Special Message to the Congress Transmitting Reorganization Plan 17 of 1950.

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith Reorganization Plan No. 17 of 1950, prepared in accordance with the Reorganization Act of 1949. The plan transfers the functions of the General Services Administration relating to the advance planning of non-Federal public works and the management and disposal of certain war public works to the Housing and Home Finance Agency. My reasons for transmitting this plan are stated in an accompanying general message.

After investigation I have found and hereby declare that each reorganization included in Reorganization Plan No. 17 is necessary to accomplish one or more of the purposes set forth in section 2(a) of the Reorganization Act of 1949.

The first of the transfers provided for by this plan will result in the more economical administration of those activities of the Federal Government which are concerned with the over-all planning and development of communities. The concentration of responsibility in a single agency will make it possible to so integrate administration as to avoid duplication of technical staffs and to simplify relationships with state and local agencies. Moreover, by reducing the likelihood that the two programs involved will be administered at cross-purposes or in conflict with each other, it can be expected that the money expended will achieve greater benefits than would be likely under the present distribution of responsibility. It is not, however, possible to itemize the reduction in expenditures which will result, chiefly because both programs are of recent origin and are still undergoing expansion.

The transfer of the war public works functions will lead to modest savings by consolidating the responsibility for the management and disposal of all properties built or acquired under the Lanham Act of 1940, as amended, in the agency which already has the greater part of the total job. The fact that it will become possible to manage and dispose of public facilities serving emergency housing developments without the interagency negotiation which is now necessary will lead to economies, although they cannot be itemized or predicted with exactness.

HARRY S. TRUMAN