The Cabinet

1. The Cabinet Chapter 8 Section 3

2. Section 3 Selection of the Cabinet • The president appoints the secretaries that head the 15 major executive departments. • The 15 secretaries, the vice president, and several other top officials make up the cabinet. • Cabinet secretaries advise the president, but they also serve as the administrators of large bureaucracies.

3. Section 3 Selection of the Cabinet (cont.) • It is important that a cabinet appointee: • have a background that is compatible with the department he or she will head, • satisfy powerful interest groups that have a stake in the department’s policies, and • have high-level administrative skills and experience.

4. Section 3 Selection of the Cabinet (cont.) • Before making final cabinet decisions, members of the president-elect’s team may leak, or deliberately disclose, some candidates’ names to the news media to test the reaction of Congress, interest groups, and the public.

5. Section 3 The Role of the Cabinet • Each cabinet member is responsible for the executive department that he or she heads. • As a group, the cabinet is intended to serve as an advisory body to the president. • Throughout history, the cabinet’s role in decision making depended on the president’s wishes.

6. Section 3 The Role of the Cabinet (cont.) • Some cabinet members—known as the “inner cabinet”—have greater influence because their departments are concerned with the most sensitive national issues. They include: • secretary of state, • secretary of defense, • secretary of treasury, and • the attorney general.

7. Section 3 Factors Limiting the Cabinet’s Role • There are several factors that limit the president’s use of the cabinet for key decisions, including: • conflicting loyalties: no president commands the complete loyalty of cabinet members, and • the difficulty of maintaining secrecy when 15 cabinet secretaries are involved in discussion of sensitive topics.