American Government and Politics Today, Brief Edition, 2014-2015

chAPTeR eleven • The BuReAucRAcy 251

Cabinet Department

One of the fifteen major

departments of the

executive branch.

Line Organization

In the federal government,

an administrative unit that

is directly accountable to

the president.

Independent

Executive Agency

A federal agency that

is not part of a cabinet

department but reports

directly to the president.

cabinet departments

The fifteen cabinet departments are the major service organizations of the federal gov-

ernment. They can also be described in management terms as line organizations. This

means that they are directly accountable to the president and are responsible for perform-

ing government functions, such as printing money and training troops. These departments

were created by Congress when the need for each department arose. The first department

to be created was State, and the most recent one was Homeland Security, established in

2003. A president might ask that a new department be created or an old one abolished,
      but the president has no power to do so without legislative approval from Congress.
      Each department is headed by a secretary (except for the Justice Department, which
      is headed by the attorney general). Each department also has several levels of under-
      secretaries, assistant secretaries, and other personnel.
      Presidents theoretically have considerable control over the cabinet departments,
      because presidents are able to appoint or fire all of the top officials. Even cabinet depart-
      ments do not always respond to the president’s wishes, though. One reason why presidents
      are frequently unhappy with their departments is that the entire bureaucratic structure
      below the top political levels is staffed by permanent employees. Many of these employees
      are committed to established programs or procedures and resist change. Table 11–2 on
      pages 254–255 shows that each cabinet (executive) department employs thousands of
      individuals, only a handful of whom are under the direct control of the president. The table
      also describes some of the functions of each of the departments.

Independent executive Agencies

independent executive agencies are bureaucratic organizations that are not located

within a department but report directly to the president, who appoints their chief offi-

cials. When a new federal agency is created—the Environmental Protection Agency, for

FIGuRe 11–2: Federal Government spending, Fiscal year 2013

Source: usgovernmentspending.com.

• Everything else 17%


• Interest on debt 6%


• Veterans’ benefits 4%


• Military defense 18%


• Miscellaneous
  low-income
  and disability
  support 6%
  
  
  • Social Security 22%
  
  
  • Medicare 14%
  
  
  • Medicaid and CHIP 8%
  
  
  • SNAP and nutrition 3%
  
  
  • Unemployment
    compensation 2%
  
  
  
  

Social Media

in Politics

Most federal agencies

now have a social media

presence, and the Centers

for Disease Control offers

one of the best. For up-to-

the-minute health advice,

follow CDCgov on Twitter.

For hilarious advice on

what to do in a natural

disaster, search on “cdc

zombie apocalypse” on

Twitter.

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