REORGANIZATION PLAN NO. 1 OF 1977

Last Updated on May 7, 2020 by LawEuro

From Title 5-Appendix
REORGANIZATION PLANS

REORGANIZATION PLAN NO. 1 OF 1977

42 F.R. 56101, 91 Stat. 1633, as amended Pub. L. 97–195, §1(c)(5), June 16, 1982, 96 Stat. 115

Prepared by the President and transmitted to the Senate and the House of Representatives in Congress assembled, July 15, 1977,¹ pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 9 of Title 5 of the United States Code.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Section 1. Redesignation of Domestic Council Staff

The Domestic Council staff is hereby designated the Domestic Policy Staff and shall consist of such staff personnel as are determined by the President to be necessary to assure that the needs of the President for prompt and comprehensive advice are met with respect to matters of economic and domestic policy. The staff shall continue to be headed by an Executive Director who shall be an Assistant to the President, designated by the President, as provided in Section 203 of Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1970. The Executive Director shall perform such functions as the President may from time to time direct.

Sec. 2. Establishment of an Office of Administration

There is hereby established in the Executive Office of the President the Office of Administration which shall be headed by the President. There shall be a Director of the Office of Administration. The Director shall be appointed by the President and shall serve as chief administrative officer of the Office of Administration. The President is authorized to fix the compensation and duties of the Director.

The Office of Administration shall provide components of the Executive Office of the President with such administrative services as the President shall from time to time direct.

Sec. 3. Abolition of Components

The following components of the Executive Office of the President are hereby abolished:

The Domestic Council;
The Office of Drug Abuse Policy;
The Office of Telecommunications Policy; and
The Economic Opportunity Council.

Sec. 4. Appointment of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information

There shall be in the Department of Commerce an Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. [As amended Pub. L. 97–195, §1(c)(5), June 16, 1982, 96 Stat. 115 .]

Sec. 5. Transfers of Functions

The following functions shall be transferred:

All functions vested in the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and in the Office of Science and Technology Policy pursuant to sections 205(a)(2), 206 and 209 of the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 (Public Law 94–282; 90 Stat. 459) [42 U.S.C. 6614(a)(2), 6615 and 6618], are hereby transferred to the Director of the National Science Foundation. The Intergovernmental Science, Engineering, and Technology Advisory Panel, the President’s Committee on Science and Technology, and the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, established in accordance with the provisions of Titles II, III, IV of the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 [42 U.S.C. 6611 et seq., 6631 et seq., and 6651 et seq.], are hereby abolished, and their functions transferred to the President.
Those functions of the Office of Telecommunications Policy and of its Director relating to:

(1) the preparation of Presidential telecommunications policy options including, but not limited to those related to the procurement and management of Federal telecommunications systems, national security, and emergency matters; and

(2) disposition of appeals from assignments of radio frequencies to stations of the United States Government;

are hereby transferred to the President who may delegate such functions within the Executive Office of the President as the President may from time to time deem desirable. All other functions of the Office of Telecommunications Policy and of its Director are hereby transferred to the Secretary of Commerce who shall provide for the performance of such functions.

The functions of the Office of Drug Abuse Policy and its Director are hereby transferred to the President, who may delegate such functions within the Executive Office of the President as the President may from time to time deem desirable.
The functions of the Domestic Council are hereby transferred to the President, who may delegate such functions within the Executive Office of the President as the President may from time to time deem desirable.
Those functions of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Environmental Quality relating to the evaluation provided for by Section 11 of the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 1974 (Public Law 93–577, 88 Stat. 1878) [42 U.S.C. 5910], are hereby transferred to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Those functions of the Office of Management and Budget and its Director relating to the Committee Management Secretariat (Public Law 92–463, 86 Stat. 770, as amended by Public Law 94–409, 90 Stat. 1247) [see section 7 of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Pub. L. 92–463, Oct. 6, 1972, 86 Stat. 770 , set out in this Appendix] are hereby transferred to the Administrator of General Services.
The functions of the Economic Opportunity Council are hereby transferred to the President, who may delegate such functions within the Executive Office of the President as the President may from time to time deem desirable.

Sec. 6. Incidental Transfers

So much of the personnel, property, records, and unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations and other funds employed, used, held, available, or to be made available in connection with the functions transferred under this Plan, as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall determine, shall be transferred to the appropriate department, agency, or component at such time or times as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall provide, except that no such unexpended balances transferred shall be used for purposes other than those for which the appropriation was originally made. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall provide for terminating the affairs of all agencies abolished herein and for such further measures and dispositions as such Director deems necessary to effectuate the purposes of this Reorganization Plan.

