Special Message to the Congress Transmitting Reorganization Plan 27 of 1950.

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith Reorganization Plan No. 17 of 1950, prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949. This plan will create a Department of Health, Education and Security, as one of the executive departments of the Government, and will transfer to it the functions and constituent units of the Federal Security Agency. The Department will be headed by a Secretary of Health, Education and Security, who will be vested with essentially the same duties and authority as are now vested in the Federal Security Administrator.

It is unnecessary to recite again the considerations which make the creation of such a department desirable. As I pointed out in my message transmitting Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1949, such action has repeatedly been recommended by my predecessors and myself, as well as by others who have studied our Government organization. The scope and importance of the functions of the Federal Security Agency plainly warrant departmental status. I feel that there should be no further delay in effecting this essential reorganization.

The present plan is designed to meet the major objections which were raised in opposition to the 1949 plan when it was disapproved by the Senate. A principal criticism of the 1949 plan was that, in centralizing all statutory authority in the Secretary, as recommended by the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, the plan threatened in matters of health and education unduly to subordinate professional judgment to nonprofessional domination. The present plan is not open to this criticism.

Under the present plan, the Surgeon General and the Commissioner of Education retain all the statutory authority and duties now vested in them. The Public Health Service and the Office of Education remain intact as statutory entities with statutory functions. The Surgeon General and the Commissioner of Education will have the same relationship to the Secretary of the new Department that they now have to the Federal Security Administrator.

Furthermore, the present plan provides that the Surgeon General, and the Commissioner of Education, along with the Commissioner of Social Security, will report directly to the Secretary. This provision assures that these officials can deal directly with the Secretary in the performance of all matters in their respective fields of responsibility, and the Secretary will thus be in a position to transmit their views to the President and the Congress. It represents an additional safeguard against the fear of the possibility that the views of these officials could be unduly subordinated.

A further difference between this plan and last year's plan is in the name of the new Department. In the minds of some the title "Department of Welfare", which was used in the 1949 plan, did not adequately comprehend the health and educational functions and implied their subordination. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, the present plan uses the longer and more explicit title, "Department of Health, Education and Security".

The present plan retains one of the major advantages of the 1949 plan, namely, to permit the Secretary to establish central administrative services for the Department in the interest of efficiency and economy. will be able, if he finds such purposes will be served, to centralize for the Department such services as procurement, budgeting and accounting. This grant of authority is specifically limited so as not to infringe on the substantive professional responsibilities retained by officials within the Department.

Another advantage of the plan is that it provides for a uniform method of appointment for the positions of the Surgeon General, the Commissioner of Education, and the Commissioner of Social Security. Today, two of the three positions are filled by Presidential appointment, while the third is filled by appointment by the Administrator. Though the Surgeon General must be selected from the commissioned regular corps of the Public Health Service, no professional qualifications are now prescribed by law for the other two posts. The present plan provides that all three positions be filled by Presidential appointment, subject to Senate confirmation. In each case, appropriate professional qualifications are required and the selection of the Surgeon General from the commissioned corps will become discretionary rather than mandatory.

To the extent that this plan would give departmental status to the agency administering the social security and education functions, it is in accord with the one recommendation of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch for the creation of a new executive department. I recognize, as I did last year, that the Commission made a further recommendation with respect to the organization of the health functions of the Government. The adoption of this plan will not in any way interfere with further adjustments in the functions of the new Department either by statute or reorganization plan.

After investigation I have found and hereby declare that each reorganization included in Reorganization Plan No. 27 of 1950 is necessary to accomplish one or more of the purposes set forth in section 2(a) of the Reorganization Act of 1949. I also have found and hereby declare that by reason of these reorganizations it is necessary to include in the reorganization plan provisions for the appointment and compensation of the following officers: Secretary of Health, Education and Security, Under Secretary of Health, Education and Security, Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Security, Administrative Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Security, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, Commissioner of Education, and Commissioner of Social Security. The rates of compensation fixed for these officers are, respectively, those which I have found to prevail in respect of comparable officers of the executive branch of the Government.

The reorganization plan will go far toward providing the status and type of organization which the magnitude and importance of the functions now administered by the Federal Security Agency demand. It will facilitate coordination with other major segments of the executive branch through the granting of Cabinet status. It will provide a more adequate supervisory structure and will contribute to administrative efficiency and economy. Consistent with the reorganization act itself, the plan neither provides for any new program nor extends or enlarges existing programs beyond the scope of present legislation.

While it is not practicable at this time to estimate the savings that will accrue from the plan, modest but worthwhile economies will result from the factors already cited together with the authority conferred by the plan to improve the administration of the services common to the various agencies of the Department.

The creation of this new Department is long overdue. While I do not believe that the criticisms advanced against Plan No. 1 of 1949 were well-founded, the present plan has been substantially modified to meet them. I recognize that as a result the present plan falls short of what I would regard, and what the Commission on Organization regarded, as the clearest lines of responsibility and authority within executive departments. Nevertheless, in my judgment, the present plan is still an important step forward toward better organization of the executive branch. It provides an adequate basis for establishing this new executive department. I strongly urge that the Congress allow this reorganization plan to become effective.

HARRY S. TRUMAN