How Is the Federal Bureaucracy Formally Organized?

The federal bureaucracy, as a whole, is supposed to implement, administer, and regulate public policies. Many of these policies relate to social, economic, and environmental problems.

The bureaucratic system can be broken down into four categories:

Regulatory agencies
Cabinet departments
Independent executive agencies
Government corporations

Understanding what each of these four categories do is essential to understanding how the federal bureaucracy is organized.

Regulatory Agencies

Regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Interstate Commerce Commission report to the Executive branch and are responsible for making and enforcing rules that govern various areas of the economy, including transportation, utilities, advertising, banking, food additives, telecommunication and seemingly almost every area of life.
They also are in charge of judging arguments that arise about those rules. The rules they come up with are supposed to protect the public interest.

Cabinet Departments

There are 14 cabinet departments such as the State Department, each with a secretary at its head and each with its own staff and budget.
The president chooses these secretaries and then the Senate must approve the choices.
Many people work under the secretary, including undersecretaries, deputy undersecretaries, and assistant secretaries.
Each department is in charge of managing some specific area of policy.
The only department that is not headed by a secretary is the Department of Justice; the attorney general is at its head.

Independent Executive Agencies

Independent executive agencies such as the Federal Maritime Commission and the National Transportation Safety Board are in place to perform specialized functions not covered by the cabinet departments, regulatory agencies, or government corporations
These agencies are part of the executive branch and their leader and any key commissioners are selected by the president; however, they are independent of the presidential control except in proven cases of incapacity or other good cause.

Government Corporations

Government corporations such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Tennessee Valley Authority offer services that the private sector could also offer, and claim that the prices charged for these services are often cheaper than they would be if run in the private sector.
These organizations sometimes receive money from the federal budget; however, some have independent sources of revenue.

So, now you have a better idea of how the federal bureaucracy is organized and you also know what each category of federal bureau does.

Composition of the Federal Bureaucracy

Bureaucrats are not elected; rather, they are appointed by the people who are elected, or hired by the people who are appointed. The federal bureaucracy is supposed to be nonpartisan, though whether this ever actually happens is up for debate.

Federal agencies are supposed to try hard to recruit people from all backgrounds to fill these positions, but women and nonwhites are still quite a minority among bureaucrats.

Functions of the Federal Bureaucracy

Once Congress has made a decision, bureaucrats are charged with turning those decisions into actual programs. There is a great deal of controversy over the work done by federal bureaucrats (or lack of work, some may say). When creating and attempting to implement any program much can go wrong, and when something does go wrong, it is easy to point fingers and place blame.

There is no shortage of blame placed on the federal bureaucracy about its programs and purpose.