The alphabet soup of government.

Abstract

1. Elissa Passiment, CLS (NCA), EdM[⇑][1] 1. is Executive Vice President for the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, Bethesda, MD 1. Address for Correspondence: Elissa Passiment, Executive Vice President, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, 6701 Democracy Boulevard, Suite 300, Bethesda, MD 20817. elissap{at}ascls.org. 1. List the Departments in the President's Cabinet 2. Describe the acronyms most commonly associated with the Department of HHS 3. Differentiate between the acronyms for the Executive and Legislative branches departments, centers, offices and divisions 4. Identify the functions of the agencies and divisions of CDC, CMS and FDA Modern communication in our busy world is delivered in sound bites and text messages that use a new language: acronyms such as BFF (best friend forever) and DOS (disk operating system). Acronyms are defined as abbreviations composed of the initial letters or syllables of a compound term; many times, the letters can be pronounced as a single word1. The federal government is famous for acronyms and abbreviations that, while helpful for quick reference to those who work in government or with government officials, seem like a foreign language to the rest of the country. This article will attempt to translate some of the shorthand that is applied to the laboratory profession, organizing the information by branch of government. There is no pattern or logic that helps to predict the naming and subsequent acronyms or abbreviations so this compilation is alphabetical whenever possible. The Executive Branch The executive branch of the United States government consists of the President, the executive offices and the cabinet. The President's Executive Office consists of a number of councils and offices; one that directly impacts the clinical laboratory is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB helps the President develop the federal budget, monitors the effiectiveness of the programs of each agency in the cabinet departments, and weighs the competing funding needs of each to set funding priorities. The Cabinet consists of the Vice President and Secretaries of the following departments: 1. List the Departments in the President's Cabinet 2. Describe the acronyms most commonly associated with the Department of HHS 3. Differentiate between the acronyms for the Executive and Legislative branches departments, centers, offices and divisions 4. Identify the functions of the agencies and divisions of CDC, CMS and FDA [1]: #corresp-1