The Public Health Service Act of 1944 structured the United States Public Health Service (PHS), founded in 1798, as the primary division of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, which later became the United States Department of Health and Human Services in 1979–1980. The Office of the Surgeon General was created in 1871. The Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) oversees the PHS and the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.