Letter to Secretary Boyd on the Need for Interchange of Personnel Between Government and Private Enterprise.

[Released September 21, 1968. Dated September 15, 1968]

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Nothing is more important to the future of the nation than close cooperation between government and private enterprise. One of our most urgent concerns must be to develop greater opportunities for collaboration and interchange between the public and private sectors.

We must encourage promising young men and women who are headed for the top in government and business to spend a portion of their careers in a challenging assignment in the other sector. This will enrich government and business by providing an infusion of talent and fresh perspective. Equally important, it will give the most promising career personnel in each sector valuable insight into the problems and approaches of the other. The benefit to the nation of greater understanding between leaders of government and business cannot be overestimated.

To foster the flow of promising young men and women between the public and private sectors, I have today established an Advisory Panel on Personnel Interchange. The Panel's mission is to develop a positive and practical program for the interchange of promising young executives between government and private enterprise, which will give them an immersion experience in the other sector at an important working level. I would like you to serve as the Chairman of this Panel.

I attach a list of those I am asking to serve with you on this Panel. It includes members from business, government, and academic life. A number of government departments and agencies are represented, and I have instructed them to support in every way the work of the Panel.

I hope the Panel will consider such questions as:

--the shape and extent of the program;

--the age and level of personnel who should participate;

--methods of attracting and selecting the participants best qualified for such a program;

--what assignment procedures will permit the best utilization of their abilities and potential;

--the ideal period of interchange service;

--how to assure that actual and apparent conflicts of interest will be avoided;

--the handling of salaries, fringe benefits and moving expenses under this program;

--what government and industry should do to ensure that participants are not adversely affected by temporary absence from their career employers;

--what legislation, if any, would be needed or helpful in implementing this program.

I would like the Panel to consider these and any other problems which should be resolved in formulating a working interchange operation. I will also welcome recommendations from the Panel on any other steps or programs which it feels will foster the free flow of personnel between the government and other areas of our free enterprise system.

The Panel should report its recommendations to me not later than December 15, 1968. I hope this important task will be given the highest priority by every member of the Panel.

Sincerely,

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

[Honorable Alan S. Boyd, Secretary of Transportation, Washington, D.C.]