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We will examine the boards and commissions of the federal government that exert an influence on our economy.

Please approach our discussion of these boards and commissions from the social science prospective. How do these controls affect the daily lives of the American citizens?

The Executive Departments

Much of the work of the federal government is done by the 13 executive departments. They are the traditional units of federal administration, and each of them is built around a broad field of activity.

All of these departments make up the President's cabinet. These departments and the year they were created are as follows:

State, 1789

Treasury, 1789,

Defense, (originally called the War Department) 1789,

Justice, (originally called the Attorney General), 1789,

Interior, 1849,

Agriculture, 1889,

Commerce, 1903,

Labor, 1913,

Health and Human Services, 1953,

Housing and Urban Development, 1965,

Transportation, 1967,

Energy, 1977,

Education, 1979,

Veterans Affairs, 1988

Look at the titles of these departments.

Now think like a social scientist.

What were the social problems that led to the creation of these departments?

Let's take a look at the economic duties of each department.

The Department of Labor

Employment and Training Administration.

Through the United States Employment Service, the federal government assists the states in the operation of a system of local employment offices for unemployed workers.

Employment Standards Administration

Enforces minimum wage and maximum hours laws, enforces laws prohibiting discrimination in employment on all federal or federally-supported construction projects.

Labor-Management Services Administration

Administers laws guaranteeing the reemployment rights of veterans; enforces federal laws regulating the operations of private pension and welfare plans; acts as an advisory agency to help in the collective bargaining process.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Enforces federal laws setting minimum safety and health standards in most work situations.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration enforces federal laws, setting minimum safety and health standards for mining operations.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects, analyzes, and publishes data on employment, unemployment, hours of work, wages, and prices.

Department of Health and Human Services

Office of Human Development Services - Makes grants and gives other support to state and local programs to provide social services to older and handicapped persons.

Public Health Service - Conducts research and treatment programs for the prevention and control of communicable diseases.

Social Security Administration

Administers several major elements of the social security programs especially to persons covered under the program when they retire, become permanently disabled, or to their dependents or survivors.

Health Care Financing Administration - Administers two other major elements of the Social Security program.

(1) Medicare, a health insurance program for most elderly persons.

2. Medicaid, a federal grant program that helps the estates to pay the hospital, medical, and other health care bills of the poor.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Assistant Secretary for Community Planning an Development - Administers several grant programs to aid state and local governments efforts to improve housing conditions in urban areas (example, water, sewer, slum clearance projects).

Assistant Secretary for Housing (Federal Housing Commissioner),

Administers several programs, including:

1. mortgage insurance programs -- in which the government guarantees loans made by private lenders (mortgages) for the purchase of private housing (mostly single-family residences and such multi-family units as apartment houses and condominiums).
2. loan programs -- to help both public and private borrowers finance housing projects for the elderly and the handicapped.
3. The Rent Supplement Program -- in which Housing and Urban Development pays a portion of the monthly rents of low-income families.

United States Coast Guard

Enforces federal maritime laws (laws relating to the high seas) and the navigable waters of the United States.

These laws involve smuggling, ship safety, port security, and spillage, pollution, and other marine environmental protection statutes); maintains ships and other vessels, aircraft, and communication facilities, especially for search and rescue operations.

Federal Aviation Administration

Enforces federal laws regulating air commerce (including aircraft safety, pilot licensing, and air traffic).

Federal Highway Administration

Administers several grant programs to aid state and local construction, maintenance of highways, and other roads (including the 42,500 mile interstate freeway system).

Federal Railroad Administration - Enforces federal rail safety laws; gives financial and other aid to certain railroads (especially those in financial difficulty); conducts research on most phases of rail transportation; operates the 482 mile Alaska Railroad.

Urban Mass Transportation Administration - Administers several grant and loan programs to help state and local governments develop and operate bus, rail, and other mass transit systems in urban areas; conducts research covering most phases of urban mass transportation.

Department of Energy

Assistant Secretary, Fossil Energy - Directs research and development programs involving fossil fuels--coal, petroleum, and gas.

Directs research and development programs involving fission energy and projects relating to the disposal of commercial nuclear reactor wastes.

