The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the professional head of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office held by an admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the secretary of the Navy. In a separate capacity as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CNO is a military adviser to the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, the secretary of defense, and the president. The current chief of naval operations is Admiral Michael M. Gilday.
The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The EOP consists of several offices and agencies, such as the White House Office, the National Security Council, and the Office of Management and Budget.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, policies, and procedures to see whether they comply with the president's policies and coordinates inter-agency policy initiatives.
The National Security Act of 1947 was a law enacting major restructuring of the United States government's military and intelligence agencies following World War II. The majority of the provisions of the act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first secretary of defense.
The federal government of the United States is the common government of the United States, a federal republic in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a federal district, five major self-governing territories and several island possessions. The federal government, sometimes simply referred to as Washington, is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U.S. Constitution in the Congress, the president and the federal courts, respectively. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts inferior to the Supreme Court.
The secretary of the Air Force, sometimes referred to as the secretary of the Department of the Air Force, is the head of the Department of the Air Force and the service secretary for the United States Air Force and United States Space Force. The secretary of the Air Force is a civilian appointed by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The secretary reports to the secretary of defense and/or the deputy secretary of defense, and is by statute responsible for and has the authority to conduct all the affairs of the Department of the Air Force.
The Goldwater–Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of October 4, 1986Pub.L. 99–433,, made the most sweeping changes to the United States Department of Defense since the department was established in the National Security Act of 1947 by reworking the command structure of the U.S. military. It increased the powers of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and implemented some of the suggestions from the Packard Commission, commissioned by President Reagan in 1985. Among other changes, Goldwater–Nichols streamlined the military chain of command, which now runs from the president through the secretary of defense directly to combatant commanders, bypassing the service chiefs. The service chiefs were assigned to an advisory role to the president and the secretary of defense, and given the responsibility for training and equipping personnel for the unified combatant commands.
Congressional staff are employees of the United States Congress or individual members of Congress.
The United States Department of the Navy (DoN) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. It was established by an Act of Congress on 30 April 1798, at the urging of Secretary of War James McHenry, to provide a government organizational structure to the United States Navy (USN); since 1834, it has exercised jurisdiction over the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) and, during wartime, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), though each remains an independent service branch. It is led by the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), a statutory civilian officer.
The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the U.S. The Department of the Army is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is organized, and it is led by the secretary of the Army, who has statutory authority under 10 United States Code § 3013 to conduct its affairs and to prescribe regulations for its government, subject to the limits of the law, and the directions of the secretary of defense and the president.
The Bureau of Legislative Affairs is the office of the United States Department of State that coordinates legislative activity for the Department of State and advises the Secretary, the Deputy, as well as the under secretaries and assistant secretaries on legislative strategy. The bureau facilitates effective communication between State Department officials and the Members of Congress and their staffs. The bureau works closely with authorizing, appropriations, and oversight committees of the House and Senate, as well as with individual members that have an interest in State Department or foreign policy issues. The bureau manages department testimony before House and Senate hearings, organizes member and staff briefings, and facilitates Congressional travel to overseas posts for members and staff throughout the year. The bureau reviews proposed legislation and coordinates Statements of Administration Policy on legislation affecting the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. The bureau staff advises individual bureaus of the department on legislative and outreach strategies and coordinates those strategies with the secretary's priorities.
The Defence Strategic Policy and Intelligence Group (SP&I) of the Australian Government Department of Defence is responsible for defence diplomacy, strategic policy, international security, and military intelligence co-ordination and advice to the Prime Minister of Australia, Minister for Defence, Secretary of the Department of Defence, and Chief of the Defence Force. The Defence Strategic Policy and Intelligence Group is led by the Deputy Secretary for Strategic Policy and Intelligence and comprises three policy divisions and two intelligence agencies.
Congressional oversight is oversight by the United States Congress over the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies. Congressional oversight includes the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation. Congress exercises this power largely through its congressional committee system. Oversight also occurs in a wide variety of congressional activities and contexts. These include authorization, appropriations, investigative, and legislative hearings by standing committees; which is specialized investigations by select committees; and reviews and studies by congressional support agencies and staff.
The Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) is an advisory committee established by the United States Congress with the official mandate of promoting the fullest possible public access to a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and activities. The Board is composed of nine individuals: five appointed by the President of the United States and one each appointed by the Speaker of the House, House Minority Leader, Senate Majority Leader, and Senate Minority Leader. Appointees must be U.S. citizens preeminent in the fields of history, national security, foreign policy, intelligence policy, social science, law, or archives.
United States Security Assistance Organizations (SAOs) are Federal Government of the United States military and civilian personnel stationed in foreign countries to manage security assistance and other military programs. SAOs are closest to these programs' operation and have the closest contact with host-country militaries.
The White House staff position of liaison to the American Jewish community is a role charged with serving as a presidential administration's voice to the community and gathering the community's consensus viewpoint on issues affecting it for the benefit of White House policymakers. It has existed at least as early as the Carter Administration.
John Stewart Bragdon, was a major general in the United States Army. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and earned a B.S. from the United States Military Academy in 1915. In 1919 he graduated from the United States Engineering School and went on to earn a M.S. from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1923.
Colonel John Joseph "Jay" McNulty, III was Chief of the House Liaison Division of the Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison U.S. Secretary of the Army at The Pentagon. Prior to closing his 29 years of service in the U.S. Army by serving, finally, in this sensitive position, Col. Jay McNulty was both an Army Vietnam War mechanized cavalry combat commander serving first with the 11th Armored Cavalry Division and, later, with the 1st Cavalry Regiment (Blackhawks), and, also, in peacetime, an Army commander of the 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Ft. Bliss, Texas. McNulty was a 1981 centennial class graduate of the United States Army Command and General Staff College.
Robert Scurlark Moore was a major general in the United States Army Finance Corps who served as a military liaison officer to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees for nearly three decades. When the Army refused to make him a general officer, Congress twice used appropriations bills to promote him anyway.
