taries. The resolution as well as the wisdom with which the Deputy Under Secretaries act will, of course, determine the success of the new arrangement in relieving the Secretary and Under Secretary of part of their great burden. Given strong support from their superiors, the two Deputies should be able to accomplish much in removing from the Department the "individualistic tradition" (as the Commission report calls it) whereby many men long established in the Department will never take "no" as a final answer unless it comes from the Secretary himself.

To appreciate the top staff organization contemplated in the departmental reorganization, it is necessary to consider the roles not only of the two Assistant Secretaries who will be Deputy Under Secretaries but also of the other Assistant Secretaries and the agencies within the Department for integrating the making of policy and insuring immediacy and strength in the execution of policy.

B. THE OTHER ASSISTANT SECRETARIES

The other eight Assistant Secretaries will include the five who head the line agencies as considered in the discussion of the principle of clear line of authority. They will include three whose jobs will be primarily of a staff rather than line character. These are the Assistant Secretaries for Economic and Social Affairs, Congressional Affairs, and Public Affairs.

The job of the Assistant Secretary, Economic and Social Affairs, as envisaged in the report of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch, will be to

concentrate on providing a source of economic, social, and other advice from a global standpoint and upon serving as a channel of communication and focal point of coordination with the other departments and agencies in the executive branch.

To understand this function, it is well to refer again to the two organization charts. The third cluster of units on the operating line in the chart representing the present organization of the Department disappears in the chart of the contemplated set-up. The line functions are to be absorbed into the five operating units in the new chart, placed back in the agencies of the executive establishment exercising related functions, or, to a limited extent, retained in the establishment of the new Assistant Secretary for Economic and Social Affairs. In the main, however, that establishment is to confine itself to staff work; the practice of setting up within the Department economic units which duplicate the knowledge and interests of other agencies of the Government is to be curtailed—or at least such is the hope. The observations of the report of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch are again in point:

The staff advisers under the Assistant Secretary, Economic and Social Affairs, must be consulted by the action units, but their concurrence in proposed action should not be required. A very small group of functional advisers should suffice for these purposes and they should not seek to duplicate as at present the staffs of other departments and agencies or the functional specialists assigned to the State Department's regional action units. The other departments and agencies should, in the main, be relied upon for information within their special competencies, both domestic and foreign.

* * * There are limited occasions when the action requirements of the Department will transcend the four regional and the one international organization units and where action with respect to individual countries must be taken

on a global basis. An example is the handling of trade agreements. To this limited extent this staff unit is a hybrid organization with some action responsibilities. The top command of the State Department must take particular care that this limited action responsibility does not afford an "empire building" device *

The job of Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs is to be the same as at present. As described in the Commission's report, the responsibility will be that of

establishing a coordinated program of two-way liaison with the Congress. The report adds:

It is not intended that this Assistant Secretary should serve as the exclusive channel of communication between the State Department and the Congress. On frequent occasions the Secretary and the Under Secretary will be called upon to consult with congressional leaders. In addition, the Assistant Secretary will have to be able to call upon various specialists within the Department to provide information on technical phases of foreign-affairs activities. He will also have to work with the budget officers of the State Department in connection with appropriation matters. * Finally, as a minor but significant part of his work, the Assistant Secretary should be the medium whereby the State Department provides helpful services to the Members of Congress. * * *

* *

The Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs will, in the phrase of the Commission's report

Leentrate on serving as a high-level staff adviser on domestic and foreign public opinion, and as chief of press relations and other media of public relations for the State Department.

The report adds:

* he should observe and give policy guidance to foreign information and educational exchange programs, the operational responsibility for which should be in a "general manager" reporting to the Assistant Secretary. A precedent for the relationship envisaged between the Assistant Secretary and the "general manager" is that which recently existed between the Under Secretary and the Coordinator for Aid to Greece and Turkey where the latter, with effective backing from the Under Secretary, ran the operational program without interference from other segments of the Department.

C. THE LEGAL ADVISER, THE COUNSELOR, AND THE SPECIAL ASSISTANT FOR INTELLIGENCE

The top staff is to include also the Legal Adviser, the Counselor, and a special assistant for intelligence.

The office of Legal Adviser exists under present practice. The bill makes no change with respect to it. This is in accord with the recommendation of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch. The office of Counselor is likewise maintained. This is contrary to the recommendation of the Commission. It is believed desirable, the Commission's view notwithstanding, that the post be maintained so that the Secretary of State will have a confidential adviser who is not a person directly in the line of responsibility related to current problems. The Counselor, in the new organizational plan, is to head the planning staff, which is maintained from the present organization. The Counselor will thus take on the functions of the Secretary's planning adviser as dealt with as follows in the Commission's report:

The Secretary of State should continue the present high level planning activity under a planning adviser, with special emphasis on freeing him and his staff of current problems, upon providing him with broad-gage staff, and upon utilization by him of competent advice from inside and outside the Government.

This committee has noted also the following observations from the Commission's report:

The present policy planning staff has been a valuable aid to the top command of the State Department, especially as an "anticipator" of problems. At present, however, its effectiveness appears to have been lessened by a tendency of the top command to utilize it on day-to-day problems, by its almost exclusive reliance for its staff on individuals with Foreign Service backgrounds, and by its reluctance to draw sufficiently upon the resources of other departments and agencies except possibly those of the National Military Establishment. These weaknesses should be corrected.

As to the special assistant for intelligence, a post not requiring specific statutory authorization, the committee has taken note of the following language in the relevant report of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch:

The present misconception of the intelligence needs of the State Department must be eradicated. The creation of revitalized regional units on the action side should tend to correct the current deplorable attitude of the existing geographic offices toward intelligence. The reorientation of the centralized intelligence activities by deemphasis of academic reseafch and increased attention on current estimates and evaluations and to serving and making use of the Central Intelligence Agency is required. the existing intelligence unit appears to expend too much of its energies on projects which do not contribute sufficiently to the main work of the State Department.

