The Presidency: The Cabinet

From where are cabinet members recruited?

Unlike an incoming British prime minister, a newly elected US president does not have a 'shadow cabinet' ready and waiting to form the new administration. And, unlike in the British parliamentary system, where cabinet members are drawn from the legislature, members of the US president's cabinet cannot be currently serving members of Congress. Between 1961 and 2009, fewer than one in five cabinet officers had any previous experience in Congress. However, among Barack Obama's original fifteen heads of department in 2009, four had congressional experience, of whom three were serving members of Congress who had to resign their seats. Members of the president's cabinet will, therefore, come from diverse backgrounds. These are likely to include: 1) Congress, but these must be either former members (such as former House member Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation in the first Obama cabinet, who had just retired from the House in 2008) or those willing to resign their seats. 2) State governors (such as Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona as Secretary of Homeland Security in 2009). 3) City mayors (such as Clinton's Secretary of Transportation, Federico Peña, who had been Mayor of Denver). 4) Academics (such as Steven Chu, Obama's Secretary of Energy, who had been a professor of physics at Stanford University).

How are cabinet appointments confirmed?

All cabinet appointments have to be confirmed be a simple majority vote of the Senate. The last time the Senate rejected a president's cabinet appointee was in 1989, when they rejected John Tower, George H. W. Bush's nominee to head the Defense Department.

What are the functions of cabinet meetings?

Cabinet meetings can perform useful functions, both for the president and for cabinet members. They can enable the president to: 1) engender team spirit - especially at the beginning of his administration. 2) look collegial and consultative. 3) give information to all cabinet members. 4) glean information from cabinet members - find out what's going on in each department. 5) debate policies. 6) present 'big picture' items such as the budget, tours, campaigns and initiatives. 7) check up on legislation going through Congress in which he has an interest. 8) see cabinet members whom he would not otherwise see. For cabinet members themselves, cabinet meetings serve: 1) as get-to-know-you sessions - especially at the beginning of an administration when a number of cabinet colleagues may be total strangers. 2) to sort out inter-departmental disputes. 3) as a means of catching up with other members (before and/or after the meetings). 4) as an opportunity to see the president - whom many of them would not otherwise see. 5) to gain them prestige back at their department, with first-hand news of what the president wants.

How important is the cabinet?

Individually its members are very important, though some members are far more important than others. They run huge executive departments and spend vast budgets. But collectively, the cabinet can never be that important. There are six main reasons for this: 1) Article II of the Constitution states that, "all executive power shall be invested in a President". 2) There is no doctrine of collective responsibility. 3) The president is not 'first among equals' - he is just 'first'., As Professor Anthony King has stated: "He doesn't just sum up at the end of the meeting; he is the meeting". 4) Cabinet officers are not his political rivals; they are not about to become president. 5) They have a problem of divided loyalty as well as a lack of proximity and access to the president. 6) The president has EXOP, which is important in helping and advising him achieve his goals.

How specialised will cabinet officers be?

It is also likely that cabinet members will be policy specialists. Again, here are three such examples from the initial cabinet of President Barack Obama: 1) Timothy Geithner (Secretary of the Treasury) - President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2003-2009. 2) Arne Duncan (Secretary of Education) - CEO of Chicago Public Schools, 2001-2009. 3) Shaun Donovan (Housing and Urban Development) - New York City Housing Commissioner, 2004-2009.

What is the relationship between the cabinet and the Executive Office of the President (EXOP)?

It must be remembered that the principal job of cabinet officers is not to act as presidential advisors. There are good reasons why not: 1) They have huge departments to run. 2) They are not based in the White House. 3) They have loyalties other than those to the president. The last reason often leads to accusations of disloyalty from those whose principal function it is to act as 'all the president's men': that is, members of EXOP, which includes the White House staff. For while members must bear in mind the wishes of Congress (whose votes decide their departmental budgets) and their own departmental bureaucracy, as well as interest groups which have important links with their department. Unlike the cabinet, members of EXOP enjoy close proximity and access to the president. Presidential scholar Richard Neustadt has written: "[An incoming president] must prepare the cabinet members against the shocking discovery that most of them are not the principal advisors to the president, are not going to be, and never will be, not since the White House staff has come into mature existence".

How often does the cabinet meet?

Meetings of the president with the full cabinet tend to get a pretty bad press. Many who have attended them describe them as boring and a waste of time. Indeed, some presidents have held very few. Most presidents have held cabinet meetings only about once a month. Clinton managed only 2 or 3 a year, while at the other extreme both Carter and Reagan held 36 meetings in their first year in office. The number of meetings tends to decline as the administration wears on. There are three principal reasons for this: 1) Some of the functions of the cabinet are no longer applicable. 2) The president has increasing calls on his time, not least when he has to run for re-election. Jimmy Carter managed only six cabinet meetings in his final year in office. 3) Presidents tend to become disillusioned with their cabinet officers, often believing them to be disloyal.

Are any other factors considered when cabinet members are appointed?

Presidents are also likely to balance their cabinet in terms of geographic region, race, gender, ideology and age. Incoming President Clinton in 1993 even went so far as to talk about having a cabinet that, "looked like America". President Obama included in his first cabinet: 1) a Lebanese-American (Ray LaHood). 2) an African-American (Eric Holder). 3) a Chinese-American (Steven Chu). 4) two Japanese Americans (Eric Shinseki and Gary Locke). 5) two Hispanics (Hilda Solis and Ken Salazar). This made Obama's cabinet the most ethnically diverse ever appointed.

How did the cabinet come to be created, and who sits in it?

The president's cabinet is not mentioned in the Constitution. According to presidential scholar Richard Fenno, it is, "institutionalised by usage alone". In other words, it's used because it is used. The cabinet is an advice-giving group selected by the president to aid him in making decisions, membership of which is determined both by tradition and by presidential discretion. By tradition, it is made up of the heads of the fifteen executive departments. By presidential discretion, other can be given 'cabinet rank', such as the US ambassador to the United Nations.

What did Professor Michael Genovese say about the cabinet?

"The very nature of the cabinet - a body with no constitutional standing, members with no independent political base of their own and no requirement that the president seeks or follows this advice - helps contribute to its lack of influence as a collective body".

What is the cabinet?

The advisory group selected by the president to aid him in making decisions and coordinating the work of the federal government.