The President's Cabinet

Does the Constitution provide for the Cabinet?
Not directly. Constitutional authority for the Cabinet comes from Article 2, Section 2, which says that the president "... may 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. ... " Similarly, the Constitution does not specify which or how many executive departments should be created.

Is anyone not concerned over the power that the Executive Office has amassed over the past 232 years? I know I am and if you are not you should be.

The Cabinet-level departments are listed here in order of presidential succession.

Department of State
Secretary of State: Condoleezza Rice

Address: Department of State
2201 C St. N.W.
Washington D.C. 20520
Phone: 202-647-4000
Information Phone: 202-647-6575
Index Information Phone: 202-647-5225
FAX: 202-447-3000
Electronic Bulletin Board: 202-647-9225
Web Address: http://www.state.gov/

Department of Treasury
Secretary of the Treasury: Henry "Hank" Paulson, Jr.

Address: Department of Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20220
Phone: 202-622-2000
Information Phone: 202-622-2960
Web Address: http://www.ustreas.gov/

Department of Defense
Secretary of Defense: Dr. Robert M. Gates

Address: Department of Defense
Office of the Secretary
The Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301-1155
Phone: 703-545-6700
Information Phone: 703-742-4326
Web Address: http://www.defenselink.mil/

Department of Justice
Attorney General: Michael Mukasey

Address: Department of Justice
10th St. And Constitution Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
Phone: 202-514-2000
Information Phone: 202-514-2007 (Voice)
202-786-5731 (TTD)
Web Address: http://www.usdoj.gov/

Department of Interior
Secretary of the Interior: Dirk Kempthorne

Address: Department of Interior
1849 C St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240
Phone: 202-208-3171
Web Address: http://www.doi.gov/

Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Secretary of Agriculture: Ed Schafer

Address: Department of Agriculture
14th Street And Independence Ave. S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20250
Phone: 202-720-2791
Web Address: http://www.usda.gov/

Department of Commerce
Secretary of Commerce: Carlos Gutierrez

Address: Department of Commerce
14th St. Between Constitution And Pennsylvania Ave N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20230
Phone: 202-482-2000
Information Phone: 202-219-3605
Web Address: http://www.commerce.gov/

Department of Labor
Secretary of Labor: Elaine Chao

Address: Department of Labor
200 Constitution Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20210
Phone: 202-219-5000
Information Phone: 202-219-7316
Web Address: http://www.dol.gov/

Department of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Michael Leavitt

Address: Department of Health
200 Independence Ave. S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Phone: 202-619-0257
Web Address: http://www.os.dhhs.gov/

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Steve Preston

Address: Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th St. S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20410
Phone: 202-708-1422
Information Phone: 202-708-0980
Web Address: http://www.hud.gov/

Department of Transportation (DOT)
Secretary of Transportation: Mary Peters

Address: Department of Transportation
400 7th St. S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590
Phone: 202-366-4000
Information Phone: 202-366-5580
Web Address: http://www.dot.gov/

Department of Energy (DOE)
Secretary of Energy: Samuel W. Bodman

Address: Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave. S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20585
Phone: 202-586-5000
Information Phone: 202-586-4940
Web Address: http://www.doe.gov/

Department of Education
Secretary of Education: Margaret Spellings

Address: Department of Education
600 Independence Ave. S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20202
Phone: 202-708-5366
Web Address: http://www.ed.gov/

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Secretary of Veterans' Affairs: Dr. James B. Peake

Address: Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20420
Phone: 202-273-4900
Information Phone: 202-273-5700
Web Address: http://www.va.gov/

Department of Homeland Security
Secretary of Homeland Security: Michael Chertoff

Address: U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528
Phone: 202-282-8000
Comment Line: 202-282-8495
Web Address: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/

 

About the U.S. Department of State

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of State advises the President in the formulation and execution of foreign policy and promotes the long-range security and well-being of the United States. The Department determines and analyzes the facts relating to American overseas interests, makes recommendations on policy and future action, and takes the necessary steps to carry out established policy. In so doing, the Department engages in continuous consultations with the American public, the Congress, other U.S. departments and agencies, and foreign governments; negotiates treaties and agreements with foreign nations; speaks for the United States in the United Nations and other international organizations in which the United States participates; and represents the United States at international conferences.

The Department of State was established by act of July 27, 1789, as the Department of Foreign Affairs and was renamed Department of State by act of September 15, 1789 (22 U.S.C. 2651 note).

 

About the U.S. Department of the Treasury

The Real 'Moneymakers'

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of the Treasury performs four basic functions: formulating and recommending economic, financial, tax, and fiscal policies; serving as financial agent for the U.S. Government; enforcing the law; and manufacturing coins and currency.

The Treasury Department was created by act of September 2, 1789 (31 U.S.C. 301 and 301 note). Many subsequent acts have figured in the development of the Department, delegating new duties to its charge and establishing the numerous bureaus and divisions that now comprise the Treasury.

