United States federal executive departments

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The United States federal executive departments are among the oldest primary units of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States—the Departments of State, War, and the Treasury all having been established within a few weeks of each other in 1789.

Federal executive departments are analogous to ministries common in parliamentary or semi-presidential systems but, with the United States being a presidential system, their heads otherwise equivalent to ministers, do not form a government (in a parliamentary sense) nor are they led by a head of government separate from the head of state. The heads of the federal executive departments, known as secretaries of their respective department, form the traditional Cabinet of the United States, an executive organ that serves at the disposal of the president and normally act as an advisory body to the presidency.

Since 1792, by statutory specification, the cabinet constituted a line of succession to the presidency, after the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate, in the event of a vacancy in both the presidency and the vice presidency. The Constitution refers to these officials when it authorizes the President, in Article II, section 2, to "require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices." In brief, they and their organizations are the administrative arms of the President.

Executive Departments of the present

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. All departments are listed by their present-day name and only departments with past or present cabinet-level status are listed. Order of succession has always included the Vice President (1) as the first in line; at times – including presently – the Speaker of the House (2) and the President pro tempore of the Senate (3) have also been included.

Department
 Creation
 Order of
succession
 Notes 2009 Outlays
in billions
of dollars
 Employees
State 1789[1] 4 Initially named "Department of Foreign Affairs". 16.39 18,900
Treasury 1789[2] 5 19.56 115,897
Justice 1870[3] 7 Position of Attorney General created in 1789, but had no department until 1870 46.20 113,543
Interior 1849[4] 8 90.00 71,436
Agriculture 1862[5] 9 134.12 109,832
Commerce 1903[6] 10 Originally named Commerce and Labor; Labor later separated 15.77 43,880[7]
Labor 1913[8] 11 137.97 17,347
Defense 1947[9] 6 Initially named "National Military Establishment" 1947-49. Created as a subsuming—from executive to sub-executive status—of the Departments of The Navy and War (which split into the Departments of the Army and Air Force). 651.16 3,000,000
Health and Human Services 1953[8] 12 Originally named Health, Education, and Welfare; Education later separated 879.20 67,000
Housing and Urban Development 1965[10] 13 40.53 10,600
Transportation 1966[11] 14 73.20 58,622
Energy 1977[12] 15 24.10 109,094
Education 1980[13] 16 45.40 4,487
Veterans Affairs 1989[14] 17 Formerly an independent agency as the Veterans Administration 97.70 235,000
Homeland Security 2002[15] 18 40.00 208,000
Total outlays, employees:         2,311.30B 4,182,652

Seals

Executive Departments of the past

Department Dates of Operation Notes
Department of War 1789–1947 Renamed Department of the Army in 1947
Post Office Department 1792–1971 Reorganized as quasi-independent agency, United States Postal Service
Department of Commerce and Labor 1903–1913 Divided between Department of Commerce and Department of Labor
Department of the Army 1947–1949 From 1947-1949, these departments were executive departments with non-cabinet level secretaries who reported to the civilian Secretary of Defense with cabinet rank but no department. From 1949 on, they were Military Departments within the Department of Defense[16]
Department of the Navy 1798–1949
Department of the Air Force 1947–1949
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1953–1979 Divided between Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education

See also

Notes

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References

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  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ http://www.usda.gov/documents/timeline.pdf
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  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ [1] Archived August 9, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
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  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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