Executive mail

As a schoolchild, I learned (along with all of my peers) that the government was divided into three branches, to wit:  the Judicial Branch (the courts), the Legislative Branch (the House/Senate), and the Executive Branch (the President).

But of course, the government consists of a great many other groups and organizations-- the FBI, the Army, the EPA, the FDA, and so on.  I never really thought about it (which is why this is a perfect subject for this blog), but if I did I guess I would have assumed that they weren't really part of the tripartite structure.  Maybe the Armed Forces and the Feds were part of the Executive Branch?  That would make sense, since the President is also the Commander in Chief.  But the rest?  Who knows!

It turns out that pretty much all of the random government agencies are also part of the Executive Branch, which technically encompasses the President at the top, the Vice President below him, and then the Cabinet. And through the Cabinet, the 15 Executive Departments-- the Dept. of Defense, for example (Armed Forces), or the Dept. of Agriculture (U.S. Forest Service), etc.

Interestingly, the Postal Service (information about which started this line of thought), while technically a part of the Executive Branch, has a separate life.  The Postmaster General was in fact a member of Cabinet until 1971, at which point the US Postal Service was designated an independent agency of the executive branch.  This also removed the Postmaster from the line of succession.  He and his deputy now serve as part of a Board of Governors, who are otherwise appointed by the President.  They just sort of hang out on the side, doing their own thing, probably wishing they could peek into the Cabinet meetings.