Official Document Text
Source: The American Presidency Project (UCSB Archive)
By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes, and in order to effectuate the purposes of the Reorganization Act of 1939, Public No. 19, Seventy-sixth Congress, approved April 3, 1939, and of Reorganization Plans Nos. I and II submitted to the Congress by the President and made effective as of July 1, 1939, by Public Resolution No. 2, Seventy-sixth Congress, approved June 7, 1939 by organizing the Executive Office of the President with functions and duties so prescribed and responsibilities so fixed that the President will have adequate machinery for the administrative management of the Executive Branch of the Government, it is hereby ordered as follows: I There shall be within the Executive Office of the President the following principal divisions, namely: (1) The White House Office, (2) the Bureau of the Budget, (3) the National Resources Planning Board, (4) the Liaison Office for Personnel Management, (5) the Office of Government Reports, and (6) in the event of a national emergency, or threat of a national emergency, such office for emergency management as the President shall determine. II The functions and duties of the divisions of the Executive Office of the President are hereby defined as follows: 1. The White House Office. —In general, to serve the President in an intimate capacity in the performance of the many detailed activities incident to his immediate office. To that end, The White House Office shall be composed of the following principal subdivisions, with particular functions and duties as indicated: (a) The Secretaries to the President. —To facilitate and maintain quick and easy communication with the Congress, the individual members of the Congress, the heads of executive departments and agencies, the press, the radio, and the general public. (b) The Executive Clerk. —To provide for the orderly handling of documents and correspondence within The White House Office, and to organize and supervise all clerical services and procedure relating thereto. (c) The Administrative Assistants to the President. —To assist the President in such matters as he may direct, and at the specified request of the President, to get information and to condense and summarize it for his use. These Administrative Assistants shall be personal aides to the President and shall have no authority over anyone in any department or agency, including the Executive Office of the President, other than the personnel assigned to their immediate office. In no event shall the Administrative Assistants be interposed between the President and the head of any department or agency, or between the President and any one of the divisions in the Executive Office of the President. 2. The Bureau of the Budget. —(a) To assist the President in the preparation of the Budget and the formulation of the fiscal program of the Government. (b) To supervise and control the administration of the Budget. (c) To conduct research in the development of improved plans of administrative management, and to advise the executive departments and agencies of the Government with respect to improved administrative organization and practice. (d) To aid the President to bring about more efficient and economical conduct of Government service. (e) To assist the President by clearing and coordinating departmental advice on proposed legislation and by making recommendations as to Presidential action on legislative enactments, in accordance with past practice. (f) To assist in the consideration and clearance and, where necessary, in the preparation of proposed Executive orders and proclamations, in accordance with the provisions of Executive Order No. 7298 of February 18, 1936. (g) To plan and promote the improvement, development, and coordination of Federal and other statistical services. (h) To keep the President informed of the progress of activities by agencies of the Government with respect to work proposed, work actually initiated, and work completed, together with the relative timing of work among the several agencies of the Government; all to the end that the work programs of the several agencies of the Executive Branch of the Government may be coordinated and that the monies appropriated by the Congress may be expended in the most economical manner possible with the least possible overlapping and duplication of effort. 3. The National Resources Planning Board. —(a) To survey, collect data on, and analyze problems pertaining to national resources, both natural and human, and to recommend to the President and the Congress long-time plans and programs for the wise use and fullest development of such resources. (b) To consult with Federal, regional, state, local, and private agencies in developing orderly programs of public works and to list for the President and the Congress all proposed public works in the order of their relative importance with respect to (1) the greatest good to the greatest number of people, (2) the emergency necessities of the Nation, and (3) the social, economic, and cultural advancement of the people of the United States. (c) To inform the President of the general trend of economic conditions and to recommend measures leading to their improvement of stabilization. (d) To act as a clearing house and means of coordination for planning activities, linking together various levels and fields of planning. 