Structure Each department is headed by a
secretary whose title echoes the title of their respective department, with the exception of the
Department of Justice, whose head is known as the
attorney general. 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. They are included in order of their respective department's formation, with the exception of the secretary of defense, whose position in the line of succession is based on when the Department of War was formed.
Separation of powers To enforce a strong
separation of powers, the federal Constitution's
Ineligibility Clause expressly prohibits executive branch employees (including heads of executive departments) from simultaneously serving in
Congress, and vice versa. Accordingly, in sharp contrast to parliamentary systems where
ministers are often selected to form a government from
members of parliament, U.S. legislators who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve as heads of executive departments must resign from Congress before assuming their new positions. If the emoluments for a new appointee's executive branch position were increased while the appointee was previously serving in Congress (e.g.,
cost of living adjustments), the president must implement a
Saxbe fix.
Contracting and grantmaking roles The chart below shows that several executive departments (Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation) have disproportionately small employee headcounts in contrast to the size of their budgets. This is because many of their employees merely supervise contracts with private
independent contractors or
grants (especially
categorical grants) to
state or
local government agencies who are primarily responsible for providing services directly to the general public. In the 20th century, when the federal government began to provide funding and supervision for matters which were historically seen as the domain of state governments (i.e.,
education,
health and
welfare services,
housing, and
transportation), Congress frequently authorized only funding for grants which were voluntary, in the sense that state or local government agencies could choose to apply for such grants (and accept conditions attached by Congress) or they could decline to apply. In the case of HHS's
Medicare program, Congress chose to contract with private health insurers because they "already possessed the requisite expertise for administering complex
health insurance programs", and because American hospitals preferred to continue dealing with private insurers instead of a new federal bureaucracy. ==Current departments==