Duties & Functions of the U.S. Department of the Treasury
Mission
Maintain a strong economy and create economic and job opportunities by promoting the conditions that enable economic growth and stability at home and abroad, strengthen national security by combating threats and protecting the integrity of the financial system, and manage the U.S. Government’s finances and resources effectively.
Treasury's mission highlights its role as the steward of U.S. economic and financial systems, and as an influential participant in the world economy.
The Treasury Department is the executive agency responsible for promoting economic prosperity and ensuring the financial security of the United States. The Department is responsible for a wide range of activities such as advising the President on economic and financial issues, encouraging sustainable economic growth, and fostering improved governance in financial institutions. The Department of the Treasury operates and maintains systems that are critical to the nation's financial infrastructure, such as the production of coin and currency, the disbursement of payments to the American public, revenue collection, and the borrowing of funds necessary to run the federal government. The Department works with other federal agencies, foreign governments, and international financial institutions to encourage global economic growth, raise standards of living, and to the extent possible, predict and prevent economic and financial crises. The Treasury Department also performs a critical and far-reaching role in enhancing national security by implementing economic sanctions against foreign threats to the U.S., identifying and targeting the financial support networks of national security threats, and improving the safeguards of our financial systems.
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. Our bureaus make up 98% of the Treasury work force. The basic functions of the Department of the Treasury include:
· Managing Federal finances;
· Collecting taxes, duties and monies paid to and due to the U.S. and paying all bills of the U.S.;
· Currency and coinage;
· Managing Government accounts and the public debt;
· Supervising national banks and thrift institutions;
· Advising on domestic and international financial, monetary, economic, trade and tax policy;
· Enforcing Federal finance and tax laws;
· Investigating and prosecuting tax evaders, counterfeiters, and forgers.
Treasury History Overview
The management of the money resources of the United States has always been the primary function of the Department of the Treasury. Whether it is regulating national banks, determining international economic policy, collecting income and excise taxes, issuing securities, reporting the government's daily financial transactions, or manufacturing coins or bills for circulation, the one concern that still ties together the activities of the Department of the Treasury is money.
Though formally established as an executive department by the First Session of Congress in 1789, many functions of the Department of the Treasury were being carried out even before the signing of the Declaration of Independence thirteen years earlier. Over the decades, the functions of the Department have expanded and grown more sophisticated to meet the needs of a developing nation.
Today, the Department of the Treasury remains the premier financial institution of the United States with a full-time agenda of accounting, revenue collection, money production, and economic policy formulation.
The Treasury Building
Tours of the Main Treasury Building, located at Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C. are available by advanced reservation through your Congressional offices. For more information on tours and reservations, please click here. Please note that this is NOT the tour for seeing the production of United States currency notes. To see currency production, you need to tour the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
The Main Treasury Building
The Main Treasury Building is located at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C. This view is taken from the north. In the distance is the Washington Monument.
On the building's south side, you will see a statue ofAlexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury. On the north side, there is a statue of Albert Gallatin, the 4th Secretary of the Treasury, serving during the Jefferson and Madison administrations. On west side, next to the White House, you will see a reproduction of the Liberty Bell. All visitors must enter through the Fifteenth Street entrance.
The Salmon P. Chase Suite
The first stop on the tour is the Salmon P. Chase Suite, one of the restored historic rooms on the third floor. This suite of offices was used by Salmon P. Chase, who served as Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War. Entries from Chase's diary indicate several meetings took place with President Lincoln in this room. This suite of offices is currently used by the General Counsel of the Treasury Department.
The Secretary's Conference and Diplomatic Reception Room
The next stop on the tour is the Secretary's Conference Room and Diplomatic Reception Room. The conference room is located directly across the hall from the Secretary's Office and next door to the Diplomatic Reception Room by a connecting hallway.
These rooms recreate a typical mid-19th century government interior. They are used by the Secretary of the Treasury for senior staff meetings, diplomatic receptions, press conferences and interviews, and meetings with other Cabinet officers and foreign dignitaries.
The Andrew Johnson Suite
The final stop on the third floor is theAndrew Johnson Suite, location of the restored office used by President Johnson as his temporary White House immediately following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Black mourning cloth draped the Reception Room during the days following the assassination. The portrait of President Johnson is on loan courtesy of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
The Burglar-Proof Vault
On the second floor is the Burglar-proof Vault, with its restored decorative cast iron wall. Built in 1864, the wall lining was composed of metal balls sandwiched between three steel plates that were intended to prevent a burglar from penetrating the vault. It is now part of the office of the Treasurer of the United States.
The Cash Room
The historic marble Cash Room on the second floor is the final stop on the tour. It was first used for President Grant's Inaugural Reception in 1869 and was restored to the way it looked then. It has been the site of many press conferences, meetings, receptions and bill signing ceremonies. Unfortunately, it was severely damaged in the fire that occurred on June 26, 1996, but the restoration to repair water damage caused by the fire is now complete.
