Letters to Congressional Leaders Concerning Reorganization of the Executive Branch.

My dear Mr. Vice President:

Last October I began holding some conversations with interested and informed persons concerning what appealed to me as the necessity for making a careful study of the organization of the Executive branch of the Government.

Many new agencies have been created during the emergency, some of which will, with the recovery, be dropped or greatly curtailed, while others, in order to meet the newly realized needs of the Nation, will have to be fitted into the permanent organization of the Executive branch. One object of such a study would be to determine the best way to fit the newly created agencies or such parts of them as may become more or less permanent into the regular organization. To do this adequately and to assure the proper administrative machinery for the sound management of the Executive branch, it is, in my opinion, necessary also to study as carefully as may be the existing regular organization. Conversations on this line were carried on by me during November and December, and I then determined to appoint a committee which would assist me in making such a study, with the primary purpose of considering the problem of administrative management. It is my intention shortly to name such a committee, with instructions to make its report to me in time so that the recommendations which may be based on the report may be submitted to the 75th Congress.

The Senate already has established a special committee to consider certain aspects of this same problem, and I write to you to ask that the Senate, through its special committee, cooperate with me and with the committee which I shall name in making this study, in order that duplication of effort in the task of research may be avoided and to the end that it may be as fruitful as possible.

Sincerely yours,

The last paragraph of the letter to the Speaker read as follows:

The Senate has named a special committee to consider aspects of this general problem, and I respectfully suggest that the House of Representatives also create a special committee of a similar character through which the House of Representatives could co-operate with me and with the committee that I shall name in making this study in order that duplication of effort in the task of research may be avoided and to the end that this study may be made as fruitful as possible.

Very sincerely yours,