Title: Executive Branch legal definition of Executive Branch
Headings: Executive Branch
Executive Branch
Executive Branch
The Executive Branch and the Constitution
Divisions of the Executive Branch
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Content: the benefit of this move was that crucial management functions could be performed by staff working directly under the president, completing the routine tasks necessary for the government to function. Though the specific elements of the EOP have changed since Roosevelt's presidency, the Brownlow report laid the foundations for the basic administrative structure that allows presidents to manage the numerous and diverse parts of the executive branch. The Cabinet and Executive Departments The cabinet consists of the president, the vice president, the heads of the 15 executive departments, and any other government officials the president wishes to include, such as the head of the OMB or the head of the NSC. In theory, cabinet members serve as expert advisers to the president, but in practice they more often operate as advocates for their departments and are seldom involved in actual presidential decision making. The Constitution makes no specific reference to a president's cabinet; rather, the cabinet is an institution that has evolved over the years. The first executive departments (the Departments of State, War, and the Treasury) were created in 1789 by Washington, who frequently held conferences with their heads (Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Alexander Hamilton, respectively). By 1793, James Madison was using the term cabinet to refer to these conferences. The name and the institution took