Telegram to the Director, Office of Cost Reduction, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
I WANT to take this opportunity to congratulate NASA and its participating contractors on the accomplishments of the NASA-Contractor Cost Reduction Program and to wish you a successful Seminar.
The continued strength of this country depends upon our ability to provide for national security, to meet our international obligations, and to pursue important endeavors here at home within budget limitations that will enable us to maintain a sound and healthy economy. This means that we must continue to look for better and less costly ways to do the job. I intend to continue to emphasize the necessity for efficiency and economy throughout the government and in concerns that are doing business or seeking to do business with the government.
NASA and its contractors have started a fine Cost Reduction Program. This program has already saved NASA $200 million. I am confident that your participation in this Seminar will stimulate further progress in this very important effort.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
[Mr. Brooks C. Preacher, Director, Office of Cost Reduction, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, c/o NASA-Industry Cost Reduction Seminar, Ling-Temco-Vought Tower, Dallas, Tax. 75221]
Note: In a cost reduction report made public by the White House on February 15, Lawson B. Knott, Jr., Administrator of General Services, stated that the Federal Government had avoided $11.1 million in costs as a result of the President's directive of January 9, 1965, which placed a moratorium on purchases of new file cabinets and required a reduction in the purchase of office furniture and typewriters. The report pointed out that cost reduction had been achieved through use of rehabilitated and used equipment and by retiring records to low-cost storage space in Federal Records Centers (2 Weekly Comp. Pres. Docs., p. 221).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Telegram to the Director, Office of Cost Reduction, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237557