Monday, February 15, 2010

President's Day 2010

Today is the observation of President's Day.  Technically, President's Day falls on Washington's birthday (Feb 22nd), but the federal government chooses to observe it on the Monday between Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday (Feb 12th).  The thinking is that it allows all states to celebrate all Presidents, not just Washington.

So, I thought I'd take a look at who our President chooses to surround himself with.  That would be the Cabinet, and associated Cabinet-level staff members.

The Cabinet, in the order of succession to the President, is:

  • Vice President (Joe Biden)
  • Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton)
  • Secretary of Treasury (Tim Geithner)
  • Secretary of Defense (Bob Gates)
  • Secretary of Justice (Atty Gen. Eric Holder)
  • Secretary of Interior (Ken Salazar)
  • Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack)
  • Secretary of Commerce (Gary Locke)
  • Secretary of Labor (Hilda Solis)
  • Secretary of Health and Human Services (Kathleen Sebelius)
  • Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Shaun Donovan)
  • Secretary of Transportation (Ray LaHood)
  • Secretary of Energy (Steven Chu)
  • Secretary of Education (Arne Duncan)
  • Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Eric Shinseki)
  • Secretary of Homeland Security (Janet Napolitano)

Other positions have cabinet-level rankings:

  • White House Chief of Staff (Rahm Emanuel)
  • Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (Lisa Jackson)
  • Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Peter Orszag)
  • US Trade Representative (Ronald Kirk)
  • US Ambassador to the UN (Susan Rice)
  • Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (Christina Romer)


I thought it was interesting to note that the constitution (Article 2, Section 2) doesn't explicitly call out the existence of a Cabinet, although it makes a general reference to "principal Officers of the executive Departments" and "Heads of the Departments."

What will be the subject of a later post (kinda busy, gotta run) will be the question, "Are these the right set of advisers to help run and manage the country in the 21st century?  And how does that compare to how other large corporations and other entities are organized?"  I'd also like to jot down in what year each of those departments was established.  It's a subject for a later post because I've got to run.

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