Sec. 7. Effective Date

This Reorganization Plan shall become effective at such time or times on or before April 1, 1978, as the President shall specify, but no sooner than the earliest time allowable under Section 906 of Title 5 of the United States Code.

[For Executive Orders setting effective dates of various provisions of Reorg. Plan No. 1 of 1977 pursuant to section 7 thereof, and further implementing such Reorg. Plan, see notes set out preceding 3 U.S.C. 101.]

Message of the President

To the Congress of the United States:

I herewith transmit my plan for the Reorganization of the Executive Office of the President (EOP), Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1977. This plan is the first of a series I intend to submit under the reorganization authority vested in me by the Reorganization Act of 1977 (Public Law 95–17) [5 U.S.C. 901–912]. It adheres to the purposes set forth in Section 901(a) of the Act [5 U.S.C. 901(a)].

This plan in conjunction with the other steps I am taking will:

Eliminate seven of the seventeen units now within the EOP and modify the rest. There were 19 units when I took office; the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the Economic Policy Board have already been abolished. Thus with this plan I will have eliminated nine of 19 EOP units.

Reduce EOP staffing by about 250 which includes the White House staff reduction of 134 or 28 percent which I have already ordered.

Improve efficiency by centralizing administrative functions; and

Improve the process by which information is provided for Presidential decisionmaking.

These recommendations arise from a careful, systematic study of the EOP. They are based on the premise that the EOP exists to serve the President and should be structured to meet his needs. They will reduce waste and cost while improving the service the President, and the nation, receive from the EOP.

The EOP now consists of the immediate White House Office, the Vice President’s Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and fourteen other agencies. The EOP has a budget authority of about $80,000,000 and 1,712 full time employees.

The White House Office concentrates on close personal support including policy and political advice and administrative and operational services. The Office of the Vice President provides similar support to him. OMB’s primary mission is to develop and implement the budget; it also carries out a number of management and reorganization activities.

Three EOP units have responsibility for policy development:

National Security Council.

Domestic Council.

Council on International Economic Policy.

The other 11 are more specialized offices that offer analysis and advice, help develop policy in certain areas, or carry out special projects. These are:

Council of Economic Advisers.

Council on Wage and Price Stability.

Office of the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations.

Council on Environmental Quality.

Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Office of Drug Abuse Policy.

Office of Telecommunications Policy.

Intelligence Oversight Board.

Federal Property Council.

Energy Resources Council.

Economic Opportunity Council.

To make the EOP more effective, four steps are necessary:

I. Strengthen management of policy issues.

II. Limit the EOP, wherever possible, to functions directly related to the President’s work.

III. Centralize administrative services.

IV. Reduce size of White House and EOP staffs.

i. strengthen process management of policy issues

Perhaps the most important function of the President’s staff is to make sure he has the wide variety of views and facts he needs to make decisions. By building a more orderly system for collecting information and advice, the President can make sure that he will hear all the views he should-and hear them in time. To better insure that this happens, I am taking the following actions to:

Institute for domestic and economic issues, a system similar to the Presidential Review Memorandum process currently used for National Security issues.

Create a committee of Presidential advisers, chaired by the Vice President, to set priorities among issues and oversee their staffing.

Assure that Presidential decision memoranda on policy issues are coordinated with Cabinet and EOP advisers most involved with the issue.

Consolidate under the Staff Secretary the two current White House paper circulation systems.

Appoint a group of advisers to review the decisionmaking process periodically.

Give the Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs and Policy clear responsibility for managing the way in which domestic and most economic policy issues are prepared for Presidential decision.

Assign follow-up responsibility for Presidential decisions as follows: immediate follow-up will be handled by the NSC or Domestic Policy Staff most directly involved in the issue; long term follow-up on selected issues will be handled by the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations.

These actions recognize that the White House and Executive Office staff must use their proximity to the President to insure that the full resources of the government and the public are brought to bear on Presidential decisions in a timely fashion. It is my purpose in instituting these changes to strengthen Cabinet participation in Presidential decisions.

ii. rationalize eop structure by limiting eop, wherever possible, to functions which bear a close relationship to the work of the president

As the President’s principal staff institution, there are several major things the EOP must do:

Provide day-to-day operational support (e.g. scheduling, appointments) and help the President communicate with the public, the Congress, and the press.

