What Are Two Cabinet-Level Positions? Civics Question 48

Name any two, such as the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.

Question 48 asks for two Cabinet-level positions. The list of accepted answers is long and includes the Attorney General, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Commerce. Every department secretary counts, and so does the Vice President. Give two of them, not the whole list.

Positions That Count

These are Cabinet-level positions, and naming any two of them answers the question:

• Attorney General, who leads the Department of Justice
• Secretary of State
• Secretary of Defense
• Secretary of the Treasury
• Secretary of Agriculture
• Secretary of Commerce
• Secretary of Labor
• Secretary of Education
• Secretary of Homeland Security

The pattern holds across the executive departments. Each one is led by a “Secretary of” that department, so Energy, Health and Human Services, the Interior, Transportation, Veterans Affairs and War (Defense) all count as well. The Attorney General is the exception to the naming pattern, and the Vice President also holds a seat at the Cabinet table.

The list reaches past the departments too. The Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Small Business Administration, the Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of Management and Budget and National Intelligence, and the United States Trade Representative are all Cabinet-level.

Why the Officer Asks This

Question 47 asks what the Cabinet does, and the answer there is a single verb. This question goes one step further and checks that you know who is actually in the room.

It is also one of the questions where many different answers are marked correct, so the officer is listening for two valid titles rather than one specific pair.

How to Remember Two Cabinet Positions

You will never be asked for the whole list, so do not carry it. Choose two, write them down, and rehearse only those two until they come out without thinking.

The pair worth choosing is the Attorney General and the Secretary of State. Both are short, both are on the accepted list, and neither one is hard to pronounce. If a department connects to your own life, use that one instead. A farmer will remember Secretary of Agriculture longer than anything else on the page.

Pick the Two That Are Easiest to Say

Long titles give you more chances to stumble in one breath. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is a correct answer and a hard sentence to deliver under pressure.

Short titles protect you. Attorney General. Secretary of State. Say them out loud tonight and they will be there on test day.

What to Say on Test Day

Say “the Attorney General and the Secretary of State,” or whichever two you practiced. Then stop.

Two is the number the question asked for. A third name adds nothing and gives you one more chance to say something wrong.