What Are the Three Branches of US Government

The United States has three branches of government: the executive, the legislative and the judicial. Each of these branches has a distinct and essential role in the function of the government, and they were established in Articles 1 (legislative), 2 (executive) and 3 (judicial) of the U.S. Constitution. The Executive Branch The executive branch consists of the president, vice president and 15 Cabinet-level departments such as State, Defense, Interior, Transportation, and Education. The primary power of the executive branch rests with the president, who chooses his vice president, and his Cabinet members who head the respective departments. A crucial function of the executive branch is to ensure that laws are carried out and enforced to facilitate such day-to-day responsibilities of the federal government as collecting taxes, safeguarding the homeland and representing the United States political and economic interests around the world. The President The president leads American people and the federal government. He or she also acts as the head of state, and as Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is responsible for formulating the nation’s foreign and domestic policy and for developing the annual federal operating budget with the approval of Congress. The president is freely elected by the people through the Electoral College system. The president serves a four-year term in office and can be elected no more than twice. The Vice President The vice president assists and advises the president, and must be ready at all times to assume the presidency in the event of the president’s death, resignation, or temporary incapacitation. The Vice President also serves as the President of the United States Senate, where he or she casts the deciding vote in the case of a tie. The vice president is elected along with the president as a â€Å"running mate† and can be elected and serve an unlimited number of four-year under multiple presidents. The Cabinet The President’s Cabinet serves as advisors to the president. They include the vice president, the heads of the 15 executive departments, and other high-ranking government officials. Each Cabinet member also holds a spot in the presidential line of succession. After the Vice President, Speaker of the House, and President pro tempore of the Senate, the line of succession continues with the Cabinet offices in the order in which the departments were created. With the exception of the vice president, Cabinet members are nominated by the president and must be approved by a simple majority of the Senate. The Legislative Branch The legislative branch consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives, collectively known as the Congress. There are 100 senators; each state has two. Each state has a different number of representatives, with the number determined by the states population, through a process known as apportionment. At present, there are 435 members of the House. The legislative branch, as a whole, is charged with passing the nations laws and allocating funds for the running of the federal government and providing assistance to the 50 U.S. states. The Judicial Branch The judicial branch consists of the United States Supreme Court and lower federal courts. Under the Supreme Courts constitutional jurisdiction, its primary function is to hear cases that challenge the constitutionality of legislation or require interpretation of that legislation. The U.S. Supreme Court has nine Justices, who are nominated by the president and must be confirmed by a simple majority vote of the Senate. Once appointed, Supreme Court justices serve until they retire, resign, die or are impeached. The lower federal courts also decide cases dealing with the constitutionality of laws, as well as cases involving the laws and treaties of the U.S. ambassadors and public ministers, disputes between two or more states, admiralty law, also known as maritime law, and bankruptcy cases. Decisions of the lower federal courts can be and often are appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Checks and Balances Why are there three separate and distinct branches of government, each with a different function? The framers of the Constitution did not wish to return to the totalitarian system of governance imposed on colonial America by the British government. To ensure that no single person or entity had a monopoly on power, the Founding Fathers designed and instituted a system of checks and balances. The presidents power is checked by the Congress, which can refuse to confirm his appointees, for example, and has the power to impeach or remove, a president. Congress may pass laws, but the president has the power to veto them (Congress, in turn, may override a veto). And the Supreme Court can rule on the constitutionality of a law, but Congress, with approval from two-thirds of the states, may amend the Constitution.