Federal Executive Cabinet of Secretaries of the Confederate Union

OVERVIEW
The Federal Executive Cabinet of Secretaries of the Confederate Union, or simply the Cabinet, is a body consisting of the vice president of the Confederate Union and the heads of the executive branch's federal executive departments in the federal government of the Confederate Union, which is regarded as the principal advisory body to the president of the Confederate Union. The president is not formally a member of the Cabinet, but is appointed as the Chairman of the Cabinet of Secretaries, with the vice president as the as the Deputy Chairman and the presiding officer of the Cabinet. The heads of departments, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, are members of the Cabinet, and acting department heads also sit at Cabinet meetings whether or not they have been officially nominated for Senate confirmation. The president may designate heads of other agencies and non-Senate-confirmed members of the Executive Office of the President as Cabinet-level members of the Cabinet.

Cabinet includes 34 primary members: the Vice President, 23 principal officers which are the heads of federal and executive departments, and 10 cabinet-level officials, including the Attorney General. At any time, secretaries without portfolio may be included in the Cabinet.

The Cabinet does not have any collective executive powers or functions of its own, and no votes need to be taken. The members of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the president, who can dismiss them at any time without the approval of the Senate, or downgrade their Cabinet membership status. The president can organize the Cabinet as he sees fit, such as instituting committees. Like all federal public officials, Cabinet members are also subject to impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial in the Senate for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". Additionally, the Federal Constitution authorizes the vice president, together with a majority of the heads of the executive departments, to declare the president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office". The heads of the executive departments are—if eligible—in the presidential line of succession.