Organization
U.S. Department of the Treasury
U.S. federal department that designated Mahan Air in 2011 and announced the 2026 aviation sanctions.
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Background
Selected excerpts from Wikipedia. This is general background, not Angle's reporting, and it may have changed since the stories above were published.
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The treasury executes currency circulation in the domestic fiscal system, collects all federal taxes through the Internal Revenue Service, manages U.S. government debt, licenses and supervises banks and thrift institutions, and advises the legislative and executive branches on fiscal policy.
The department is administered by the secretary of the treasury, who is a member of the Cabinet. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the U.S. Mint, two federal agencies responsible for printing all paper currency and minting coins respectively. The treasurer of the United States has limited statutory duties, but advises the Secretary on various matters such as coinage and currency production. Both the treasurer and treasury secretary's signatures appear on all U.S. dollar bank notes.
The department was established by an act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue. The first secretary of the treasury was Alexander Hamilton from New York, a Founding Father. Appointed by George Washington, the nation's first president, Hamilton was sworn into office on September 11, 1789. Hamilton established the nation's early financial system and for several years was a major presence in Washington's administration. The department is customarily referred to as "Treasury", solely, without any preceding article – a transitional remnant from British to American English.
History
The history of the Department of the Treasury began during the American Revolution when the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia, deliberated the crucial question of how it would finance the American Revolutionary War in which the Thirteen Colonies ultimately sought independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, then led by King George III.
The Congress had no power to levy and collect taxes, nor was there a tangible basis for securing funds from foreign investors or governments. The delegates resolved to issue paper money in the form of bills of credit, promising redemption in coin on faith in the revolutionary cause. On June 22, 1775, only a few days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Continental Congress issued $2 million in bills; on July 25, 28 citizens of Philadelphia were employed by Congress to sign and number the currency.
On July 29, 1775, the Second Continental Congress assigned responsibility for the administration of the revolutionary government's finances to joint Continental treasurers George Clymer and Michael Hillegas. Congress stipulated that each of the colonies contribute to the Continental government's funds. To ensure proper and efficient handling of the growing national debt in the face of weak economic and political ties between the colonies, the Congress, on February 17, 1776, designated a committee of five to superintend the treasury, settle accounts, and report periodically to the Congress. On April 1, a Treasury Office of Accounts, consisting of an auditor general and clerks, was established to facilitate the settlement of claims and to keep the public accounts for the government of the United Colonies. With the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the newborn republic as a sovereign nation was able to secure loans from abroad.
Despite the infusion of foreign and domestic loans, the united colonies were unable to establish a well-organized agency for financial administration. Michael Hillegas was first called Treasurer of the United States on May 14, 1777. The Treasury Office was reorganized three times between 1778 and 1781. The $241.5 million in paper Continental bills devalued rapidly. By May 1781, the dollar collapsed at a rate of from 500 to 1000 to 1 against hard currency. …
Responsibilities
The basic functions of the Department of the Treasury include:
With respect to the estimation of revenues for the executive branch, Treasury serves a purpose parallel to that of the Office of Management and Budget for the estimation of spending for the executive branch, the Joint Committee on Taxation for the estimation of revenues for Congress, and the Congressional Budget Office for the estimation of spending for Congress.
From 1830 until 1901, responsibility for overseeing weights and measures was carried out by the Office of Standard Weights and Measures under the auspices of the Treasury Department. After 1901, that responsibility was assigned to the agency that subsequently became known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Organization
The Department of the Treasury is organized into two major components: the departmental offices and the operating bureaus. The departmental offices are primarily responsible for the formulation of policy and management of the department as a whole, while the operating bureaus carry out the specific operations assigned to the department.
The Treasury Department has authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2024 of $16.5 billion. The budget authorization is broken down as follows:
From the Wikipedia article United States Department of the Treasury (revision of ). Wikipedia contributors; selected plain-text excerpts from this revision. Formatting, reference markers and non-prose material removed. Available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0. Identity from Wikidata (CC0).