Executive Order 9666—Directing the Return of the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department

WHEREAS Executive Order No. 8929 of November 1, 1941 (6 F.R. 5581), directed that from that date and until further orders the Coast Guard should operate as a part of the navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy; and

WHEREAS the need for the operation of the Coast Guard as a part of the Navy no longer exists, its primary mission in operating as a part of the Navy having been accomplished;

NOW THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statues of the United States, including Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941 (55 Stat. 838), and as President of the United States, it is hereby directed that on and after January 1, 1946, the Coast Guard shall operate under the Department of the Treasury; and thereupon all authority, powers, and duties conferred upon or vested in the Secretary of the Navy by any law, proclamation or Executive order affecting the Coast Guard, enacted or promulgated during the period the Coast Guard has been operating as a part of the Navy and now in effect, shall, to the extent that they affect the Coast Guard, vest in and be exercised by the Secretary of the Treasury.

This order is subject to the following exceptions, provisions, and conditions:

1. In the interest of expeditious demobilization and other exigencies of the Naval Service, such Coast Guard vessels, facilities, and personnel as the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Navy may mutually agree upon shall continue to operate as a part of the Navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy, for such additional time beyond January 1, 1946, as the agreement may provide.

2. The Coast Guard shall continue, for such period as may be mutually agreeable to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Navy, Air-Sea Rescue functions and the maintenance and operation of mid-ocean weather stations and air-sea navigational aids, under the directional control of the Navy; and all vessels, facilities, equipment and supplies required by the Coast Guard in connection with the maintenance and operation of such activities and not required by the Naval Establishment are authorized to be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Department of the Treasury for the use of the Coast Guard.

3. In the initiation, prosecution, and completion of disciplinary action, including remission and mitigation of punishments for any offense committed by any officer or enlisted man of the Coast Guard, the jurisdiction shall depend upon and be in accordance with the laws and regulations of the department having jurisdiction of the person of such offender at the various stages of such action.

4. In effecting the transfer herein prescribed no change shall be made until June 30, 1946, in existing methods of appropriation accounting, or in existing methods of disbursement for the Coast Guard, which shall continue until that date to be performed as heretofore by officers of the Navy or Coast Guard designated under existing regulations for that purpose. The appropriation accounts of the Coast Guard shall be kept on the general ledgers of the Navy Department until June 30, 1946 after which date they shall be transferred to the Treasury Department.

The said Executive Order No. 8929 of November 1, 1941, is hereby revoked.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE,

December 28, 1945