| The Cabinet: The President appoints (with Senate approval) the 14 heads of the different Cabinet departments. Originally formed as advisors, their function has changed slightly, becoming more administrative. Cabinet heads are, with one exception, called secretaries. The only exception is the Attorney General, head of the Justice Department. The President needs to work with Congress to have the various executive departments funded. Congress, by controlling the purse strings, loosely exerts control over the cabinet departments. The assignment will ask you to become more familiar with the functions and responsibilities of the cabinet positions. Cabinet members have two major roles. Each is the administrative head of one of the executive departments. Together, they are advisers to the President. A number of Presidents have given great weight to the cabinet and to its advice, others have given it only a secondary role. The cabinets of Bush and Clinton, for example, had considerable influence with the President, while Kennedy described his cabinet meetings as a 'waste of time.' Perhaps, William Howard Taft put the role of the cabinet in its proper light years ago: " The Constitution...contains no suggestion of a meeting of all department heads in consultation over general governmental matters. The Cabinet is a mere creation of the President's will. It exists only by custom. If the President desired to expense with it, he could do so." |
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