Statement by the President Upon Appointing Members of the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific Research and Development.
THE RELATIONSHIP of the Federal research program to our national welfare and the money spent annually for research by the Government make the establishment of this Committee a matter of national importance.
The Committee will recommend to the President, and to the heads of the Federal agencies concerned, steps to make research and development programs most effective in the promotion of the national welfare. Among the specific assignments of the Committee will be a study of changes in the administrative policies and procedures to increase the efficiency of the Federal research and development programs.
The Committee has also been asked to report upon current policies and administrative practices relating to Federal support for research such as grants and contracts for basic research.
In carrying on its functions, the Committee has been asked to obtain the advice of persons outside the Federal Government and to propose means by which information relating to the status and results of scientific research undertaken by the Federal agencies can be most effectively disseminated.
Note: The statement was issued as part of a White House release announcing that the President had appointed Dr. Alexander Wetmore, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee, and Dr. Thomas B. Nolan, Assistant Director of the Geological Survey, as vice chairman. The release also listed the names of the twelve other members.
The Committee was established by Executive Order 9912 of December 24, 1947 (3 CFR, 1943_ 1948 Comp., p. 676).
Harry S Truman, Statement by the President Upon Appointing Members of the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific Research and Development. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234061