Talk:Independent agencies of the United States government

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FEMA is no longer an independent agency. It is part of the Department of Homeland Security. There's a page for FEMA at, appropriately enough, FEMA. -- SeanO

Contents 1 Meaning of independence 2 Presidential Commissions 3 Comprehensiveness 3.1 World View

[edit] Meaning of independence

What does "independent" mean in this context? The president can dismiss the CIA head at will, so it's not independent in the sense that the Supreme Court is an "independent branch" of goverment.

And what about the Peace Corps? Who appoints its director? Congress, or the President? --Uncle Ed 16:29, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Independent means that an agency is independent of an executive department (Defense, State, Treasury, Justice, etc.). All "agencies" are part of the executive branch and are either part of a department or are independent. The independent agencies report directly to the President and are headed by a political appointee that usually can be fired by the president at will. Some parts of the excutive branch are more indepenent, such as the Federal Reserve Board, which is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, but these institutions are not "agencies".Leuliett 20:11, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Some agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, do not report directly to the President. While they are headed by political appointees appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, they cannot be fired by the President at will--they serve specified terms and must be impeached to be removed. Further, regulations created by these agencies must be voted on by the members of the commission and the enacting legislation of some of them require that a portion of the commission members cannot be from the same political party. Epstein's Mother 04:19, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

The Peace Corps is an independent agency. President Kennedy was concerned that if it was part of the State Department, it would have trouble being accepted by other countries, and insisted that it report directly to the President. Like all parts of the executive branch, the director is appointed by the President. By statue, the appointment must be approved by Senate.Leuliett 20:19, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Presidential Commissions

Should the Presidential Commissions be listed here as well? Mlm42 10:49, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Comprehensiveness

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2007)

Can either the list here or the one at List of United States federal agencies be made comprehensive? Whichever one is not comprehensive should have a pointer to the other. -- Beland 05:07, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] World View

I was going to find more info on administrative agency. It redirected to this page. This is not a world view page even though the information presented is very descriptive and a layman can understand the concept of a administrative agency.--Zhongxin (talk) 13:28, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Isn't it better to have administrative agency as the world view page and this page as a link on it. The administrative agency should give examples of countries with independent statutory bodies that are not part of any executive branch e.g. Australia has Australian Federal Police, Australian Custom Service... --Zhongxin (talk) 13:29, 21 April 2008 (UTC)