The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966 and began operation on April 1, 1967. It is administered by the United States Secretary of Transportation. Their current mission statement is, ""The mission of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is to ensure our Nation has the safest, most efficient and modern transportation system in the world, which improves the quality of life for all American people and communities, from rural to urban, and increases the productivity and competitiveness of American workers and businesses.""""
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Office, was the department of the United States government's executive branch responsible for the operation and maintenance of land (and later air) forces from 1789 until September 18, 1947, when it became part of the National Military Establishment, renamed on August 10, 1949 the Department of Defense. The War Department also had responsibility for the young nation's naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798.
United States Department of Commerce and Labor
The United States Department of Commerce and Labor was a Cabinet department of the United States government.
The department was created on February 14, 1903. Later, on March 4, 1913 the name changed to the Department of Commerce. Then, its bureaus and agencies specializing in labor moved to the new Department of Labor.
The department was administered by the United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
The United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (also known as HEW) was a cabinet-level department of the United States government from 1953 until 1979. It was administered by the United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. In 1979, a separate Department of Education (ED) was created from this department, and HEW was renamed as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
President Warren G. Harding proposed a Department of Education and Welfare as early as 1923, and similar proposals were also recommended by subsequent presidents, but for various reasons was not implemented. It was only enacted as part of "Reorganization Plan Number 1 of 1953", transmitted to Congress by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on March 12, 1953. HEW ran a Community Public Health Program, which was famous for its grants to cities like Chicago for rat control. It ran a Solid Waste program focused on municipal waste issues, like how to build sanitary landfills rather than dumps. It also had a radiation program under which it wrote standards on things like microwave ovens. When the EPA was created in 1970, it assumed a number of HEW’s programs that related to environmental protection, including its pesticides program and half of its radiation program.
To date, this was the only department of the U.S. government to be created through presidential reorganization authority, in which the president is allowed to create or reorganize bureaucracies as long as neither house of Congress passed a legislative veto. This power to create new departments was removed after 1962, but in the early 1980s, the Supreme Court declared legislative vetoes unconstitutional.
United States Post Office Department
The Post Office Department is the former name of the United States Postal Service when it was a Cabinet department. It was headed by the United States Postmaster General.
The Postal Service Act signed by President George Washington on February 20, 1792 established the Department. Postmaster General John McLean was the first to call it the Post Office "Department" rather than just the "Post Office." The organization became more important in the government when President Andrew Jackson asked his Postmaster General, William T. Barry, to sit as a member of the Cabinet.
During the Civil War, postal services in the Confederacy were provided by the Confederate States of America Post Office Department, headed by Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan.
The Postal Reorganization Act signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970, replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service. The Act took effect on July 1, 1971.
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education (also referred to as ED, for Education Department) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. Created by the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88), it was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 17, 1979 and began operating on May 4, 1980.
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing, often abbreviated HUD, is a Cabinet department of the United States federal government. Although its beginnings were in the House and Home Financing Agency, it was founded in 1965 to develop and execute policy on housing and cities. It has largely scaled back its urban development function and now focuses primarily on housing.
The department was established on September 9, 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act into law. It stipulated that the department was to be created no later than November 8, 60 days following the date of enactment. The actual implementation was postponed until January 13, 1966, following the completion of a special study group report on the federal role in solving urban problems.
HUD is administered by the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The former administrator of the US Small Business Association, Steve Preston, was nominated to the Position of Secretary of HUD by President Bush on April 18, 2008. He was confirmed by the Senate and his public swearing in ceremony was on June 6, 2008.
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is responsible for administering programs of veterans’ benefits for veterans, their families, and survivors. The benefits provided include disability compensation, pension, education, home loans, life insurance, vocational rehabilitation, survivors’ benefits, medical benefits and burial benefits.
It is administered by the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Particle accelerator
A particle accelerator, also called an atom smasher, is a machine that accelerates (speeds up) particles and makes them travel at very high speeds. Accelerators work by pushing particles like electrons, protons, or atomic nuclei (the centers of atoms) with electric fields and by steering them with magnetic fields. Their main use is to study particle physics.
The largest accelerators are used to study particles smaller than atoms; smaller accelerators are used to study atomic nuclei and make radioactive materials. There are two kinds of particle accelerators: linear accelerators and circular accelerators. Linear accelerators move the particles in a line, while circular accelerators move the particles in a circle. One example of a particle accelerator is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It is very big, stretching through two countries. Another example is the Tevatron in the United States. The cathode ray tube, used in 20th century televisions and computer monitors is also a simple accelerator for electrons.