The Cabinet of the United States is a body consisting of the vice president of the United States and the heads of the executive branch's departments in the federal government of the United States. It is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The president chairs the meetings but is not formally a member of the Cabinet. The heads of departments, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, are members of the Cabinet, and acting department heads also participate in Cabinet meetings whether or not they have been officially nominated for Senate confirmation. The president may designate heads of other agencies and non-Senate-confirmed members of the Executive Office of the President as members of the Cabinet.
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Non-healthcare benefits include disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance. The VA also provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 it supervises elections for labor union representation and can investigate and remedy unfair labor practices. Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of protected concerted activity. The NLRB is governed by a five-person board and a General Counsel, all of whom are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate. Board members are appointed to five-year terms and the General Counsel is appointed to a four-year term. The General Counsel acts as a prosecutor and the Board acts as an appellate quasi-judicial body from decisions of administrative law judges.
James Phillip Hoffa is an American labor leader and attorney who was the tenth General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He is the son of Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa was first elected in 1998, and subsequently re-elected in 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 to five-year terms. In 2018, Hoffa was elected chair of the Road Transport Section of the International Transport Workers' Federation at its quadrennial Congress in Singapore. Hoffa is the second-longest serving General President of the Teamsters Union, after Dan Tobin, who served from 1907 to 1952. Hoffa's final term as General President ended in 2022.
The United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is a permanent independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency whose basic legislative authority comes from four federal statutes: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hatch Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). OSC's primary mission is the safeguarding of the merit system in federal employment by protecting employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices (PPPs), especially reprisal for "whistleblowing." The agency also operates a secure channel for federal whistleblower disclosures of violations of law, rule, or regulation; gross mismanagement; gross waste of funds; abuse of authority; and substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. In addition, OSC issues advice on the Hatch Act and enforces its restrictions on partisan political activity by government employees. Finally, OSC protects the civilian employment and reemployment rights of military service members under USERRA. OSC has around 140 staff, and the Special Counsel is an ex officio member of Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), an association of inspectors general charged with the regulation of good governance within the federal government.
Bradley Belt is an American businessman. He is the CEO of Palisades Capital and the managing director of the Milken Institute. He is vice chairman of Orchard Global Asset Management.
John Bellinger Bellinger III is an American lawyer who served as the Legal Adviser for the U.S. Department of State and the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration. He is now a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter, and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Daniel Mark Tangherlini is an American government official who currently serves as a Governor of the United States Postal Service. He served as administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration from 2012 to 2015. Unanimously approved to the post by the U.S. Senate on June 27, 2013, he had served as Acting Administrator since his appointment by President Barack Obama on April 2, 2012. He earlier served as an executive in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as City Administrator of Washington, D.C., and as interim General Manager for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Labor responsible for administering, regulating and enforcing the provisions of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). At the time of its name change in February 2003, EBSA was known as the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA). Prior to January 1986, PWBA was known as the Pension and Welfare Benefits Program.
Thomas Edward Perez is an American politician and attorney who served as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee from February 2017 until January 2021. Perez was previously Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (2009–2013) and United States Secretary of Labor (2013–2017). He was a GU Politics Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service in 2021.
Bradford P. Campbell was the Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security of the United States Department of Labor (DOL), the official in charge of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). Mr. Campbell was nominated by President George W. Bush as Assistant Secretary on May 3, 2007, and was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on August 3, 2007. He held the position until January 20, 2009. Prior to his confirmation as Assistant Secretary, Mr. Campbell had served as Acting Assistant Secretary since October 30, 2006 and as EBSA's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy since March 5, 2004.
Teresa Ghilarducci is an American scholar on labor and retirement issues. She has advocated for government to extend occupational retirement plan coverage to all workers. She published Rescuing Retirement in 2018; the book makes the case for a Guaranteed Retirement Account that would supplement Social Security. In 2016 she wrote a popular book, How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is. One of her most recent books, When I’m Sixty Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them, investigates the loss of pensions on older Americans and proposes a comprehensive system of reform. Her previous books include Labor's Capital: The Economics and Politics of Employer Pensions, winner of an Association of American Publishers award in 1992, and Portable Pension Plans for Casual Labor Markets, published in 1995. Ghilarducci is an executive board member of the Economic Policy Institute, a member of the Retirement Security Advisory Board for the Government Accountability Office, court appointed trustees for the retiree health care trusts for UAW retirees of GM, Ford, and Chrysler and the USW retirees of Goodyear Tire. Ghilarducci won an Association of American Publishers award for her book Labor's Capital: The Economics and Politics of Employer Pensions in 1992. She previously taught economics for 25 years at the University of Notre Dame.
Barack Obama assumed office as President of the United States on January 20, 2009, and his term ended on January 20, 2017. The president has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
Neal Steven Wolin is the CEO of the corporate advisory firm Brunswick Group, an equity partner of Data Collective, a board partner of Social Capital, and a limited partner advisor of Nyca Partners. He is the longest-serving Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and also served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury in early 2013.
Seth D. Harris was the 11th United States Deputy Secretary of Labor, and served for six months as the Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor and a member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet. Nominated by President Obama in February 2009, Harris was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in May 2009, and became acting Secretary of Labor following the resignation of Hilda Solis in January 2013. Harris was also a member of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation's Board of Directors. Harris stepped down from his post on January 16, 2014. After leaving the Obama Administration, Harris has been a Visiting Professor at the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs and a Distinguished Scholar at Cornell University's School of Industrial & Labor Relations, and a lawyer in Washington, D.C. Harris also served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Labor and the Economy and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council during the Biden Administration until July 2022. Harris currently serves on boards of directors, advising early stage companies, and works as a professor of the practice in law and policy at Northeastern University.
Wilma B. Liebman is an American lawyer and civil servant who is best known for serving as a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). She was designated chair of the board by President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, becoming only the second woman to lead the NLRB.
The American Benefits Council (the Council) is a national trade association based in Washington, D.C. that advocates for employer-sponsored benefit plans. The Council's members represent the private employee benefits community and either sponsor directly or provide services to retirement and health benefit plans both nationally and internationally.
Donald Cyril Lubick was an American attorney and tax policy expert. He served every Democratic President—from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama—and was the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the Department of the Treasury under both President Carter and President Clinton.
