Cabinet-level departments in the U.S., by date created
Which of these would you like to see DOGE dismantle or debilitate?
President Trump has promised to slash government bureaucracy. If you’ve done your best to ignore D.C.’s sprawling bureaucracy, here’s a chronological overview of the cabinet-level executive departments - the departments whose heads the president appoints. When were they created? What were their original responsibilities? What are they doing these days?
Bureaucrats: justify your existence
To list all the subdivisions of each of these departments and the pies they have their fingers in would take a hundred pages or more. In the entries below, I’ve given a link to the page on each department’s website that sets out its subdivisions.
I could elaborate for another hundred pages on why most of the subdivisions, and some whole cabinet-level departments, ought to be eliminated. For the sake of brevity, I’ll just say up front that I favor a very limited government:
A military, to defend against foreign attacks
A police force, to defend against criminals
Courts, to settle disputes
More on that here.
Any government department that handles other matters should be required to justify its existence.
Side note: succession
Most of us know that if the president of the U.S. dies or is debilitated, the succession to the presidency is vice president, speaker of the House, and president pro tempore of the Senate. I did not know that after those three, the succession goes to the secretaries of the executive departments who are members of the president’s cabinet. Nor did I realize that the current order of succession is the order in which those departments were created.
Golly gee, I guess it does matter who heads cabinet-level departments! Since the secretaries aren’t elected but might someday be POTUS, someone ought to vet them.
Where this list comes from
The entries below from the 18th and 19th centuries are from Timeline 1700-1900, which I’m currently publishing (one decade a month) on Substack. The 20th- and 21st-century entries are from Timeline 1900-2021 (revision in progress). Cross-references to other entries in the Timeline are in curly brackets {like this, with date + category}. If you’re curious about the Timeline, a free sample from the 1830s is here.
Cabinet-level departments created in the 18th century
1789 (Jul. 27): Dept. of State, a cabinet-level department 1st headed by Thomas Jefferson. Responsibility: executing US foreign policy. See the Dept. of State’s website for its current bureaus and offices. George Washington’s cabinet consisted of the heads of State, Treasury, and War (now Defense), plus the attorney general (now head of Justice).
1789 (Sept. 2) Dept. of the Treasury, a cabinet-level department 1st headed by Alexander Hamilton. Responsibility: executing fiscal policy. See the Dept. of the Treasury’s website for its current bureaus and offices (click “About”).
1789 (Sept. 24) Office of the Attorney General (AG), a cabinet-level department 1st headed by Edmund Randolph. Responsibilities: enforcing federal laws, administering justice, and representing the US in cases before the Supreme Court. This office became the Dept. of Justice {7/1/1870 US}.
1789 (Sept. 29) Dept. of War, a cabinet-level department 1st headed by Henry Knox. Responsibilities: operating and maintaining the US Army. After WW2, the War and Navy Departments were merged to form the Dept. of Defense {9/18/1947 US}.
1798 (Apr. 30) Dept. of the Navy, a cabinet-level department. After WW2, it was merged with the Dept. of War to form the Dept. of Defense {9/18/1947 US}.
Cabinet-level departments created in the 19th century
1849 (Mar. 3): Department of the Interior, a cabinet-level department. It took over the General Land Office (land and resource management) from the Treasury Dept., Indian Affairs from the War Dept. {9/29/1789 US}, and the Patent Office from the State Dept. {7/27/1789 US}. Today Interior’s domain incluldes about 1/5 of the land in the US (507 million acres); programs relating to Native Americans, Hawaiians, and Alaskans; historic preservation; the National Park Service; and more. It is sometimes referred to as "the Department of Everything Else". See the Dept. of the Interior’s website for its divisions.
1862 (Mar. 2): Dept. of Agriculture, which became a cabinet-level department in 1889. In 1862, more than half of Americans still made a living from agriculture. As part of the expansion of the federal government during the Civil War {4/12/1861 US}, the USDA was created to conduct research relating to agriculture and nutrition. Today the USDA distributes subsidies to farmers, promotes climate-friendly agricultural practices and an environmental justice strategy, and issues nutrition recommendations such as the 1992 Food Pyramid, which told Americans to eat mostly carbs. See the Dept. of Agriculture’s website for its divisions.
1870 (Jul. 1): Dept. of Justice replaced the Office of the Attorney General {9/24/1789 US}, but was still headed by the AG, who remained a member of the cabinet. The DOJ is responsible for the FBI {7/26/1908 US}, the Drug Enforcement Administration {6/17/1971 US}, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshals Service, and many other agencies. Today the DOJ prosecutes cases involving antitrust, civil rights, taxes, national security, banking insurance, patents, immigration laws, environmental regulations, consumer protection laws, and much more. See the Dept. of Justice’s website for its divisions.
Cabinet-level departments created in the 20th century
1903 (Feb. 14): Dept. of Commerce and Labor. After the Civil War, the US had an industrial boom {1870s Econ}. By the late 1890s, US exports surpassed imports for the 1st time. Theodore Roosevelt {1901 POTUS} pushed Congress to create a cabinet-level department that would supervise corporations engaged in interstate commerce, apply immigration law {8/3/1882 US}, and collect information on working hours and earnings. Within 5 months, the Dept. of Commerce employed more than 10,000 people. The Dept. of Labor was split off a decade later {3/4/1913 US}. By far the most active secretary of Commerce was Herbert Hoover, who served under Harding and Coolidge {1921 & 1923 POTUS} and used the position as a stepping-stone to the White House {1929 POTUS}. Additions to the Dept. of Commerce incl. Patents and Trademarks (1925), Federal Employment Stabilization Office (1931-1939), Weather Bureau (1940), Public Roads Administration (1949-1966), Economic Development Administration (1965), Minority Business Development Agency (1969), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, 1970). See the Dept. of Commerce’s website for its divisions.
