Not every federal agency belongs to a Cabinet department. Congress has created dozens of agencies that report directly to the President or that are deliberately insulated from him, usually to give expertise, stability, or bipartisan balance to sensitive areas such as financial markets, elections, and broadcasting. Where an agency sits on the organization chart determines who leads it, how they can be removed, and how much control the President has.
This guide sorts federal agencies into four types, explains what makes each distinct, and follows the long legal fight over the President's power to remove agency leaders.
Departments are large, multipurpose organizations. Each contains many agencies, such as the FAA within Transportation or the TSA within Homeland Security, that are not independent even though they have their own identities. Department heads and their deputies are confirmed by the Senate, sit in the Cabinet, and can be fired by the President at any time. Defense and Veterans Affairs employ the most civilians, and Education one of the fewest.
Beginning with the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887, Congress created commissions to regulate industries with expert, bipartisan boards. Members serve fixed, staggered terms, no more than a bare majority may come from one party, and statutes traditionally allowed removal only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance. The SEC, FTC, FCC, NLRB, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Federal Election Commission follow this model, and the Federal Reserve Board has the strongest independence of all.
In Myers v. United States in 1926, the Supreme Court held that the President may fire executive officers at will, but in Humphrey's Executor v. United States in 1935 it upheld for-cause protection for FTC commissioners. Morrison v. Olson in 1988 allowed protection for an independent counsel. More recently, Seila Law v. CFPB in 2020 struck down protection for a single agency director. In 2025 the President removed members of the FTC, NLRB, and other boards, and the Court allowed most removals and then, on June 29, 2026, overruled Humphrey's Executor in Trump v. Slaughter, while treating the Federal Reserve as a special case in Trump v. Cook. Supporters of presidential control cite democratic accountability under the unitary executive theory, while defenders of independence say expert agencies need protection from political pressure.
An executive department is one of the fifteen cabinet-level organizations created by Congress, each led by a secretary in the line of succession. Everything else in the executive branch, from the Central Intelligence Agency to the Federal Reserve, is an independent agency or establishment, created by statute outside any department. Independent agencies range from those firmly under presidential control to those designed to operate at arm's length, and the Executive Office of the President, which includes the Office of Management and Budget, coordinates them all.
Many independent agencies look like small departments led by a single head who serves at the President's pleasure. NASA, the EPA, the CIA, the Small Business Administration, the General Services Administration, and the Office of Personnel Management are examples. Congress placed them outside departments to give their missions visibility or focus, and some agency heads, such as the EPA administrator, are often given cabinet-level rank even though their agencies are not departments.
Government corporations carry out commercial activities that bring in revenue. The Postal Service is funded almost entirely by postage, Amtrak runs passenger rail with fares and federal subsidies, the Tennessee Valley Authority sells electricity, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures bank deposits with premiums paid by banks. They have boards, more budget flexibility, and in some cases their own personnel systems, though Congress and the President still appoint their leaders.
See the Cabinet in detail in the fifteen Cabinet departments, explore the commissions in the regulatory commissions, or step back to the administrative state explained.