Statement by the President Upon Signing Order Establishing the Interdepartmental Committee for Scientific Research and Development.

I HAVE today signed an Executive order establishing an Interdepartmental Committee for Scientific Research and Development. This Committee will maintain a continuing study of various aspects of the Federal Government's scientific programs and will recommend ways to make them most effective in promoting the national welfare. Its members will represent the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Interior; the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the National Military Establishment; the Federal Security Agency; the Atomic Energy Commission; the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics; the Veterans Administration; and the Smithsonian Institution.

The need for this Committee was emphasized in the recent report of the Chairman of the President's Scientific Research Board. The survey indicated there is no central group equipped to advise on the relationships among the numerous and complex Federal scientific activities, or to take leadership in the solution of administrative problems common to different agencies. The relationship of the Federal research program to our national welfare, and the great sums annually spent for research by the Government, make the establishment of such a group a matter of national importance.

The Interdepartmental Committee will perform for the entire Federal establishment functions similar to those now performed by committees and boards which coordinate research programs within single departments or among limited groups of departments. These functions will include review of administrative policies and techniques to increase the efficiency of scientific operations and examination of current policies and practices relating to Federal support of research carried on outside the Government. The Committee will encourage cooperation among the scientists of the various Government agencies and develop means by which information on research can be most effectively disseminated.

The Assistant to the President, John R. Steelman, will provide liaison between the President and the Interdepartmental Committee and between the office of the President and the Nation's scientists and their learned societies.