The President’s Cabinet

The United States Cabinet is generally known as President's Cabinet or it is simply known as Cabinet. “Most senior appointed officers of the executive branch” of the federal government of the United States are referred to as the United States Cabinet. Most of the Cabinet members are the chief of the specific agencies within the United States Government. Some members of Cabinet contain Cabinet-level positions without heading any agency. The first Cabinet was composed by the first American President, George Washington.

He appointed four senior officials in his Cabinet to advise and assist him in his duties.

The officers of the Cabinet are nominated by the President of America. Then these nominated Cabinet officers are presented to the United States Senate for selection or rejection. This selection is done by simple majority. The officers who are approved become the member of the United State Cabinet. They get the title of Secretary except Attorney General. There is no need of Senate confirmation for an elected Vice President and there is no need of re-confirmation for Secretary Gates because they are previously confirmed by the Senate.

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Presidential line of succession is also important in the Cabinet. This line fixes the order in which a Cabinet member take over the President, Vice President, and Speaker of the House after his death or resignation. All the members of the Cabinet are not kept at a one location because of the national security reasons. At least one Cabinet member is always kept away from any kind of ceremonial occasions.

This person is kept secure at an undisclosed location.

Hence he can take over if the President, Vice President, and the rest of the Cabinet are killed. The Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General are the most powerful and important members of the United States Cabinet. These are known as Big Four. These members create an inner circle, but in recent years, the Secretary of Homeland Security has also become as powerful as these four cabinet offices and he is considered more powerful than the other cabinet offices.

Aside from these members there are some other important members in the United States Cabinet such as Postmaster General, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and Secretary of Energy.

The Vice President of the United States, the Director of the National Drug Control Policy, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Director of the Office of Management, and the US Trade Representative are Cabinet-level positions. Members of the Cabinet take seat according to the order of precedence during the meeting of the Cabinet. The Cabinet officer who has higher rank sits closer to the center of the table. The President and Vice President sit across each other.

The Secretaries of State and the Secretaries of Defense sit respectively at the right and left of the President. The Secretary of Treasury and the Attorney General are seated directly to the right and left, respectively, of the Vice President. It is expected that the Cabinet members will release the duties of the associated departments, which they head. It is duty of the cabinet members to provide information to the President. It is not possible for the President of the United States to know about everything that is going on in the country because U.S. is a very big country. The Cabinet members are the members of the team which provides information to the President about each and every thing which is happening at present in the country. The power of the cabinet members is not fixed. Up to some extent it depends upon the President. Some times cabinet become extremely powerful, because each President works with the Cabinet in a different manner. Hence the level of influence of the Cabinet is not fixed.