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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) supports agricultural production to ensure fair prices and stable markets for producers and consumers, works to improve and maintain farm income, and helps to develop and expand markets abroad for agricultural products. The department attempts to curb poverty, hunger, and malnutrition by issuing food stamps to the poor; by sponsoring educational programs on nutrition; and by administering other food assistance programs, primarily for children, expectant mothers, and the elderly. It maintains production capacity by helping landowners protect the soil, water, forests, and other natural resources.
USDA administers rural development, credit, and conservation programs that are designed to implement national growth policies, and it conducts scientific and technological research in all areas of agriculture. Through its inspection and grading services, USDA ensures standards of quality in food offered for sale. The department's Agricultural Research Service works to develop solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority, and it administers the National Agricultural Library to disseminate information to a wide cross-section of users, from research scientists to the general public.
The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) serves as an export promotion and service agency for U.S. agriculture, employing specialists abroad who make surveys of foreign agriculture for U.S. farm and business interests. The U.S. Forest Service, also part of the department, administers an extensive network of national forests and wilderness areas.
The US Forest Service manages vast areas of forest lands in the United States, as a 'multi-use' system. This means that it strives to balance between the various demands such as logging companies, recreational users, nature lovers, hikers, campers, conservationists, offroad drivers, and so forth and so on. This is in contrast to the Park Service, at Interior, which emphasizes conservation.
The United States Department of Commerce serves to promote the nation's international trade, economic growth, and technological advancement. It offers assistance and information to increase U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace; administers programs to create new jobs and to foster the growth of minority-owned businesses; and provides statistical, economic, and demographic information for business and government planners.
Headquartered in The Pentagon, one of the world's largest office buildings, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is responsible for all matters relating to the nation's military security. It provides the military forces of the United States, which consist of about 1 million men and women on active duty. They are backed, in case of emergency, by 1.5 million members of state reserve components, known as the National Guard. In addition, about 730,000 civilian employees serve in the Defense Department in such areas as research, intelligence communications, mapping, and international security affairs. The National Security Agency, which coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized intelligence activities in support of U.S. government activities, also comes under the direction of the secretary of defense.
The department directs the separately organized military departments of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force, as well as the four military service academies and the National War College, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several specialized combat commands. DoD maintains forces overseas to meet treaty commitments, to protect the nation's outlying territories and commerce, and to provide air combat and support forces. Nonmilitary responsibilities include flood control, development of oceanographic resources, and management of oil reserves.
Was formed in 1947 following the National Security Act of 1947 which consolidated the War Department, Navy Department and the newly formed Air Force Department into a single unified Department of Defense.
While schools are primarily a local responsibility in the U.S. system of education, the United States Department of Education provides national leadership to address critical issues in American education and serves as a clearinghouse of information to help state and local decisionmakers improve their schools. The department establishes policy for and administers federal aid-to-education programs, including student loan programs, programs for disadvantaged and disabled students, and vocational programs.
In the 1990s, the Department of Education focused on the following issues: raising standards for all students; improving teaching; involving parents and families in children's education; making schools safe, disciplined, and drug-free; strengthening connections between school and work; increasing access to financial aid for students to attend college and receive training; and helping all students become technologically literate.
Growing concern with the nation's energy problems in the 1970s prompted Congress to create the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The department took over the functions of several government agencies already engaged in the energy field. Staff offices within DOE are responsible for the research, development, and demonstration of energy technology; energy conservation; civilian and military use of nuclear energy; regulation of energy production and use; pricing and allocation of oil; and a central energy data collection and analysis program.
The Department of Energy protects the nation's environment by setting standards to minimize the harmful effects of energy production. For example, DOE conducts environmental and health related research, such as studies of energy-related pollutants and their effects on biological systems.
The DOE is also responsible for running the National Laboratories.
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