> Neither one of them are actually PART of the federal government. Indeed they are. Their budgets are paid for by taxpayers and established by laws passed in C

> Neither one of them are actually PART of the federal government. Indeed they are. Their budgets are paid for by taxpayers and established by laws passed in Congress and signed by the President. Their employees are federal employees, AFAIK. > NASA for example doesn't actually rollup to any cabinet position. The agencies report to the President, whatever the org chart is. The President chooses their administrators, and directs their operations (assuming she/he has time and interest). DAPRA is in the Department of Defense. Finally, I believe the CIA was an independent agency, like NASA, before the DNI was created about a decade ago. Was the CIA not actually part of the U.S. federal government?