Statement by the President Upon Announcing the Appointment of Consultants on Government Organization and Operations.

I AM PLEASED to announce the names of four men who have agreed to serve as consultants on major issues affecting the structure and operations of government. The men are:

Robert A. Lovett, of New York, former Secretary of Defense and Under Secretary of State.

Richard E. Neustadt of New York, Professor of Government at Columbia University, who served between last fall's election and the Inauguration as my special consultant on organizational matters.

Don K. Price of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dean of the Graduate School of Public Administration at Harvard University.

Sydney Stein, Jr., of Chicago, a partner in Stein, Roe, and Farnham, investment counsellors, formerly associated with the Bureau of the Budget in the field of government organization and management.

They will be consulted in matters where the disinterested advice of highly qualified and experienced men in private life may help us find effective solutions to problems of government organization and operation. They will not act as a committee nor will they 'hold regular meetings. Instead, they will be asked for advice as individuals, under flexible and informal arrangements suited to the needs of the problem at hand. Their regular point of contact will be the Budget Director, who will keep them informed of significant developments and emerging issues.

It is my conviction that the structure and operations of government must be continually adapted to constant changes in the requirements for governmental action and the methods of meeting those requirements. The consultants named today are exceptionally well equipped to help us conceive and carry through the necessary adaptations in timely and orderly fashion. I am grateful for their willingness to serve in this important capacity.

In view of these simpler and more flexible arrangements, the Advisory Committee on Government Organization, created in 1953, will no longer be necessary. Accordingly, I am terminating that Committee by Executive Order.

I am also terminating the Advisory Committee on Management Improvement, which was established in 1949 but has not functioned since 1952.