Why does USDOT administer DST?

[AlexandriaVA]

Secret Service was founded in order to protect against counterfeit currency (still one of their core missions).

The presidential and VIP protective mission only came about when it became apparent that the President would need full-time security, and the USSS was among the few federal agencies that already had sworn officers qualified in firearms (this was before the FBI, ATF, etc).

[AlexandriaVA]

1995Hoo beat me by a minute...

[Scott5114]

Of course, time zones and DST in DOT aren't the only oddities in federal government administration. Energy, not Defense, oversees the nuclear weapons program.

I've always thought NOAA and NWS being part of the Department of Commerce (instead of something like Interior or the EPA) was odd. At one point it was under USDA.

Interior was created primarily to manage federal lands.  Weather's impact on agriculture and business are why it fell under USDA then later Commerce.

Both NWS and NOAA's predecessors predate EPA.  And if you go back far enough, what is today the NWS was originally under the War Department.

Right, but weather impacts the functions covered by every single government department (weather obviously affects transportation, accurate weather forecasting helps plan better Defense maneuvers, can't go get an Education if you're snowed in, DHS/FEMA responds to natural disasters caused by weather) so it seems strange that of all the potential places it could go we decided its impact on business was the most important.

Interior being limited solely to managing public lands is kind of uniquely American, anyway. Most other countries' Interior departments function more like our DHS.

HUD:
Indian half of Office of Public and Indian Housing - should be in Interior

My wife is Indian, which qualified us for a special HUD loan (it wasn't public or tribally-run housing, just a grant that helped with the purchase of a bog-standard suburban house). I don't know if it came from the Office of Public and Indian Housing or not (everything just said HUD or had the tribe's name on it). That would have been really weird if it came out of Interior.

[kphoger]

weather impacts the functions covered by every single government department (weather obviously affects transportation, accurate weather forecasting helps plan better Defense maneuvers, can't go get an Education if you're snowed in, DHS/FEMA responds to natural disasters caused by weather) so it seems strange that of all the potential places it could go we decided its impact on business was the most important.

Or, rather than "we decided its impact on business was the most important", we decided its impact on business was the most determinant aspect.  Its being important could still have landed it in any old agency.

[Scott5114]

Thinking about it now, I'm actually a little wary of the fact that NOAA is under Commerce. It calls to mind the casino manager I worked for who forbade tornado coverage being shown on TVs inside the casino because he didn't want people to see the weather was dangerous and go home, causing the business to make less money.

[I-55]

Thinking about it now, I'm actually a little wary of the fact that NOAA is under Commerce. It calls to mind the casino manager I worked for who forbade tornado coverage being shown on TVs inside the casino because he didn't want people to see the weather was dangerous and go home, causing the business to make less money.

"Newcastle casino it is on top of you right now" Mike Morgan 5/20/2013

I sincerely hope that did make it onto the casino televisions.

[1995hoo]

1995Hoo beat me by a minute...

More like seven seconds! Wow! 

[texaskdog]

Glad I don't live in Arizona

[Scott5114]

Thinking about it now, I'm actually a little wary of the fact that NOAA is under Commerce. It calls to mind the casino manager I worked for who forbade tornado coverage being shown on TVs inside the casino because he didn't want people to see the weather was dangerous and go home, causing the business to make less money.

"Newcastle casino it is on top of you right now" Mike Morgan 5/20/2013

I sincerely hope that did make it onto the casino televisions.

Newcastle Casino has a ton of other management problems, but that is not one of them, fortunately. (Although they did completely forget to notify off-track betting of a tornado evac once and left them to figure out what to do themselves...)