the work in government is done by 15 cabinet-level executive departments  Original (1789): State, War, Treasury  As the workload grew, more departments were created  CHIEF OFFICERS AND STAFF  Each department is headed by a SECRETARY except Justice whose leader is the ATTORNEY GENERAL

 Each department has an under secretary and assistant secretaries to aid the Secretary  SUBUNITS  Each department is divided up into subunits and those subunits are divided up further  Example: Veterans Health Administration is a part of the Department of Veterans Affairs  This organization provides medical care to eligible veterans at over 150 medical centers and over 800 outpatient clinics

 THE DEPARTMENTS TODAY  Department of State is the oldest and smallest department with about 25,000 employees  The Department of Defense is the largest with 670,000 civilian employees and 1.4 million people in uniform  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the largest budget (about ¼ of all federal spending)  The Department of Homeland Security is the newest, having been created in  (Chart p )

THE CABINET  CABINET—informal advisory body brought together by the President to serve his needs.  Not created by the Constitution or Congress  1789—Four top-level executive posts  Secretary of State—Thomas Jefferson  Secretary of the Treasury—Alexander Hamilton  Secretary of War—Henry Knox  Attorney General—Edmund Randolph  By tradition, the heads of the 15 executive departments form the Cabinet

 Additional Cabinet members—OMB Director, Chief Domestic Policy Advisor  Also attending: Vice President, White House Counselor, WH Chief of Staff, US Trade Representative, National Drug Policy Director, EPA administrator

 CHOOSING CABINET MEMBERS  President appoints people and the Senate must approve the appointments  Appointments have been made based on a person’s role in a president campaign  Usually a person’s qualifications to do a particular job are taken into account as well  Gender, race, management abilities and experience are also considered

 WOMEN AND MINORITIES  First women—Frances T. (“Ma”) Perkins—Labor— (appointed by FDR)  First African American—Robert C. Weaver—HUD— (appointed by LBJ)  First Hispanic—Lauro F. Cavazos—Education—1988 (appointed by Reagan)

 More women and minorities have been chosen for the cabinet since the 1980’s  THE CABINET’S ROLE  Two major roles for the Cabinet members:  1) Individually—administrative head of their department  2) Together—advisors to the President  The amount of influence the Cabinet has depends on the President  President Lincoln once made a proposal to his seven-member Cabinet and all members opposed it

 The President then replied, “Seven nays, one aye: the ayes have it.”  President William Howard Taft suggested that if the president desired to eliminate the Cabinet he could do so.  No President has suggested eliminating the Cabinet  Presidents have in the past relied more heavily on a more informal group of advisors instead of the Cabinet  THE END