 

About the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)

1.4 million men and women on active duty

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of Defense is responsible for providing the military forces needed to deter war and protect the security of our country. The major elements of these forces are the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force, consisting of about 1.4 million men and women on active duty.

They are backed, in case of emergency, by the 1.2 million members of the Reserve and National Guard. In addition, there are about 670,000 civilian employees in the Defense Department. Under the President, who is also Commander in Chief, the Secretary of Defense exercises authority, direction, and control over the Department, which includes the separately organized military departments of Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff providing military advice, the combatant commands, and defense agencies and field activities established for specific purposes.

The National Security Act Amendments of 1949 redesignated the National Military Establishment as the Department of Defense and established it as an executive department (10 U.S.C. 111), with the Secretary of Defense as its head.

 

About the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)

Counsel for the people

By Robert Longley, About.com

As the largest law firm in the Nation, the Department of Justice serves as counsel for its citizens. It represents them in enforcing the law in the public interest. Through its thousands of lawyers, investigators, and agents, the Department plays the key role in protection against criminals and subversion, in ensuring healthy competition of business in our free enterprise system, in safeguarding the consumer, and in enforcing drug, immigration, and naturalization laws.

The Department of Justice was established by act of June 22, 1870 (28 U.S.C. 501, 503, 509 note), with the Attorney General as its head. The affairs and activities of the Department of Justice are generally directed by the Attorney General.

The Attorney General represents the United States in legal matters generally and gives advice and opinions to the President and to the heads of the executive departments of the Government when so requested. The Attorney General appears in person to represent the Government before the U.S. Supreme Court in cases of exceptional gravity or importance.

 

About the U.S. Department of the Interior

Mangers of national public lands

By Robert Longley, About.com

The mission of the Department of the Interior is to protect and provide access to our Nation's natural and cultural heritage and honor our trust responsibilities to tribes and our commitments to island communities. The Department manages the Nation's public lands and minerals, national parks, national wildlife refuges, and western water resources and upholds Federal trust responsibilities to Indian tribes and our commitments to island communities. It is responsible for migratory wildlife conservation; historic preservation; endangered species; surface-mined lands protection and restoration; mapping; geological, hydrological, and biological science; and financial and technical assistance for the insular areas.

The Department of the Interior was created by act of March 3, 1849 (43 U.S.C. 1451), which transferred to it the General Land Office, the Office of Indian Affairs, the Pension Office, and the Patent Office. It was reorganized by Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1950, as amended (5 U.S.C. app.).

 

About the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Conservation, food quality and safety

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of Agriculture works to improve and maintain farm income and to develop and expand markets abroad for agricultural products. The Department helps to curb and to cure poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. It works to enhance the environment and to maintain production capacity by helping landowners protect the soil, water, forests, and other natural resources. Rural development, credit, and conservation programs are key resources for carrying out national growth policies. Department research findings directly or indirectly benefit all Americans. The Department, through inspection and grading services, safeguards and ensures standards of quality in the daily food supply.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) was created by an act of Congress on May 15, 1862 (7 U.S.C. 2201).

 

About the U.S. Department of Commerce

Protecting the free enterprise system

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of Commerce encourages, serves, and promotes the Nation's international trade, economic growth, and technological advancement. The Department provides a wide variety of programs through the competitive free enterprise system. It offers assistance and information to increase America's competitiveness in the world economy; administers programs to prevent unfair foreign trade competition; provides social and economic statistics and analyses for business and government planners; provides research and support for the increased use of scientific, engineering, and technological development; works to improve our understanding and benefits of the Earth's physical environment and oceanic resources; grants patents and registers trademarks; develops policies and conducts research on telecommunications; provides assistance to promote domestic economic development; and assists in the growth of minority businesses.

The Department was designated as such by act of March 4, 1913 (15 U.S.C. 1501), which reorganized the Department of Commerce and Labor, created by act of February 14, 1903 (15 U.S.C. 1501), by transferring all labor activities into a new, separate Department of Labor.

 

About the U.S. Department of Labor

Job training, fair wages and labor laws

By Robert Longley, About.com

The purpose of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. In carrying out this mission, the Department administers a variety of Federal labor laws guaranteeing workers' rights to safe and healthful working conditions, a minimum hourly wage and overtime pay, freedom from employment discrimination, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation.

The Department also protects workers' pension rights; provides for job training programs; helps workers find jobs; works to strengthen free collective bargaining; and keeps track of changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements. As the Department seeks to assist all Americans who need and want to work, special efforts are made to meet the unique job market problems of older workers, youths, minority group members, women, the handicapped, and other groups.

The Department of Labor (DOL) was created by act of March 4, 1913 (29 U.S.C. 551). A Bureau of Labor was first created by Congress in 1884 under the Interior Department. The Bureau of Labor later became independent as a Department of Labor without executive rank. It again returned to bureau status in the Department of Commerce and Labor, which was created by act of February 14, 1903 (15 U.S.C. 1501).