Manage the budget and coordinate Administration positions on matters before the Congress.

Manage the Presidential decisionmaking processes efficiently and fairly, and bring the President the widest possible range of opinions.

Help the President: plan and set priorities; monitor and evaluate progress toward achieving the President’s objectives; understand and resolve major conflicts among line subordinates; manage crises, especially in national security matters.

In order to restructure the EOP around these basic functions, the functions of seven units should be discontinued or transferred, and ten units, including the White House Office, should be retained but modified.

Seven units should be discontinued or their functions transferred. These are:

Office of Drug Abuse Policy.
Office of Telecommunications Policy.
Council on International Economic Policy.
Federal Property Council.
Energy Resources Council.
Economic Opportunity Council.
Domestic Council.

The functions of the Office of Drug Abuse Policy (ODAP) can be performed by a smaller staff reporting to a Presidential adviser in the EOP. The Office itself will be discontinued.

Much of the work done by the Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP) can be more effectively performed outside the EOP. It is important that the EOP have the capacity to resolve differences and that the President have immediate advice on telecommunications and information policy, especially on national security, emergency preparedness and privacy issues. This only requires a small staff within EOP. The Office of Management and Budget would take responsibility for Federal telecommunications procurement and management policy and arbitration of interagency disputes about frequency allocation. All other functions except developing Presidential policy options would be transferred to a new office within the Department of Commerce, headed by a new Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, who will perform many of the functions previously performed by the head of the OTP.

I propose that the Economic Opportunity Council be discontinued; it is dormant and its only active function (preparation of the Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance) is being performed by OMB. Three other units are also inactive and should be discontinued: Council on International Economic Policy, the Federal Property Council, and the Energy Resources Council.

The Domestic Council should be abolished. It has rarely functioned as a Council, because it is too large and its membership too diverse to make decisions efficiently. Its functions have been performed entirely by its staff. This Domestic Policy Staff should report to the Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs and Policy. Under the policy process system described earlier, they should manage the process which coordinates the making of domestic and most economic policy. They should work closely with the Cabinet departments and agencies to insure that the views of the Cabinet and agency heads are brought to the President before decisions are made.

The ten EOP units which will continue with some modification are:

White House Office.
Office of the Vice President.
Office of Management and Budget.
Council on Environmental Quality.
Council of Economic Advisers.
Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Office of the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations.
National Security Council.
Intelligence Oversight Board.
Council on Wage and Price Stability.

The operations of the Office of the Vice President reflect the combination of constitutional, statutory, and Presidentially assigned duties that make it unique among EOP units. Because his interests and assignments cover the same range as the President’s, the Vice President requires a staff with expertise in diverse areas. Its basic functions should not be changed. However, I propose that certain support functions-involving accounting, personnel services, and supply-be transferred to a centralized EOP Administrative Unit.

The Office of Management and Budget would remain as a separate entity in the EOP, but some functional changes should be made. Four functions should be transferred from OMB to other parts of the government:

Administration to the new EOP Central Administrative Unit;

Executive Department/Labor Relations (except for Pay Agent, Executive Level Pools, and Legislative Analysis) to the Civil Service Commission;

Advisory Committee Management Secretariat to the General Services Administration;

Statistical Policy (except Forms Clearance) to the Department of Commerce.

I have asked the OMB to reorganize its management arm to emphasize major Presidential initiatives, such as reorganization, program evaluation, paperwork reduction, and regulatory reform.

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) should remain in the EOP as an environmental adviser to the President. The CEQ’s major purpose is to provide an independent assessment of our policies for improving the environment. Toward this end, it will analyze long term trends and conditions in the environment. It will advise OMB on the reorganization of natural resources functions within the Federal Government. The Council will retain the functions it now has under NEPA and Executive Order No. 11514 with the exception of routine review of the adequacy of impact statements and the administrative aspects of their receipt and handling. The EPA will take over CEQ’s evaluation responsibility under the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research Development Act of 1974 [section 5901 et seq. of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare]. The CEQ will continue to review and publish the Annual Report on Environmental Quality.

