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Executive Branch | Article View | |
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Structure |
There are 15 major departments in the executive branch. They employ about 1.6 million civilian employees. In order of establishment the departments are:
The heads of these departments are members of the Cabinet, a body dating to George Washington’s time. The Cabinet advises the president and supplies requested information.
The Defense Department, with about 750,000 civilian employees and about 1.4 million military personnel, is the largest enterprise in the nation. It employs more people and buys more goods and services than any other business or organization, public or private.
Treasury is another key department. Its Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collects taxes, and other divisions print money and mint coins, collect duties on goods imported from abroad, and regulate alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.
The Department of Health and Human Services is a vast department that deals with some of the most popular domestic programs. These include health-care financing through Medicare and Medicaid, and research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Some executive departments include many important agencies. The Department of Homeland Security, for example, includes agencies such as the Coast Guard, the Customs Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Commerce Department includes entities such as the Bureau of the Census, the International Trade Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Patent and Trademark Office.
There are many well-known executive offices outside traditional Cabinet departments. These quasi-independent entities include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Many regulatory agencies are designed to lie somewhere between the executive and legislative branch—their members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but they operate independently. These include the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Other entities resemble business enterprises. Some are corporations wholly owned by the government—for example, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Others are corporations sponsored by the government but operating partly or wholly in the private sector—for example, the United States Postal Service, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Federal National Mortgage Association, sometimes called Fannie Mae.
