What does the president's Cabinet do? By Whitehouse.gov and usembassy.gov, adapted by Newsela staff on 11.21.16 Word Count 581 Level 940L

President Barack Obama holds a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., November 23, 2009. Photo: Whitehouse.gov.

The president makes important decisions every day with the help of advisers. The advisers are called the president’s Cabinet. The Cabinet members are in charge of different departments. For example, the Department of Education adviser helps the president make decisions about education and schools.

There are about 75 days between a U.S. presidential election and the day the president takes office. In that time, 22 cabinet members, and thousands more who work to advise the president, must be chosen.

How Is The President’s Cabinet Chosen?

The Cabinet usually meets with the president every week in the Cabinet Room next to the president's Oval Office in the White House. The Secret Service has an important job to protect the president and the Cabinet. These meetings are one of the few times the Secret Service allows all of them to be in the same place at the same time.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. The president can replace Cabinet members. Many resign when a new president takes office. However, sometimes new presidents ask certain Cabinet members to stay.

Members of Congress, governors and members of the president’s family cannot be chosen. The Senate must vote to approve the Cabinet, but sometimes this may not happen quickly. Sitting Cabinet members do not have to be approved again.

What Happens To Political Appointees (Incoming And Leaving)?

Thousands of "career" leaders work for the government. Civil service people work in departments like Education, Defense or the Postal Service. Foreign Service people represent the U.S. in countries like England or China. Military service people are in the Army, Navy or other parts of the Department of Defense.

Nearly 9,000 positions in the federal government can be appointed by the president, his Cabinet, or others who work for the president. About 800 of them must be approved by the Senate.

Many of those chosen by the president and his advisers do not stay in their jobs for long. A government study has shown that these advisers only stay for about 2.5 years on average.

History Of The Cabinet

The tradition of the Cabinet dates back to the beginnings of the presidency itself. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution mentions "consuls" who could advise the president on any subject.

George Washington had four people in the first Cabinet: They were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

Today there are 15 cabinet-level executive departments and 22 Cabinet members.

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, and the attorney general.

Cabinet-level rank also has been accorded to the White House chief of staff and the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Management and Budget, Council of Economic Advisers, Small Business Administration, U.S. Mission to the United Nations and the U.S. trade representative.

The members of the Cabinet work closely with the president. They are also important in deciding who would take over if the president dies or leaves office. The vice president, speaker of the House, and Senate president pro tempore (the most senior senator in the party with a majority in the Senate) would be the first three to take over, in that order. The Cabinet offices, in the order in which the departments were created, would be next to become the president.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Quiz

1 Select the paragraph from the section "How Is The President's Cabinet Chosen?" that explains how other branches of government can influence Cabinet nominations.

2 Which section highlights the idea that the president of the United States and the people who work for him are responsible for hiring government employees?

(A) Introduction [paragraphs 1-2]

(B) "How Is The President's Cabinet Chosen?"

(C) "What Happens To Political Appointees (Incoming And Leaving)?"

(D) "History Of The Cabinet"

3 What is the summary of the section "History Of The Cabinet"?

(A) Every president since George Washington has had a Cabinet. The size of the Cabinet has grown over the years as new positions are added. Cabinet members hold a lot of power in the government.

(B) George Washington's Cabinet included Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox and Edmund Randolph. They helped Washington lead the country for his two terms.

(C) The vice president is the first person who will take over the presidency if the president dies or leaves office. Other Cabinet offices would take over after that based on the order in which their department was created.

(D) Recently, Cabinet-level rank has been added to the position of White House chief of staff and a handful of other roles. The original Cabinet roles were that of Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of War, and Attorney General.

4 Which of the following answer choices describes two MAIN ideas in the article?

(A) The members of the Cabinet change with every presidential election; there are nearly 9,000 different positions in the federal government that are chosen by the president's team.

(B) The members of the president's Cabinet are among his most important advisers; the president has the power to choose and replace Cabinet members, with Senate confirmation, while he is in office.

(C) Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the president the power to choose his Cabinet members; the president needs Senate confirmation in order to appoint Cabinet members.

(D) The role of the Cabinet member has changed since the Constitution was written; many government employees leave their positions after only a few years.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.