Statement by the President Announcing Steps Taken To Develop a Bipartisan Approach to Foreign Policy.

I ASKED Secretary Acheson and Senator Connally to call on me this morning for the purpose of canvassing in general the efforts that we are all making to devise ways of bringing about a true bipartisan approach to the consideration of our foreign policies.

I have been particularly interested in Senator Connally's plan to set up eight subcommittees of the Foreign Relations Committee, which subcommittee groups will correspond with the organizational structure of the State Department. This new procedure is a decided step forward in the matter of keeping the Committee, and through the Committee, the Senate, currently informed of State Department attitudes toward pending foreign policy issues.

This new approach will serve not only to provide mechanics for free interchange of information between State Department representatives and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but it will have the added advantage of quickening an interest on the part of the various consultative subcommittees in the particular areas of the world or the State Department functions for which they are given specific responsibility in this new Committee organizational arrangement.

I hope that the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives will see fit to adopt a somewhat similar pattern, in order that we may bring about greater understanding and confidence between State Department representatives and the Members of the Congress who represent the House and the Senate in the various fields of State Department operations.