4. The Liaison Office for Personnel Management. —In accordance with the statement of purpose made in the message to Congress of April 25, 1939, accompanying Reorganization Plan No. I, one of the Administrative Assistants to the President, authorized in the Reorganization Act of 1939, shall be designated by the President as Liaison Officer for Personnel Management and shall be in charge of the Liaison Office for Personnel Management. The functions of this office shall be: (a) To assist the President in the better execution of the duties imposed upon him by the provisions of the Constitution and the laws with respect to personnel management, especially the Civil Service Act of 1883, as amended, and the rules promulgated by the President under authority of that Act. (b) To assist the President in maintaining closer contact with all agencies dealing with personnel matters insofar as they affect or tend to determine the personnel management policies of the Executive Branch of the Government. 5. The Office of Government Reports. —(a) To provide a central clearing house through which individual citizens, organizations of citizens, State or local governmental bodies, and, where appropriate, agencies of the Federal Government may transmit inquiries and complaints and receive advice and information. (b) To assist the President in dealing with special problems requiring the clearance of information between the Federal Government and State and local Governments and private institutions. (c) To collect and distribute information concerning the purposes and activities of executive departments and agencies for the use of the Congress, administrative officials, and the public. (d) To keep the President currently informed of the opinions, desires, and complaints of citizens and groups of citizens and of State and local Governments with respect to the work of Federal agencies. (e) To report to the President on the basis of the information it has obtained possible ways and means for reducing the cost of the operation of the Government. III The Bureau of the Budget, the National Resources Planning Board, and the Liaison Office for Personnel Management shall constitute the three principal management arms of the Government for the (1) preparation and administration of the Budget and improvement of administrative management and organization, (2) planning for conservation and utilization of the resources of the Nation, and (3) coordination of the administration of personnel, none of which belongs in any department but which are necessary for the over-all management of the Executive Branch of the Government, so that the President will be enabled the better to carry out his Constitutional duties of informing the Congress with respect to the state of the Union, of recommending appropriate and expedient measures, and of seeing that the laws are faithfully executed. IV To facilitate the orderly transaction of business within each of the five divisions herein defined and to clarify the relations of these divisions with each other and with the President, I direct that the Bureau of the Budget, the National Resources Planning Board, the Liaison Office for Personnel Management, and the Office of Government Reports shall respectively prepare regulations for the governance of their internal organizations and procedures. Such regulations shall be in effect when approved by the President and shall remain in force until changed by new regulations approved by him. The President will prescribe regulations governing the conduct of the business of the division of The White House Office. V The Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall prepare a consolidated budget for the Executive Office of the President for submission by the President to the Congress. Annually, pursuant to the regular request issued by the Bureau of the Budget, each division of the Executive Office of the President shall prepare and submit to the Bureau estimates of proposed appropriations for the succeeding fiscal year. The form of the estimates and the manner of their consideration for incorporation in the Budget shall be the same as prescribed for other Executive departments and agencies. The Bureau of the Budget shall likewise perform with respect to the several divisions of the Executive Office of the President such functions and duties relating to supplemental estimates, apportionments, and budget administration as are exercised by it for other agencies of the Federal Government. VI Space already has been assigned in the State, War and Navy Building, adjacent to The White House, sufficient to accommodate the Bureau of the Budget with its various divisions (including the Central Statistical Board), the central office of the National Resources Planning Board, the Liaison Office for Personnel Management, and the Administrative Assistants to the President, and although for the time being, a considerable portion of the work of the National Resources Planning Board and all of that of the Office of Government Reports will have to be conducted in other quarters, if and when the Congress makes provision for the housing of the Department of State in a building appropriate to its function and dignity and provision is made for the other agencies now accommodated in the State, War and Navy Building, it then will be possible to bring into this building, close to The White House, all of the personnel of the Executive Office of the President except The White House Office. This Order shall take effect on September 11, 1939. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, September 8, 1939.