U.S. Department of the Treasury

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is the major financial management department for the federal government. As stated on its website, the major functions of the Treasury Department are:
• managing federal finances
• collecting taxes, duties and monies paid to and due to the U.S. and paying all bills of the U.S.
• producing all postage stamps, 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, forgers, smugglers, illicit spirits distillers, and gun law violations
• protecting the president, vice president, their families, candidates for those offices, foreign missions resident in Washington and visiting foreign dignitaries
The most widely known bureaus of the U.S. Treasury are the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. Mint, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is probably the most controversial bureau, charged with administering income tax laws and collections. The U.S. Mint produces coins, while the Bureau of Engraving and Printing creates currency. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (ATF) was divided by The Homeland Security Act of 2002 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms into two new agencies, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which moved to the Department of Justice, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which remains in the Department of the Treasury. The TTB, as ATF did before it, administers and enforces the existing Federal laws and tax code provisions related to the production and taxation of alcohol and tobacco products. These taxes amount to approximately $15 billion in excise taxes, including $100 million in occupational tax on the manufacture of firearms and ammunition.
Historically, the TTB was one of the most important parts of the U.S. Treasury. The department was created by an act of Congress in 1789. During the early post–American Revolutionary era, Congress levied excise taxes on distilled spirits, tobacco, snuff, and other products to pay for the debts incurred during the Revolution. The TTB became the federal bureau responsible for collecting these taxes and enforcing tobacco and alcohol laws. During Prohibition, the TTB became known as the federal revenue agents, closing down and destroying thousands of illegal alcohol production operations. As tax laws changed, increasing the importance of income and employment taxes, the IRS became the major tax revenue bureau with the Treasury Department.
Today, as the major department managing federal finances, the U.S. Treasury oversees the government’s budget, borrowing to finance the national debt (more than $6 trillion in 2003), and international financial and trade policy. In 2003, statements by the new treasury secretary, John Snow, signaled to the global financial market that the U.S. would no longer support a strong dollar (a high exchange rate of the dollar with other currencies). Within two months the dollar dropped more than 20 percent against the euro.