A 21st Century Cabinet: Proposing a New Departmental Map for Modern Governance

Campaign Briefing: Restructuring the Executive — Cabinet Departments and the Modern Presidency

2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN

October 28, 2025

I. Introduction: The Cabinet as a Blueprint for the Republic

The Cabinet is not ceremonial. It is constitutional machinery. Its departments are how the law becomes service, how budgets become results, and how democracy is made real for 330 million people.

But today’s Cabinet map reflects not the logic of the republic—but the residue of political compromise, crisis response, and bureaucratic sprawl. Departments have been created in haste, renamed without vision, or retained long after their missions diverged from modern needs.

This campaign proposes that Congress redraw that map. Not to reduce government—but to restructure it to match the actual architecture of the 21st-century American experience.

“The people deserve a government that’s designed—not just inherited.”

II. The Current Cabinet Model: Symptoms of Institutional Drift

• Redundant Missions: Labor, Commerce, and SBA all oversee economic development, but lack a unified workforce strategy

• Siloed Operations: HHS, HUD, and Education operate in parallel, despite shared responsibilities for families, youth, and public health

• Misaligned Authorities: Interior leases land for extraction, EPA regulates its pollution, USDA subsidizes its development

• Crisis-Driven Additions: DHS was created under pressure, with no internal coherence; the VA persists outside DOD, despite sharing every function except warfighting

Each department may serve a purpose. But together, they no longer represent a coherent national design.

III. A Modern Cabinet: Aligned by Function, Bound by Constitution

This campaign proposes a new executive structure composed of twelve Cabinet departments, each aligned by mission—not political legacy. These departments are designed to serve how Americans live, work, and engage with government in the 21st century, with clear lines of responsibility, minimal redundancy, and coordinated oversight.

1. Department of Constitutional Affairs

This department will be the guarantor of rights and the steward of legal integrity. It will house the core justice functions of the federal government, ensure lawful enforcement, and defend civil liberties, voting access, and constitutional protections.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Department of Justice

• Eliminates overlap with: Homeland Security’s civil rights compliance functions

2. Department of Economic Mobility and Development

Focused on connecting Americans to economic opportunity, this department merges labor regulation, small business support, market development, and regional innovation into a single strategic hub. It ensures that job creation, workforce policy, and capital access are aligned.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Departments of Labor, Commerce, and Small Business Administration

• Eliminates overlap between: SBA loans, Commerce grants, and Labor workforce programs

3. Department of Families and Human Development

This department supports families across every phase of life—administering social safety nets, coordinating child and elder care services, and investing in the human infrastructure needed for social stability. It aligns services currently split across multiple agencies into one continuum.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Departments of Health and Human Services (human services side), Housing and Urban Development, and parts of Education and Labor

• Eliminates overlap in: Poverty programs, housing aid, and family support services

4. Department of Education and Learning Access

This department ensures that every student in America has access to a quality, apolitical education and a pathway to lifelong learning. It supports data transparency, regional equity, and national educational coherence—without dictating curriculum.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Department of Education

• Streamlines and separates from: Labor training programs, now under Economic Mobility

5. Department of Public Health and Resilience

This department consolidates all national public health, medical research, and emergency response functions under a unified structure. It integrates surveillance, care infrastructure, and preparedness to respond swiftly to pandemics, disasters, and health disparities.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), public health components of HHS, and FEMA preparedness functions

• Eliminates parallel preparedness roles from: DHS and multiple HHS divisions

6. Department of Environmental and Resource Stewardship

Dedicated to stewarding the nation’s land, air, water, and biodiversity, this department oversees environmental regulation, conservation, and science-driven resource management. It fuses natural resource policy with environmental protection and sustainability goals.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Forest Service (from USDA), and conservation programs within Interior

• Eliminates overlap in: Environmental enforcement, research, and land policy

7. Department of Food and Rural Equity

This department focuses on sustainable agriculture, food security, and rural infrastructure. It ensures that rural America has the connectivity, capital, and community investment needed to thrive in the modern economy.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Department of Agriculture (USDA)

• Separates out: Conservation and land management functions, now under Stewardship

8. Department of Infrastructure and Mobility

Tasked with modernizing the country’s physical and digital infrastructure, this department integrates transportation, energy systems, and broadband expansion under a single operational strategy. It supports interoperability, sustainability, and national resilience.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Departments of Transportation, Energy (civilian energy grid only), Commerce (broadband), and infrastructure roles from HUD and USDA

• Eliminates siloed project planning and duplicative grant competition

9. Department of Defense and Veterans’ Services

This unified department reflects the full continuum of service—from enlistment to lifelong care. It merges the mission of military readiness with the obligation to provide post-service support, health care, and transition assistance within a single command.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs

• Eliminates the bureaucratic wall between active duty and veteran status

10. Department of State and Global Strategy

This department carries forward the diplomatic, development, and global engagement functions of the federal government. It ensures that foreign policy, international aid, and soft power projection are coordinated, measured, and aligned with national values.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Department of State, USAID, and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)

• Streamlines: Overlapping diplomacy, development, and policy analysis

11. Department of National Intelligence and Security Coordination

This department integrates all intelligence functions into a single framework—fusing foreign and domestic collection, cybersecurity, and threat response into a coordinated system under the Director of National Intelligence.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), CIA, NSA, and DHS Intelligence & Analysis

• Eliminates gaps between: foreign collection and domestic protection

12. Department of Treasury and Fiscal Accountability

Responsible for managing the nation’s finances with transparency, this department oversees taxation, sanctions, fiscal reporting, and debt strategy. It protects economic sovereignty and ensures that every federal dollar is traceable and strategically aligned.

• Assumes responsibilities from: Department of the Treasury, IRS, OMB (budget execution functions)

• Creates transparency where fiscal authority and spending power currently diverge

IV. Office of the President – Non-Departmental Functions

• Office of the National Security Advisor

• Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

• Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)

• Office of Intergovernmental Affairs

• Council of Economic Advisers (CEA)

• Domestic Policy Council

These remain within the Executive Office, coordinating interdepartmental strategy and oversight.

V. Benefits of the New Cabinet Map

• Reduces overlap and confusion for Congress, states, and the public

• Aligns departments with how Americans live, rather than how agencies evolved

• Streamlines political appointments, shifting focus to career expertise

• Modernizes crisis response, integrating climate, cyber, health, and defense into real-time governance

“We cannot govern tomorrow with a Cabinet designed for yesterday.”

VI. Why This Matters

This Cabinet map is not an academic exercise. It is the structure by which national promises are made credible.

In this new framework:

• A single mother will no longer have to call three departments for housing, health, and food

• A veteran will not need to file paperwork with two agencies just to be seen

• A mayor will not need a grant writer to decode eight departments for one infrastructure project

• A student will know what a U.S. education is—because it will be structured, measurable, and portable

VII. Strategic Takeaways for the Campaign

• The Cabinet must not reflect legacy—it must reflect function

• This plan restores governance by design, not by accumulation

• The President serves the people best not by expanding government—but by making it coherent

“We will govern with structure. We will align power with responsibility. And we will build a Cabinet that is worthy of the Constitution—and the people it was written to serve.”