Secretary

(noun)

The head of an executive department, who serves as an advisor to the president and a member of cabinet.

Related Terms

Examples of Secretary in the following topics:

  • A Typical Department Structure

    • Executive departments are organized with secretaries at the top of the hierarchy, followed by deputy secretaries and under secretaries.
    • Beneath the secretary, each executive department has a deputy secretary.
    • The deputy secretary advises and assists the secretary, and fills the Office of Secretary if it becomes vacant.
    • The deputy secretary is nominated by the president, just as the secretary is.
    • Most departments have several under secretaries, who preside over specific branches of the organization rather than being accountable for the functioning of the entire department, as the secretary and deputy secretary are.

  • Cabinet Departments

    • Beneath the secretary, each executive department has a deputy secretary.
    • The deputy secretary advises and assists the secretary, and fills the Office of Secretary if it becomes vacant.
    • The deputy secretary is nominated by the president, just as the secretary is.
    • Most departments have several under secretaries, who preside over specific branches of the organization rather than being accountable for the functioning of the entire department, as the secretary and deputy secretary are.
    • George Washington thus began the practice of having a formal cabinet of advisors when he appointed Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

  • The Cabinet

    • The secretary of state and secretary of defense play key roles in assisting the president with foreign policy.
    • This includes the secretary of state and the secretary of defense.
    • The Secretary is a member of the cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence.
    • Secretary of Defense is a statutory office.
    • Compare and contrast the roles of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense in U.S. foreign policy

  • The Executive Departments

    • The Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing international diplomacy.
    • The current Secretary of State, appointed by President Barack Obama, is Hillary Clinton.
    • Executive departments are internally led by secretaries, who are also members of the president's Cabinet.
    • These secretaries, or Cabinet members, are the most senior appointed officials in the executive branch of the United States government.
    • The Secretary of State is the highest ranking executive department office, and is currently held by Hillary Clinton.

  • The Cabinet

    • Hillary Rodham Clinton assumed the office of Secretary of State on January 21, 2009.
    • The Secretary of the Treasury is reviewed by the Senate Finance Committee.
    • Jack Lew is Secretary of the Treasury.
    • Ashton Carter is Secretary of Defense.
    • Holder, Jr., Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

  • United States in the World

    • The current Secretary of State is John Kerry.
    • The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
    • Having been nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and then confirmed by the U.S.
    • Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with British Foreign Secretary William Hague
    • Secretary Clinton met with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the Treaty Room at the Department of State, May 14, 2010

  • Obama vs. the Lobbyists?

    • Lynn III, a lobbyist for Raytheon, to hold the position of Deputy Secretary of Defense; to Jocelyn Frye, former general counsel at the National Partnership for Women and Families, to serve as Director of Policy and Projects in the Office of the First Lady; and to Cecilia Muñoz, former senior vice president for the National Council of La Raza, to serve as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Executive Office of the President.
    • Lobbyists in the administration include William Corr, an anti-tobacco lobbyist, as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services and Tom Vilsack, who lobbied in 2007, for a national teachers union, as Secretary of Agriculture.
    • Also, the Secretary of Labor nominee, Hilda Solis, formerly served as a board member of American Rights at Work, which lobbied Congress on two bills Solis co-sponsored, and Mark Patterson, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's chief of staff, is a former lobbyist for Goldman Sachs.

  • The Executive Office of the President

    • The Executive Office of the President is comprised of a Chief of Staff, Counsel, Press Secretary, and other members assisting the President of the United States.
    • The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the administration.
    • The Press Secretary is responsible for collecting information about actions and events within the president's administration and issues statements regarding the administration's reactions to developments around the world.
    • The Press Secretary interacts with the media and deals with the White House press corps on a daily basis, generally in a daily press briefing.
    • The current Press Secretary is Josh Earnest since 2014.

  • Commander-in-Chief

    • Since 1949, the Secretary of Defense, a civil officer appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is by statute second in command over those armed forces which are part of the Department of Defense: the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Marine Corps.
    • The operational branch of the chain of command runs from the President to the Secretary of Defense, and from the Secretary of Defense down to the combatant commanders of the unified combatant commands.
    • The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. chief of defense equivalent, may assist the President and Secretary of Defense in the exercise of their command functions, but the Chairman himself does not independently exercise command over any combatant forces.

  • Foreign Policy

    • Secretary of State is analogous to the foreign minister of other nations and is the official charged with state-to-state diplomacy, although the president has ultimate authority over foreign policy.
    • Secretary of State is John Kerry.
    • Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discusses agriculture and environmental issues in Kenya.
    • The Secretary of State is a primary leader in determining U.S. foreign policy.