In addition, other officials have a rank equable with members of the Cabinet:

• Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Administrator of the Small Business Administration
• Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
• Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• U.S. Trade Representative
• U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
• White House Chief of Staff

The President nominates and the Senate confirms members of the Cabinet, who serve at the President's direction and can be dismissed at any time. Tradition holds that members of the Cabinet change with the election of a new President or even with the re-election of a President. The U.S. Constitution prohibits Cabinet members from concurrently serving in Congress. Meetings of the entire Cabinet are rare.

The word "Cabinet" is nowhere found in the Constitution; rather, the President can appoint "principal officers" of "executive departments." The term is thought to have come from a French or an Italian word meaning "small, private room."

It was President James Madison who is thought to have first described the meetings of his top advisers as "the president's cabinet."

The first Cabinet had four members:

• Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson
• Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton
• Secretary of War Henry Knox
• Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

Vice-president John Adams was not included in Washington's Cabinet because he was considered a legislative officer, in his capacity as President of the Senate. It wasn't until the 20th Century that the Vice-president was part of the Cabinet.

The other Cabinet-level departments came along at various times:

• The Department of the Navy began in 1798 and in 1947 was folded in with the Department of War to the Department of Defense.
• The Attorney General became the Secretary of Justice with the creation of the Department of Justice in 1870.
• The Department of the Interior came along in 1849.
• In 1862, Congress established the Department of Agriculture. (It did not have Cabinet-level status until 1889, however.)
• The Department of Commerce and Labor came along in 1903 and was split into two departments in 1913.
• Congress established the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1953. This became the Department of Education in 1979 and the Department of Health and Human Services in 1980.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development came along in 1965.
• The following year, the Department of Transportation was established.
• In 1977, Congress established the Department of Energy.
• The Department of Veterans Affairs had been in existence since 1930 and became a Cabinet department in 1988.
• Congress established the Department of Homeland Security in 2002.