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Cabinet Secretaries

The cabinet of the United States is a body in the executive branch of the federal government consisting of the heads of the executive departments (Secretaries), plus other senior officers designated as cabinet-level positions.

Cabinet secretaries were first created as advisers to the president in specific designated areas (and other such advisers who are not considered cabinet-level in power or authority also exist), but as the federal government has grown in size and complexity, it has become equally significant that they administer the business of their department.

The attorney general, for instance, heads the Department of Justice and oversees a large number of federal law enforcement agencies as well as the federal government's involvement in federal legal cases (originally representing the government personally in Supreme Court cases, a task now delegated to attorneys within the Department of Justice). The secretary of state frequently negotiates international treaties and coordinates federal activity overseas, in addition to administering the State Department and serving as foreign policy adviser.

Like other key positions in government, secretaries and other cabinet-level officers are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but they may be dismissed by the president at any time. Cabinet members are included in the presidential line of succession in order of the creation of their office, beginning with the secretaries of State, the Treasury, Defense, and the attorney general, the four cabinet officers that existed in George Washington's presidency.

Evolution of the Cabinet

The exact composition of the cabinet has developed over time, both expanding and reorganizing, since Washington's original four departments. Former cabinet-level officers include the directors of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, as well as the postmaster general, whose Post Office Department was reorganized in 1971 as the U.S. Postal Service, an independent executive agency without cabinet rank.

The Navy and Air Force were formerly their own departments, until becoming combined with the Department of War in 1949 to form the modern Department of Defense. In the 21st century, the cabinet consists of the heads of the departments (“secretary” unless otherwise indicated) of State, Treasury, Defense, Justice (attorney general), Interior (created in 1849), Agriculture (created in 1862 and elevated to the cabinet in 1889), Commerce (1913), Labor (1913), Health and Human Services (1953), Housing and Urban Development (1965), Transportation (1967), Energy (1977), Education (1979), Veterans Affairs (created in 1930, elevated to the cabinet in 1989), and Homeland Security (2002), as well as the cabinet-level positions of vice president, the White House chief of staff, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Trade Representative, the ambassador to the United Nations, the chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers, and the administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Diversity in the Cabinet

A number of factors drive the diversity or lack thereof in the cabinet. Frequently, an ethnic group's “firsts” are discussed with reference to the period when they were first enfranchised. Although the right to vote is not required in order to serve in the cabinet, it generally marks the beginning of official political participation of a group. Members of a group are also more likely to be elected when they can depend on at least a portion of that group's votes—and the votes of senators are in turn necessary to confirm cabinet appointments. But Senate demographics are not a determining driver of cabinet demographics: there was only one female senator when the first female cabinet member was confirmed, for instance, and in the whole of history only 44 women have served in the Senate, nowhere near sufficient for the female senatorial vote to guarantee a confirmation.

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