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A national poll this month showeda sharp partisan dividein how Americans viewdifferent federal agencies, with Republicans approving most of the national-security varietywhile Democrats gave high marks to, well, a bit of everything.

In a Pew Research surveycoveringeight agencies, Republicans showed the highest regard for the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, as those agencies earned approval ratings of 66 percent and 64 percent among those respondents, respectively. NASA placed third with a 63 percent approval rating among Republicans.

Overall, Republicans held less favorable views than Democrats with five of the eight agencies in the survey, which included the the Centers for Disease Control, the CIA,the Defense Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, NASA, and the National Security Agency.

Democrats approved most of the EPA,with 80 percent of respondents from that party giving the agency a positive mark. The CDC finished second among Democrats with an approval rating of 77 percent, while the Defense Department finished third with 70 percent matching the Republican approval rating for that agency.

The CIA is the only agency that Republicans viewed more favorably than Democrats, as only46 percent of Democratic respondents expressed a positive opinion of the agency.

Despite revealing a partisan divide, the survey also showed that Americans overall view most of the agencies in a positive light. Seven of theeight agencies received mostly-positive reviews, while the IRS ended up with an overallunfavorable rating.

Forty-eight percent of respondents said they have an unfavorable opinion of the IRS, compared to45 percent who said they view the agency favorably. The numbers were little-changed since Pews October 2013 survey.

The CDCscored highest in the survey despite taking criticism last fall for its handling of theEbola outbreak.Seventypercent of respondents expresseda favorable opinionof theagency this month.

The same cant be said of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which saw its approval rating decline by 16 percentage points since October 2013. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they have a favorable view of the VA in the most recent survey, suggesting that the agencys record-keeping scandal has taken a toll on its public image.

The survey, which Pew conducted between Jan. 7-11, included1,504 adults.

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Federal Eye: Democrats, Republicans divided over which agencies they like