*.* *

The committee is advised that the Department has under current study the question of the role of the intelligence function within the Department. Improved practice and sounder theory may be expected to be realized in this phase of the Department's work in connection with the fundamental improvement of staff and operations hoped for in this legislation.

D. THE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE AND THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT

Integrators at the top level will be the Operations Committee, consisting of the Under Secretary and the 10 Assistant Secretaries and the Secretariat. Here the discussion of top-level staff again verges on the subject of chain of authority: The observations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch are in point, and bring into focus the importance of the new role of Deputy Under Secretary:

The Operations Committee should meet frequently, perhaps daily. The Under Secretary, when present, should preside, although as a general rule the Deputy Under Secretary on the substantive side, as a kind of combined deputy chairman and executive secretary, would probably carry the bulk of the responsibility. The present Executive Secretariat should provide "secretarial" and "staff assistance." This assistance would include maintenance of a file on pending problems, preparation of agenda, and organization of documentation for meetings, preparation of post-meeting reports and transmission of decisions to the heads of action units, and following up to make sure that action is actually taken.

The provision of a top-level head for the Operations Committee, particularly by making it the primary responsibility of the Deputy Under Secretary, plus the selection of a man for that post with the will to make the committee work, and the provision of staff assistance by the Executive Secretariat, should meet two of the past difficulties which defeated less ambitious attempts. *

*

*

The Department has already proceeded with the establishment of an adequate Operations Committee, which meets thrice weekly rather than daily as suggested by the Commission. The Executive Secretariat is also functioning. These two agencies will continue regardless of what action may be taken on the current bill. They are significant,

however, as indications of the will in the Department to bring about a more rigorous ordering of affairs. They fill the need, in a phrase from the Commission's report, of a

coordinating link between the action and staff segments and between the various units within each segment.

The report goes on to observe:

Serious present weaknesses are the lack of any systematic means of bringing problems to the top command level and, conversely, of insuring that the various Assistant Secretaries are advised of what takes place at the top level. High-level committees have been suggested on past occasions, but the efforts to place them in operation have proved abortive largely because of inadequate top-level support; the absence of any secretariat and staff assistance; and the inclusion of too many individuals as participants in the meetings. Failure to overcome the individualisthe tradition of the Department whereby senior career officers insist upon direct access to the Secretary and Under Secretary has also been a factor.

The new establishment at the top level, working through the improved chain of command, should insure, throughout the Department, vigorous action and immediate responsiveness to the directing

It should be another significant element in enabling the Department to come fully to grips with the problems of the United States in international life.

APPENDIX I

COMPARISON OF H. R. 3559, SECTION BY SECTION, WITH EXISTING

LEGISLATION

PROPOSED LEGISLATION Section 1. That there shall be in the Department of State in addition to the Secretary of State an Under Secretary of State and ten Assistant Secretaries of State.

EXISTING LEGISLATION

Department of State Appropriation Act, 1949-Appropriation "Salaries and expenses, Department of State" provides: " * * * salary of the Under Secretary of State, $12,000;" (Public Law 597-Eightieth Congress).

Section 200 of the Revised Statutes. There shall be in the Department of State an Assistant Secretary of State, and a Second Assistant Secretary of State, each of whom shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall be entitled to a salary of six thousand dollars a year, to be paid monthly (R. S. 200, 10 Stat. 212, 14 Stat. 226, 17 Stat. 486).

The Act of June 20, 1874 (18 Stat. 90) under the heading "Department of State" authorized one additional Assistant Secretary of State, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and to be known as the Third Assistant Secretary of State.

Section 22 of the Act of May 24, 1924 (43 Stat. 146). The titles "Second Assistant Secretary of State" and "Third Assistant Secretary of State" shall

PROPOSED LEGISLATION

EXISTING LEGISLATION

hereafter be known as "Assistant Secretary of State" without numerical distinction of rank; but the change of title shall in no way impair the commissions, salaries, and duties of the present incumbents.

There is hereby established in the Department of State an additional "Assistant Secretary of State," who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall be entitled to compensation at the rate of $7,500 per annum.

The position of Director of the Consular Service is abolished and the salary provided for that office is hereby made available for the salary of the additional Assistant Secretary of State herein authorized.

The Act of December 8, 1944 (58 Stat. 798). There shall be in the Department of State, beginning immediately for the period of the emergency and not to exceed two years following the cessation of hostilities, two additional Assistant Secretaries of State, each of whom shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and who shall serve without numerical designation of rank.

The Act of June 24, 1948 (Public Law 767, Eightieth Congress), provides: "That the Act of December 8, 1944 (58 Stat. 798), is hereby amended by deleting the words 'not to exceed two years' and inserting in lieu thereof, the words 'not to exceed three years'.'

EXPLANATION AND COMMENT

Section 1 provides basic authority for the position of Under Secretary; increases the number of permanent Assistant Secretaries from 4 to 10.

The position and salary of the Under Secretary of State have been authorized in the annual Department of State appropriation acts, including the current act, since the fiscal year 1920. The position of Under Secretary of State is referred to in section 152, title 5, United States Code.

The positions of six Assistant Secretaries of State are presently authorized by law; however, the authority for two of these positions expires December 31, 1949. Currently, the positions of the Assistant Secretaries of State are classified pursuant to the civil-service laws and regulations, and the incumbents are compensated in accordance with the provisions of the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, receiving: $10,330 per annum (5 U. S. C. 152).