Each department is headed by asecretary whose title echoes the title of their respective department, with the exception of theDepartment of Justice, whose head is known as theattorney general. The heads of the executive departments are appointed by the president and take office afterconfirmation by theUnited States Senate, and serveat the pleasure of the president. The heads of departments are members of theCabinet of the United States, an executive organ that normally acts as an advisory body to the president. In theOpinion Clause (Article II, section 2, clause 1) of theU.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 theline of succession to the president, in the event of a vacancy in the presidency, after thevice president, thespeaker of the House, and thepresident 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 strongseparation of powers, the federal Constitution'sIneligibility Clause expressly prohibits executive branch employees (including heads of executive departments) from simultaneously serving inCongress, and vice versa. Accordingly, in sharp contrast to parliamentary systems whereministers are often selected to form a government frommembers of parliament,[2] 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.[3] 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 aSaxbe fix.[4]
The chart below shows that 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 privateindependent contractors orgrants (especiallycategorical grants) tostate orlocal 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 andwelfare services,housing, andtransportation), 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.[5] In the case of HHS'sMedicare program, Congress chose to contract with private health insurers because they "already possessed the requisite expertise for administering complexhealth insurance programs", and because American hospitals preferred to continue dealing with private insurers instead of a new federal bureaucracy.[6]
Department of Industry and Commerce, proposed by Secretary of the TreasuryWilliam Windom in a speech given at a Chamber of Commerce dinner in May 1881[22]
Department of Community Development, proposed by President Richard Nixon; to be chiefly concerned with rural infrastructure development[24][32]
Department of Human Resources, proposed by President Richard Nixon; essentially a revised Department of Health, Education, and Welfare[24]
Department of Economic Affairs, proposed by President Richard Nixon; essentially a consolidation of the Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Agriculture.[33]
Department of Environmental Protection, proposed by SenatorArlen Specter and others[34]
Department of Commerce and the Workforce, a merger of the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor proposed in 2011 and 2013 by SenatorRichard Burr (R-NC) inS. 1116[40][41]
Department of Education and the Workforce, proposed by PresidentDonald Trump as a consolidation of the Departments of Education and Labor[42]
Department of Health and Public Welfare, proposed by President Donald Trump as a renamed Department of Health and Human Services[43]
Department of Economic Development, proposed by SenatorElizabeth Warren to replace the Commerce Department, subsume other agencies like the Small Business Administration and thePatent and Trademark Office, and include research and development programs, worker training programs, and export and trade authorities like the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative with the single goal of creating and defending good American jobs[44]
Department of Technology, proposed by businessman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidateAndrew Yang[45]
Department of Culture, patterned on similar departments in many foreign nations, proposed by, among others,Murray Moss[46] and Jeva Lange[47]
^abc"116 - Special Message to the Congress on Executive Branch Reorganization".The University of California, Santa Barbara - The American Presidency Project.Archived from the original on February 14, 2017. RetrievedFebruary 13, 2017.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.
^"Republican Party Platform of 1976".The University of California, Santa Barbara - The American Presidency Project. August 18, 1976.Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. RetrievedMarch 13, 2015.
^abc"10 - Summary of the Report of the Committee on Administrative Management".The University of California, Santa Barbara - The American Presidency Project.Archived from the original on February 13, 2017. RetrievedFebruary 13, 2017.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.
^"121 - Special Message to the Congress: The Quality of American Government".The University of California, Santa Barbara - The American Presidency Project.Archived from the original on February 14, 2017. RetrievedFebruary 13, 2017.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.
^"116 - Special Message to the Congress on Executive Branch Reorganization".The University of California, Santa Barbara - The American Presidency Project.Archived from the original on February 14, 2017. RetrievedFebruary 13, 2017.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.
Media related toExecutive Departments of the United States at Wikimedia Commons
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