United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare - Definition and Overview

The United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (also known as HEW) was a cabinet level department of the United States government from 1953 until 1979. In 1979, a separate Department of Education was created from this department, and HEW was renamed as the Department of Health and Human Services.

To date, this was the only US Department to be created through presidential reorganization authority, in which the president is allowed to create or reorganize bureaucracies as long as neither house of Congress passed a legislative veto. This power to create new departments was removed after 1962, and in the early 1980's, the Supreme Court declared legislative vetoes unconstitutional.