2. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS
•There are 15 executive departments in the federal
government (cabinet departments).
•Each department is headed by a secretary (chosen
by the president), except for the department of justice
which is run by the attorney general. These heads
are part of the President’s cabinet.
•Each of the 15 departments has subdivisions or
smaller units that are constituents of the department.
A majority of these units perform their work outside of
DC.
•The Department of State is the oldest, most
prestigious, and smallest department in the executive
branch; it has only 25,000 employees.
•The Department of Defense is the largest
Department; it contains 670,000 civilian workers, and
1.4 million in uniform.
•One fourth of federal spending is used on the
Department of Health and Human Services.

4. THE CABINET
• The cabinet is a group of advisors selected by the president. The formation
of the cabinet is not mentioned in the constitution.
• The first four members of cabinet were chosen in 1789; Thomas Jefferson
(Secretary of State), Alexander Hamilton ( secretary of the treasury), Henry
Knox (Secretary of war), and Edmund Randolph (Attorney General).
• There are now 15 members of cabinet and they are all the leaders of a
department.
• The Vice President, among many other major US politicians, attends
cabinet meetings.
• Each of the President’s appointments for his cabinet must be approved by
the senate, although, out of 600 appointments made since 1789, only 12
have been rejected.
• Republican presidents usually choose republican advisors and vice- versa
• The region that pertains to a specific department is a factor in influencing
the President’s appointments. The secretary of housing and urban
development usually comes from a major metropolitan area.
• Minorities have slowly integrated into the President’s choices. First women
in cabinet 1933. First black 1966. First Hispanic 1988.

5. Independent Agencies
• Nearly 150 of them
• Located outside of the Cabinet
departments
• Reasons:
– Some are placed outside of departments so
they are not influenced by politics.
– Some were born by accident
– Some are peculiar and sensitive, and can not
be thrown into a department

6. 3 Main Kinds of Independent
Agencies
1. Independent executive agencies
Include the majority of agencies
Large, multi-million or billion dollar budgets
Only difference between these and cabinet departments is the lack of
cabinet status
2. Independent regulatory commissions
Out of the reach of the president
Control many aspects of the economy
Only a slight majority can belong to the same political party
Terms of members are staggered
quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial (they have some judicial and legislative
powers)
They make rules and regulations pertaining to congress rulings
They decide disputes on matter congress has given them control over
3. Government Corporations
In the Executive branch
Under direct presidential control

7. Civil Service
• Civil Service is defined as civilian employees who
perform the administrative work of government. The
president appoints the people who hold the highest
ranking jobs in the executive branch; there are
approximately 2,500 of those positions. At the top
levels of the Executive Office there are jobs in the
Cabinet departments, the independent
agencies, and in American embassies and other
diplomatic stations. All of the other jobs in the federal
bureaucracy are covered by some aspect of the civil
service system.

8. Development of The Civil
Service
• The only thing the Constitution says directly about the staffing
of the federal bureaucracy is that the President "shall
nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the
Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers
and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other
Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not
herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established
by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment
of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President
alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”
• Step 1: The Spoils System (the practice of giving offices and
other favors of government to political supporters and
friends.)
• Step 2: The Movement to Reform
• Step 3: The Pendleton Act

9. The Civil Service Now
2003 statistics of Civil Service
Employees:
• 45% women, 55% men
• 69.2% Caucasian, 17% Black, 6.9%
Hispanic, 4.7% Asian/Pacific Islander,
2.2% Native American
• 59% no Bachelor's Degree, 41%
Bachelor's Degree or higher- 88% Blue-
Collar, 12% White-Collar

10. Education
• Department of Education
ED was created in 1980 by combining offices
from several federal agencies. ED's 4,400
employees and $68 billion budget are dedicated
to:
– Establishing policies on federal financial aid for
education, and distributing as well as monitoring
those funds.
– Collecting data on America's schools and
disseminating research.
– Focusing national attention on key educational
issues.
– Prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access
to education.

11. ED Example
• President Obama established a goal that,
by 2020, the United States will have the
highest proportion of college graduates in
the world. To monitor the country's
progress towards reaching this goal, the
U.S. Department of Education created a
site called the education dashboard. It
contains statistics on national student
achievement from Pre-School through
College.