Herbert Hoover photo

Statement About Congressional Action on Reorganization of the Executive Branch.

February 24, 1932

THE PRESIDENT said:

"I am delighted that the Congress is earnestly taking up the reorganization of the Federal machinery. I will be entirely happy if my repeated messages to the Congress on the subject succeed in securing action in an effective fashion.

"It is a most unpleasant task to abolish boards and bureaus and to consolidate others, and at the same time it is a difficult job to do it so wisely as not to injure the efficiency and morale of our Army and Navy and other essential Government services. Congress has attempted repeatedly in the last 25 years to effect reorganizations and has always abandoned the efforts under a multitude of oppositions. My suggestion for the past 5 years has been that the responsibility should be lodged with the Executive with the right of Congress to review the actions taken. I, of course, continue to entertain that belief, because of the failures of the past, and I believe results would be most expeditiously and efficiently accomplished if responsibility is lodged with someone to do it.

"There is more hope now than heretofore that Congress will act cause of the transcendent need for economy. The large number of investigations and reports which have been made over the last 25 years furnish the material and advice necessary for rapid action. I hope it will be done with such expedition as to give prompt relief to the taxpayers."

Note: As of February 24, 1932, the House of Representatives had created a seven-man Select Committee on Economy to investigate the possibilities of consolidation. The committee was chaired by Representative Joseph W. Byrns of Tennessee.

Herbert Hoover, Statement About Congressional Action on Reorganization of the Executive Branch. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/208322

Filed Under

Categories

Simple Search of Our Archives