The strength of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) lies in its economic analysis of current policy choices. It also presents objective economic data, makes macroeconomic forecasts, and analyzes economic trends and their impact on the national economy. It will continue with a small reduction in staff.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) should retain those science, engineering, and technology functions which can be so useful in helping the President and his advisers make decisions about policy and budget issues. Instead of the Intergovernmental Science, Engineering, and Technology Advisory Panels, the President should rely on an intergovernmental relations working group, chaired by the Science Adviser. The Federal Coordinating Council on Science and Technology should operate as a sub-Cabinet working group chaired by the Science Adviser. The reorganization work of the President’s Committee on Science and Technology would be part of the overall reorganization effort. The responsibility for preparing certain reports should be transferred to the National Science Foundation.

The proposal places manageable limits on OSTP’s broad mandate while emphasizing functions that support the President.

The Office of the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations (STR) is now operating effectively and will be retained essentially as is. With the difficult negotiations now underway in Geneva, the benefits of transferring the STR to another agency are outweighed by the potential reduction in its effectiveness as an international negotiator.

The National Security Council (NSC) will be retained in its present form and its staff slightly reduced.

Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) should be retained to insure that abuses of the past are not repeated and to emphasize Presidential concerns regarding intelligence issues.

The Council of Wage and Price Stability (COWPS) is a necessary weapon in the continuing fight against inflation and will be retained. To be sure that its work is closely coordinated with the economic analyses performed by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), COWPS should be directed by the Chairman of CEA.

iii. centralize administrative functions

About 380 (22 percent) of the full-time, permanent EOP personnel perform administrative support services in EOP units. Most EOP units besides the White House and OMB are too small to provide a full complement of administrative services. They depend on the White House, OMB, GSA, other federal departments, or several of these sources for many of these services. This approach is inefficient; the quality is uneven and the coordination poor. Some services are duplicated, others inconsistently distributed (excess capacity in some units and deficiencies in others), and most too costly.

I propose to combine administrative support operations into a Central Administrative Unit in EOP to provide support in administrative services common to all EOP entities. It should be a separate EOP entity because of the need to assure equal access by all other units.

This consolidation will result in:

Saving of roughly 40 positions and about $1.1 million improved and more innovative services.

A focus for monitoring the efficiency and responsibility of administrative services.

A base for an effective EOP budget/planning system through which the President can manage an integrated EOP rather than a collection of disparate units.

The EOP has never before been organized as a single, unified entity serving the President. It is only by viewing it as a whole that we can improve efficiency through steps like the Central Administrative Unit.

iv. reduce the size of white house and eop staffs

I am reducing the White House staff by 28 percent, from the 485 I inherited from my predecessor to 351. This involves cuts in my policy and administrative staffs as well as transfers to the Central Administrative Unit.

I estimate that this plan and the other steps I am taking will reduce staff levels in the EOP by about 250, from 1,712 full-time permanent positions to about 1,460 and will save the taxpayers at least $6 million.

As in the rest of the government, I will be reluctant to add staff unless necessary to help me do my job better.

I ask that you support me in improving the operations of the Executive Office of the President by approving the attached reorganization plan.

In summary this plan would:

Abolish the Domestic Council and establish a Domestic Policy Staff.

Establish within the EOP a Central Administrative Unit.

Transfer certain functions of the Council on Environmental Quality to the President for redelegation.

Abolish the Office of Drug Abuse Policy and vest functions in the President for redelegation.

Abolish the Office of Telecommunications Policy and transfer functions to the Department of Commerce and to the President for redelegation.

Create an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information.

Vest some Office of Science and Technology Policy functions in the President for redelegation.

Abolish the Economic Opportunity Council and vest those functions in the President for redelegation.

Transfer the Committee Management Secretariat function of the Office of Management and Budget to the President for redelegation.

Make other incidental transfers attendant to those mentioned above.

Each of the changes set forth in the plan accompanying this message is necessary to accomplish one or more of the purposes set forth in Section 901(a) of Title 5 of the United States Code. I have taken care to determine that all functions abolished by the plan are done so only under statutory authority provided by Section 903(b) of Title 5 of the United States Code. The provisions in the plan for the appointment and pay of any head or officer of any agency have been found by me to be necessary.

As we continue our studies of other parts of the Executive Branch, we will find more ways to improve services in the EOP and elsewhere. This plan is only a beginning, but I am confident that it represents a major step toward a more efficient government that will serve the needs of the people and the President well.

Jimmy Carter.

The White House, July 15, 1977.

¹ As amended Sept. 15, 1977.