1913 (Mar. 4): Dept. of Labor, a cabinet-level department. In 1884, Congress established an agency to collect information about labor and employment. Under T. Roosevelt {1901 POTUS}, that agency was incorporated into the Dept. of Commerce and Labor {2/14/1903 US}. In 1913, after lobbying by union leaders, the Dept. of Labor became a separate department. Today its responsibilities incl. fostering the well-being of workers, job seekers, and retirees; enforcing statutes on wages and hours; improving working conditions and monitoring occupational safety and health; assuring work-related benefits and rights; and mediating labor disputes. See the Dept. of Labor’s website for its divisions.
1930 (Jul. 21): Veterans Administration. Since the Revolutionary War {4/19/1775 US}, the federal government provided benefits to those wounded and/or disabled while fighting for the US. Because World War 1 {6/28/1914 World} led to a massive increase in veterans that overwhelmed the existing system, the agencies serving veterans were consolidated in 1930 into the Veterans Administration. In 1989, the VA was renamed the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (see below).
1947 (Sept. 18): Dept. of Defense, a cabinet-level department. Based in the Pentagon, the DOD was to be responsible for the US military and national security, supervising the Army {formerly controlled by the Dept. of War, 9/29/1789 US}, the Navy {formerly the Navy Dept., 4/30/1798 US}, and the Air Force (est. 9/18/1947). Today the DOD is also responsible for the National Security Agency (NSA), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Army Corps of Engineers, and more. See the DOD’s website for its divisions (click the “About” tab). By 2022, the DOD is the 2nd-largest employer in the world, with more than 2.925 million employees (surpassed only by India's Ministry of Defence, with 2.99 employees).
1953 (Apr. 11): Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, a cabinet-level department. Responsibilities: to carry out federal policies on health, welfare, social security, and income security. Its predecessor was the Federal Security Agency, est. as part of the New Deal {1933-1938 US}, which handled public health, education, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Social Security {8/14/1935 US}. When the Dept. of Education was split off as another cabinet-level department {10/17/1979 US}, HEW became the Dept. of Health and Human Services. In 1995, the Social Security Administration was split off as a separate agency. Today HHS is responsible for the National Institutes of Health (NIH, 1887), the Food and Drug Administration {FDA, 6/30/1906 US}, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention {CDC, 7/1/1946 US}, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Administration for Children and Families, the Administration for Community Living, and many, many more agencies. See the HHS’s website for its divisions.
1965 (Sept. 9): Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, a cabinet-level department. Created as part of LBJ’s Great Society program {1965-1969 US}, HUD’s responsibilities incl. guaranteeing equal access to housing (vs. racial discrimination); financing new housing, public housing, and housing rehabilitation; insuring mortgages and defending buyers against abusive loan practices; and serving the housing needs of the elderly, minorities, the disabled, and the mentally ill. See HUD’s website for its divisions.
1967 (Apr. 1): Dept. of Transportation, a cabinet-level department. Responsibility: to ensure that federal funds are used effectively in a national transportation program. DOT agencies incl. Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Transit Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and more. See the Dept. of Transportation’s website for its divisions.
1977 (Aug. 4): Dept. of Energy, a cabinet-level department. Created in response to the oil crisis {Oct. 1973 World} and the environmentalist movement {1962 Sci/Earth}, its responsibilities are to oversee energy policy and production; to manage research and development of nuclear power; to supervise the design, testing and production of all nuclear weapons; and to promote energy conservation and alternate energy sources. See the Dept. of Energy’s website for its divisions.
1979 (Oct. 17): Dept. of Education, a cabinet-level department. It was split off from the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, which became the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Since the Constitution does not grant the federal government control of education, education remains the province of the states, per the 10th Amendment {7/21/1789 US}. However, under the Commerce and the Spending clauses of the Constitution, the federal government sets, and the Dept. of Education enforces, requirements for receiving federal financial aid, methods of collecting data on education, and consequences of allowing discrimination in education. See the Dept. of Education’s website for its divisions.
1989 (Mar. 15): Dept. of Veterans Affairs was created from the Veterans Administration {7/21/1930 US}, and became a cabinet-level department. Responsibilities incl. healthcare, pensions, education, rehabilitation, and job training for vets. See the Dept. of Veterans Affairs website for its divisions (click “About”).
Cabinet-level departments created in the 21st century
2002 (Nov. 25): Dept. of Homeland Security, a cabinet-level department. After the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon {9/11/2001 US}, DHS was created to coordinate counterterrorist efforts at all levels of government. Today it is responsible for US Customs and Border Protection, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, dealing with natural and other disasters), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Secret Service, Coast Guard, and more. See the DHS’s website for its divisions.
Graphic: members of the presidential cabinet
This graphic (higher-res image here) shows which heads of departments have been in the president’s cabinet over the past 235 years. The post above is only about executive departments. The graphic also lists other major agencies whose heads are part of the cabinet.
