United States federal executive departments

The United States federal executive departments are the principal units of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. They are analogous to ministries common in parliamentary or semi-presidential systems but (the United States being a presidential system) they are led by a head of government who is also the head of state. The executive departments are the administrative arms of the President of the United States. There are currently 15 executive departments.

The heads of the executive departments receive the title of Secretary of their respective department, except for the Attorney-General who is head of the Justice Department (and the Postmaster General who until 1971 was head of the Post Office Department). The heads of the executive departments are appointed by the President and take office after confirmation by the United States Senate, and serve at the pleasure of the President. The heads of departments are members of the Cabinet of the United States, an executive organ that normally acts as an advisory body to the President. In the Opinion Clause (Article II, section 2, clause 1) of the U.S. Constitution, heads of executive departments are referred to as "principal Officer in each of the executive Departments".

The heads of executive departments are included in the line of succession to the President, in the event of a vacancy in the presidency, after the Vice President, the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate.

Current departments

Seal	Department	Formed	Employees	Annual budget	Head
					Portrait	Name and title
	State	July 27, 1789	69,000 13,000 Foreign Service 11,000 Civil Service 45,000 local	$52.404 billion (2018)		Mike Pompeo Secretary of State
	Treasury	September 2, 1789	86,049 (2014)	$20 billion (2019)		Steven Mnuchin Secretary of the Treasury
	Defense	September 18, 1947	2.86 million	$721.5 billion (2020)		Mark Esper Secretary of Defense
	Justice	July 1, 1870	113,543 (2012)	$29.9 billion (2019)		William Barr Attorney General
	Interior	March 3, 1849	70,003 (2012)	$20.7 billion (2013)		David Bernhardt Secretary of the Interior
	Agriculture	May 15, 1862	105,778 (June 2007)	$155 billion (2019)		Sonny Perdue Secretary of Agriculture
	Commerce	February 14, 1903	43,880 (2011)	$9.67 billion (2018)		Wilbur Ross Secretary of Commerce
	Labor	March 4, 1913	17,450 (2014)	$12.1 billion (2012)		Eugene Scalia Secretary of Labor
	Health and Human Services	April 11, 1953	79,540 (2015)	$1.286 trillion (2020)		Alex Azar Secretary of Health and Human Services
	Housing and Urban Development	September 9, 1965	8,416 (2014)	$32.6 billion (2014)		Ben Carson Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
	Transportation	April 1, 1967	58,622	$75.1 billion (2016)		Elaine Chao Secretary of Transportation
	Energy	August 4, 1977	12,944 (2014)	$27.9 billion (2015)		Dan Brouillette Secretary of Energy
	Education	October 17, 1979	3,912 (2018)	$68 billion (2016)		Betsy DeVos Secretary of Education
	Veterans Affairs	March 15, 1989	377,805 (2016)	$180 billion (2017)		Robert Wilkie Secretary of Veterans Affairs
	Homeland Security	November 25, 2002	229,000 (2017)	$51.672 billion (2020)		Chad Wolf Secretary of Homeland Security (Acting)

Former departments

Seal	Department	Formed	Abolished	Superseded by	Last head
					Portrait	Name and title
	War	August 7, 1789	September 18, 1947	Department of the Army Department of the Air Force		Kenneth C. Royall Secretary of War
	Army	September 18, 1947	August 10, 1949	Department of Defense (as executive department) becomes military department		Gordon Gray Secretary of the Army
	Air Force					W. Stuart Symington Secretary of the Air Force
	Navy	April 30, 1798				Francis P. Matthews Secretary of the Navy
	Post Office	February 20, 1792	July 1, 1971	Postal Service		Winton M. Blount Postmaster General

See also

• Independent agencies of the United States government
• List of federal agencies in the United States
• Canadian Federal government departments
• British government departments
• Cabinet of the Confederate States of America

References

• Relyea, Harold C. "Homeland Security: Department Organization and Management" (PDF), Report for Congress, 2002. RL31493 (August 7, 2002).

External links

• Media related to Executive Departments of the United States at Wikimedia Commons