He never got the cabinet status the job needed, nor the essential power to demand specific action from the dozens of Government agencies.

He was the first director of Signals to acquire Cabinet status.

Cabinet status is to designate broad areas of policy that regularly require the chief executive's attention.

Elevating the Veterans Administration to cabinet status is an idea that doesn't improve with age.

Longstanding demands for management reforms at the agency "cannot and should not be divorced from the issue of elevation to Cabinet status," he said.

President Reagan has endorsed Cabinet status for the agency and has said he will sign the bill.

But they said the fact that he would no longer oppose it enhanced the prospect that the environmental agency could gain Cabinet status this year.

Cabinet status is not a way of conferring "recognition" on deserving groups; that's what monuments and memorials are for.

When proponents explain why Cabinet status would improve the agency, they mention the benefits of regular access to the President and participation in policy-making.

Mr. Comer had warned that the opportunity for Cabinet status might come "never again, at least not in our lifetimes."