Show Established in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, the Cabinet's role is to advise the President on any subject he may require relating to the duties of each member's respective office. Read the Cabinet Exit Memos here. The tradition of the Cabinet dates back to the beginnings of the Presidency itself. Established in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, the Cabinet's role is to advise the President on any subject he may require relating to the duties of each member's respective office. The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments — the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Attorney General. In order of succession to the Presidency: Vice President of the United States Department of State Department of the Treasury Department of Defense Department of Justice Department of the Interior Department of Agriculture Department of Commerce Department of Labor Department of Health and Human Services Department of Housing and Urban Development Department of Transportation Department of Energy Department of Education
Department of Veterans Affairs Department of Homeland Security The following positions have the status of Cabinet-rank: White House Chief of Staff Environmental Protection Agency Office of Management & Budget United States Trade
Representative United States Mission to the United Nations Our Constitution covers many matters related to our government, but the nomination and approval process for the President’s cabinet wasn’t defined in great detail by the Founders. The
Constitution, in Article II, Section 2, says that the President “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for.” The Appointments Clause allows the President to make
nominations for appointed positions like cabinet officers, but the Senate controls the process, including the rules that allow a nomination vote to get to the full Senate floor. If the Senate isn’t officially in session, the President does have the power to appoint officers directly using his recess appointments powers, but modern parliamentary techniques used in the Senate rarely allow an opportunity for such appointments. There is little doubt that the direct nomination and approval of cabinet officials falls under the Appointments Clause while the Senate is in session. In the 1st Congress, President George Washington nominated Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Henry Knox to his first cabinet, and the Senate approved the nominations by a simple majority vote. Since then, the Senate has been the gatekeeper of cabinet approvals. The Senate website has a detailed history of the various nomination processes since 1789. It was Washington who established the precedent that the President would inform the Senate of his choices after he made them, and not officially ask for “consent” prior to the nominations. The Senate didn’t have issues with rejecting lower-level nominations early on in the 1st Congress. In August 1789, it rejected Washington’s nomination of Benjamin Fishbourn to the post of naval officer for the Port of Savannah. The spat between Washington and the Senate over Fishbourn led to the Senate agreeing to record its nomination votes; it had intended to take nomination votes in secret. The first high-profile cabinet rejection by the Senate was in 1834, when President Andrew Jackson lost a fight to get Attorney General Roger Taney named as treasury secretary, in the bitter contest over the Second Bank of the United States. The Senate rejected Taney’s nomination by a 18-28 vote, but a determined Jackson was able to get Taney appointed as the Supreme Court’s chief justice in 1835 when his Democratic party had a slim Senate majority. Since Taney’s rejection, it has been a rare occasion for cabinet officers to have their nominations rejected in a full Senate vote. Senate records show that only nine Cabinet nominees have been rejected once their nomination made it to a full floor vote. The last major cabinet rejection was related to John Tower in 1989. Tower had headed the Senate Armed Services Committee until he retired in 1985. President George H.W. Bush had nominated Tower as defense secretary. The public debate over Tower’s nomination included a lot of mudslinging, and Tower lost the vote along party lines in the Democrat-controlled Senate. He was the only former Senate member rejected for a cabinet position by the Senate in its history. Dick Cheney was later approved in Tower’s place. Another 12 cabinet nominations have been withdrawn during the process in the Senate or didn’t proceed due to Senate inaction. Most recently, the nomination of Tom Daschle by President Barack Obama was withdrawn in February 2009 for the position of Secretary of Health & Human Services. In all, there have been more than 500 cabinet nominations considered by the Senate since 1789, so the success rate of cabinet nominees in the Senate has been very high. Which cabinet members must be approved by the Senate?The Cabinet traditionally includes the vice president and the heads of 15 executive departments. They are appointed by the president, and they must be confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate.
Who are cabinet members approved by?The members of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the president, who can dismiss them at any time without the approval of the Senate, as affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Myers v. United States (1926) or downgrade their Cabinet membership status.
What are the cabinet positions?The departments of the US Cabinet include State, Treasury, Defense, Attorney General, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security.
Which of the following members of a president's administration is not subject to Senate approval?Other presidential selections are not subject to Senate approval, including the president's personal staff (whose most important member is the White House chief of staff) and various advisers (most notably the national security adviser).
|