Politics
Study Notes
Federal Agencies
- Level:
- A Level
- Board:
- AQA, Edexcel, OCR, IB
Last updated 22 Mar 2021
There is no agreed upon definition of a federal agency. For the most part a federal agency can be assumed to be an Executive Department which has a secretary who sits in the US Cabinet. Each executive department will have numerous sub agencies within it that could also be classed as federal agencies.
The main executive federal agencies are as follows:
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Commerce
- Department of Defence
- Department of Education
- Department of Energy
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Department of the Interior
- Department of Justice
- Department of Labour
- Department of State
- Department of Transportation
- Department of the Treasury
- Department of Veterans Affairs
There are a numerous sub agencies based within the executive departments which can also be defined as federal agencies. Some of these include
- Food and Drug Administration (Health and Human Services)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (Justice)
- Federal Aviation Administration (Transport)
Federal Agencies can be found in other areas of the US Government, including the Legislative Branch and Judicial Branch. Examples of these include:
- Architect of the Capitol (Legislative)
- Library of Congress (Legislative)
- United States Capitol Police (Legislative)
- United States Sentencing Commission (Judicial)
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