Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Special Message to the Congress Transmitting Reorganization Plan 1 of 1956.

May 16, 1956

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1956, prepared in accordance with the Reorganization Act of 1949, as amended.

The reorganization plan is designed to improve the management of research and development programs in the Department of Defense. To this end, it establishes an office of assistant secretary for research and development in each of the three military departments. It thus places in effect an important recommendation of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government.

There is no function of the Department of Defense in which coordination leading to effectiveness and efficiency is of greater importance than in research and development. The National Security Act of 1947 established the Research and Development Board in the National Military Establishment. It was composed of representatives of the three military departments and a Chairman directly responsible to the Secretary of Defense, and it was intended to coordinate and eliminate undesirable duplication in the research and development programs of the three military departments. Time and experience proved that the Board was an organization unsuitable for the accomplishment of the required results. Reorganization Plan No. 6 of 1953 abolished the Research and Development Board and transferred its functions to the Secretary of Defense; further implementation of Reorganization Plan No. 6 resulted in the establishment of the office of Assistant Secretary of Defense (Research and Development) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The functions assigned to the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Research and Development) include assisting the Secretary of Defense on research and development aspects of Department of Defense policies, programs and plans, including capital and operating budgets. In carrying out those responsibilities, he must review the research and development programs of the military departments to see that they are well coordinated and that collectively they form a sound and integrated over-all Department of Defense program which is geared closely to current strategy.

At present the Department of the Army has a Director of Research and Development who reports directly to the Secretary of the Army. The Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air has, among his duties, responsibility for research and development. An Assistant Secretary of the Air Force has been devoting full time to research and development matters. These arrangements, although constituting a recognition of the importance of research and development, are not adequate in present circumstances. In the Department of the Air Force the existing arrangement, while suitable for research and development matters, has resulted in inadequate provision for the coordination of other vital Air Force activities at the assistant secretary level. I am persuaded that the situation requires an additional assistant secretary in each of the military departments.

Accordingly, the accompanying reorganization plan establishes in each military department an office of assistant secretary for research and development. Each of these new officers will assist the Secretary in the improved coordination of the research and development functions of the military department concerned. It is my intention to appoint to these new offices individuals experienced in scientific fields and capable of assisting their Secretaries full time in reviewing the research and development programs of the military departments to see that they are well coordinated. Thus, the military departments will be uniformly equipped with technically skilled, full-time officials with the rank of Assistant Secretary charged with assisting the Secretaries of the military departments in the coordination of research and development functions. These officials, together with the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Research and Development), will collectively form an improved organizational arrangement for the coordination of sound and interrelated research and development programs throughout the Department of Defense.

After investigation, I have found, and I hereby declare, that each reorganization included in the reorganization plan transmitted herewith is necessary to accomplish one or more of the purposes set forth in section 2 (a) of the Reorganization Act of 1949, as amended. I have found and hereby declare that it is necessary to include in the accompanying reorganization plan, by reason of reorganizations made thereby, provisions for the appointment and compensation of an assistant secretary for research and development in each of the military departments. The rates of compensation for those officers are those prevailing for comparable officers in the executive branch of the Government.

While the taking effect of the reorganizations included in the plan will not bring about immediate savings, it is probable that it will bring about substantial long-run reductions of expenditures and also greater effectiveness of administration. An itemization of reductions in expenditures in advance of actual experience under the reorganization plan is not practicable.

The reorganization plan is another step in our continuing efforts to provide the best defense organization possible. I urge the Congress to permit it to become effective.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Note: Reorganization Plan 1 of 1956 is published in the Congressional Record (vol. 102, p. 7449) and in House Document 405 (84th Cong., 2d sess.).

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Special Message to the Congress Transmitting Reorganization Plan 1 of 1956. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232871

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