Letter Merging The National Defense Power Committee and the National Power Policy Committee.

My dear Mr. Secretary:

I Find that the National Defense Power Committee of which you are chairman and the National Power Policy Committee of which Secretary Ickes is chairman are made up of representatives of virtually the same departments and agencies, and that their work is closely related and in many respects overlapping. I have therefore concluded that it would be wise to consolidate the two committees, and I am hereby transferring the work of the National Defense Power Committee to the National Power Policy Committee, which shall be constituted as follows:

Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, Chairman.

Louis Johnson, Assistant Secretary of War.

Leland Olds, Commissioner, Federal Power Commission.

Jerome N. Frank, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission.

John Carmody, Administrator, Federal Works Agency.

Harry Slattery, Administrator, Rural Electrification Administration.

David E. Lilienthal, Director, Tennessee Valley Authority.

Paul J. Raver, Administrator, The Bonneville Project.

In order that electric power policies be integrated with the longer-range and more comprehensive programs of the National Resources Planning Board, I am asking Mr. Frederic A. Delano to sit with the Committee as an observer, and I propose to refer the reports of the Committee to the Board to be examined with this end in view.

All personnel, allotments and funds now available for the work of the National Defense Power Committee and the National Power Policy Committee, as well as all files and records connected with such work, shall be made available to the National Power Policy Committee as above constituted.

It shall maintain such staff as may be necessary to carry out the duties devolving on it, but shall avail itself so far as feasible of the service of other departments and agencies of the United States Government for assistance in the performance of its duties, including the preparation of data, surveys, and studies pertaining to questions of electric power supply, transmission, distribution and consumption.

The National Power Policy Committee shall devote itself to the development of a national power policy in the interest of national defense as well as peace time needs. It shall consider power problems common to the several departments and agencies represented on the Committee, with a view to the coordinated development of a consistent Federal power policy. It shall deal with matters of cooperation between the public and private agencies supplying electric power. It shall advise me in matters of national power policy.

The National Defense Power Committee has completed the major part of its work of estimating the probable power needs of the nation in peace and in war. The National Power Policy Committee should be in a position, therefore, to give its first attention to the immediate concrete steps necessary to assure the meeting of these needs.

Very sincerely yours,

Honorable Louis Johnson,

Assistant Secretary of War.