 

About the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

HHS touches more lives that any other agency

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of Health and Human Services is the Cabinet-level department of the Federal executive branch most involved with the Nation's human concerns. In one way or another, it touches the lives of more Americans than any other Federal agency. It is literally a department of people serving people, from newborn infants to persons requiring health services to our most elderly citizens.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was created as the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare on April 11, 1953 (5 U.S.C. app.).

 

About the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Meeting fair housing needs

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is the principal Federal agency responsible for programs concerned with the Nation's housing needs, fair housing opportunities, and improvement and development of the Nation's communities.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was established in the 1965 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act (42 U.S.C. 3532-3537). It was created to:

# administer the principal programs that provide assistance for housing and for the development of the Nation's communities;
# encourage the solution of housing and community development problems through States and localities; and
# encourage the maximum contributions that may be made by vigorous private home building and mortgage lending industries, both primary and secondary, to housing, community development, and the national economy.

 

The point is not to point out who is currently the head of these agencies but what control these agencies have over each of us. All headed by the consent of one man, POTUS.

These departments should be the State's responsibility through over sight of Congress, not the responsibility of one man.

 

About the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)

Safe travel on land, sea and air

By Robert Longley, About.com

The U.S. Department of Transportation establishes the Nation's overall transportation policy. Under its umbrella there are 11 administrations whose jurisdictions include highway planning, development, and construction; motor carrier safety; urban mass transit; railroads; aviation; and the safety of waterways, ports, highways, and oil and gas pipelines.

Decisions made by the Department in conjunction with the appropriate State and local officials strongly affect other programs such as land planning, energy conservation, scarce resource utilization, and technological change.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) was established by act of October 15, 1966, as amended (49 U.S.C. 102 and 102 note), "to assure the coordinated, effective administration of the transportation programs of the Federal Government" and to develop "national transportation policies and programs conducive to the provision of fast, safe, efficient, and convenient transportation at the lowest cost consistent therewith." It became operational in April 1967 and was comprised of elements transferred from eight other major departments and agencies.

Secretary The Department of Transportation is administered by the Secretary of Transportation, who is the principal adviser to the President in all matters relating to Federal transportation programs.

 

About the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

'Make More, Use Less'

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of Energy's mission is to foster a secure and reliable energy system that is environmentally and economically sustainable; to be a responsible steward of the Nation's nuclear weapons; to clean up the Department's facilities; to lead in the physical sciences and advance the biological, environmental, and computational sciences; and to provide premier scientific instruments for the Nation's research enterprise.

The Department of Energy (DOE) was established by the Department of Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C. 7131), effective October 1, 1977, pursuant to Executive Order 12009 of September 13, 1977. The act consolidated the major Federal energy functions into one Cabinet-level Department.

 

About the U.S. Department of Education

The place for student grants and loans

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of Education establishes policy for, administers, and coordinates most Federal assistance to education. Its mission is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the Nation.

The Department of Education was created by the Department of Education Organization Act (20 U.S.C. 3411) and is administered under the supervision and direction of the Secretary of Education.

Federal Student Aid The Office of Student Financial Assistance (FSA) provides financial assistance through grants and work and loan programs to students pursuing a postsecondary education. The Federal student financial aid programs include: Stafford loans; parent loans for undergraduate students; supplemental loans for students; Federal insured student loans; consolidated loans; Perkins loans; income contingent loans; Pell grants; the College Work-Study Program; supplemental educational opportunities grants; and State student incentive grants.

 

About the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

To remember: 'All gave some, some gave all.'

By Robert Longley, About.com

The Department of Veterans Affairs operates programs to benefit veterans and members of their families. Benefits include compensation payments for disabilities or death related to military service; pensions; education and rehabilitation; home loan guaranty; burial; and a medical care program incorporating nursing homes, clinics, and medical centers.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was established as an executive department by the Department of Veterans Affairs Act (38 U.S.C. 201 note). It is comprised of three organizations that administer veterans programs: the Veterans Health Administration, the Veterans Benefits Administration, and the National Cemetery Administration. Each organization has field facilities and a central office component.

 

About the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

To prevent future terrorist attacks

By Robert Longley, About.com

The creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the most significant transformation of the U.S. government since 1947, when Harry S. Truman merged the various branches of the U.S. Armed Forces into the Department of Defense to better coordinate the nation's defense against military threats.

DHS represents a similar consolidation, both in style and substance. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks against America on September 11th, 2001, President George W. Bush decided 22 previously disparate domestic agencies needed to be coordinated into one department to protect the nation against threats to the homeland.

The new department's first priority is to protect the nation against further terrorist attacks. Component agencies will analyze threats and intelligence, guard our borders and airports, protect our critical infrastructure, and coordinate the response of our nation for future emergencies.

Besides providing a better-coordinated defense of the homeland, DHS is also dedicated to protecting the rights of American citizens and enhancing public services, such as natural disaster assistance and citizenship services, by dedicating offices to these important missions.