Assistant Secretary, Conservation and Renewable Energy

Directs research and development programs that are designed to promote more efficient uses (conservation) of energy and to increase the production and use of solar, wind, tidal, and other energy from renewable sources.

This agency also makes grants to support state, local efforts in those areas.

Office of Radioactive Waste Management - Conducts research, manages federal programs for the storage and disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.

Economic Regulatory Administration - Enforces laws regulating aspects of energy production including laws regulating drilling on leased federal lands, placing controls on fossil fuel exports, requiring increased industrial use of coal in place of oil and natural gas.

Department of Education

Administers several grant and other programs to support and expand state, local efforts in the fields of vocational training and adult education.

The Independent Regulatory Commissions

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) - established, 1881;

(7 members, 7 year term)

Licenses, fixes rates, regulates other aspects of commercial transportation by railroad, high-way, domestic waterway.

Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, established 1912;

(7 members, 14 year term)

Supervises banking systems, practices; regulates money supply, use of credit in economy. Also called the Fed.

The Independent Regulatory Commissions

Federal Trade Commission (FTC), established, 1914;

(5 members, 7 year term) - Enforces antitrust and other laws prohibiting unfair competition, price-fixing, false advertising, and other unfair business practices.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), established, 1934;

(5 members, 5 year term) - Regulates securities and other financial markets and investments.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC), established, 1934

(7 members, 7 year term) - Licenses, regulates all radio and TV stations, operators, all satellite communications systems and regulates interstate telephone, telegraph rates, services.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), established, 1935;

(5 members, 5 year term) - Administers federal labor-management relation laws; holds collective bargaining elections and prevents, remedies unfair labor practices.

Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), established, 1936;

(5 members, 5 year term) - Regulates waterborne foreign, domestic off-shore commerce, of the United States; supervises rates, services.

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), established,1972; (5 members, 5 year term) - Sets, enforces safety standards for consumer products; directs recall of unsafe products; conducts safety research, information programs.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), est., 1974 (5 members, 5 year term) - Licenses, regulates all civilian nuclear facilities, all civilian uses of nuclear materials.

Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), established, 1974 (5 members, 5 year term) - Regulates commodity exchanges, brokers, futures trading in agricultural, metal, other commodities.

Federal Energy Regulatory commission (FERC), established, 1977; (5 members, 4 year term) - Regulates, fixes rates for transportation, sale of natural gas, transportation of oil by pipeline, interstate transmission, sale of electricity.

The Executive Office of the President

The Executive Office of the President is the right arm of the President.

It is an umbrella agency, a complex of several separate offices, staffed by most of the President's closest advisers and assistants. The Executive Office was created by Congress in 1939 and has been reorganized in every administration.

There are three executive offices that we will examine as part of our study of the role of the government in economics.

The Office of Management and Budget

The OMB is the largest, and after the White House Office, the most influential unit in the Executive Office.

It directs the preparation of the federal budget, which the President must submit to Congress in January each year.

The budget-making function is far more than a routine bookkeeping chore.

It is, in a very real sense, the preparation of an annual statement of the public policies of the United States - put into dollar terms.

The federal budget is, at base, a financial document.

It is a very detailed estimate of receipts and expenditures, an anticipation of federal income and outgo during the next fiscal year.

More than that, the budget is also a plan, a carefully drawn, closely detailed work plan for the conduct of government and the execution of public policy.

A fiscal year is the 12 month period used by a government for its record-keeping, budgeting, revenue-collection and other financial management purposes.

The federal government's fiscal year now runs from October 1 through the following September 30.

The Executive Office of the President

Three of the country's leading economists, chosen by the President with the consent of the Senate, make up the Council of Economic Advisers.

The Council of Economic Advisers also helps the President prepare the annual Economic Report to Congress.

That report, together with a presidential message, goes to Capitol Hill in late January or early February each year.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative advises the Chief Executive in all matters of foreign trade.

The Trade Representative, appointed by the President and Senate, carries the rank of ambassador and represents the President in foreign trade negotiations.

This concludes this lesson on the regulatory role of the federal government.

We will continue our discussion of the taxing powers of the federal government in lesson 21.