The Reorganization Act of 1939, , is an American Act of Congress which gave the president of the United States the authority to hire additional confidential staff and reorganize the executive branch (within certain limits) for two years subject to legislative veto.Dickinson, Matthew J. Bitter Harvest: FDR, Presidential Power and the Growth of the Presidential Branch. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. It was the first major, planned reorganization of the executive branch of the government of the United States since 1787.Mosher, Frederick C. American Public Administration: Past, Present, Future. 2d ed. Birmingham, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1975. The act led to Reorganization Plan No. 1,"Message to Congress on the Reorganization Act." April 25, 1939. John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters. The American Presidency Project. Santa Barbara, Calif.: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). which created the Executive Office of the President.
1937 bill
As Governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt had a reputation for reorganizing government in order to achieve efficiency.Olson, James Stuart. Historical Dictionary of the Great Depression, 1929–1940. Santa Barbara, calif.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. The Economy Act of 1933, enacted in Roosevelt's Hundred Days to combat the Great Depression, gave the president the authority to engage in limited reorganization of the executive branch in order to achieve economic recovery goals.Karl, Barry Dean. Executive Reorganization and Reform in the New Deal: The Genesis of Administrative Management, 1900–1939. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1963. But the president took no action during the two-year term of authority granted by the act.Weir, Margaret; Orloff, Ann Shola; and Skocpol, Theda. The Politics of Social Policy in the United States. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988. Roosevelt blamed inaction on the crises brought on by the Great Depression. See: Polenberg, Richard. Reorganizing Roosevelt's Government: The Controversy Over Executive Reorganization, 1936–1939. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1966. By 1935, however, the keystone of the New Deal (the National Industrial Recovery Act) had been declared unconstitutional and Roosevelt's views on how to effect recovery had shifted away from economic intervention and toward social justice (a legislative program known as the "Second New Deal").Polenberg, Richard. Reorganizing Roosevelt's Government: The Controversy Over Executive Reorganization, 1936–1939. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1966.Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M. The Age of Roosevelt, Vol. 3: The Politics of Upheaval, 1935–1936. Paperback ed. New York: Mariner Books, 2003. (Originally published 1960.) ; Brinkley, Alan. The End Of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War. Paperback ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1996. ; Shogan, Robert. Backlash: The Killing of the New Deal. Chicago, Ivan R. Dee, 2006. ; Venn, Fiona. The New Deal. New York: Taylor & Francis, 1999. Many influential members of Congress, political scientists, and public administration experts had strongly criticized Roosevelt's preference for the proliferation of executive branch agencies, a strategy used by him to experiment with responses to the Great Depression, as inefficient.Calabresi, Steven G. and Yoo, Christopher S. The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008.
On March 22, 1936, Roosevelt established the Committee on Administrative Management (commonly known as the Brownlow Committee) and charged it with developing proposals for reorganizing the executive branch. The three-person committee consisted of Louis Brownlow, Charles Merriam, and Luther Gulick.Parrish, Michael E. The Hughes Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2002. Gulick's POSDCORB served as the basis and framing idea and not all parts of their team's research was used. Their work revealed a profound constitutional understanding and confidence, not only about improving public management, but how to improve democracy within the American administrative state. On January 8, 1937, the committee released its report. Famously declaring "The President needs help,"U.S. President’s Committee on Administrative Management. Report of the President’s Committee. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1937, p. 5. the committee's report advocated a strong chief executive, including among its 37 recommendations significant expansion of the presidential staff, integration of managerial agencies into a single presidential office, expansion of the merit system, integration of all independent agencies into existing Cabinet departments, and modernization of federal accounting and financial practices.
Roosevelt submitted the Brownlow Committee's report to Congress and on January 12, 1937, sought legislative approval to implement the committee's recommendations.Ciepley, David. Liberalism in the Shadow of Totalitarianism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2006. The bill immediately sparked concern that it delegated far too much power to the president. Additionally, members of Congress were unhappy that the bill would further diminish the patronage system, abolish the position of Comptroller General (a position then held by a Republican), and disrupt congressional committee oversight of and relationships with executive branch agencies. However, the bill's prospects for passage appeared relatively good. On February 5, Roosevelt submitted the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937, to allow Associate Justices to the Supreme Court to be appointed for every sitting member over the age of 70-and-one-half years of age, up to a maximum of six.Leuchtenburg, William E. The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ; McKenna, Marian C. Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Constitutional War: The Court-Packing Crisis of 1937. New York Fordham University Press, 2002.
The "court-packing" scheme led to widespread accusations that Roosevelt was attempting to impose a dictatorship, and the reorganization bill was quickly seen in the same light, which led to congressional efforts to weaken the reorganization plan. In the Senate, Burton K. Wheeler proposed an amendment to the bill for a two-chamber legislative veto of any reorganization plan and a 60-day waiting period before any reorganization plan was effective."Roosevelt Acts to Revive His Revive His Reorganization Plan." New York Times. December 9, 1938. The Senate defeated the highly contentious motion by four votes. Attempts were made in the House to adopt the Wheeler plan. The effort came close to success several times, which led the administration to agree to exempt a large number of independent agencies from the bill in an effort to win members' favor. However, the House, already upset over the extension of presidential influence and the reduction of its own authority, now saw the legislation as part of a Roosevelt power grab and tabled the bill.Roberts, Alasdair S. "Why the Brownlow Committee Failed: Neutrality and Partisanship in the Early Years of Public Administration." Administration and Society. 28:1 (May 1996).
1939 bill
Roosevelt reintroduced the bill in the next Congress. Roosevelt was very active in the House and Senate primaries, working to "purge" the Democratic Party of Southern conservatives who had opposed the New Deal.Aberbach, Joel D. and Peterson, Mark A. The Executive Branch. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Galderisi, Peter F.; Herzberg, Roberta Q.; and McNamara, Peter. Divided Government: Change, Uncertainty, and the Constitutional Order. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. ; Wolf, Thomas Philip; Pederson, William D.; and Daynes, Byron W. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress: The New Deal and Its Aftermath. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2001. Although largely unsuccessful, Roosevelt's actions had a major, positive impact on congressional willingness to pass reorganization legislation.Milkis, Sidney M. The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System since the New Deal. Paperback ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Roosevelt met with Gulick, Merriam, and Senator James F. Byrnes (who had managed the 1937 bill) on December 8, 1938, to review plans for the bill. Roosevelt and Byrnes agreed to have the bill originate in the House (which had killed it in 1937), to include a two-chamber legislative veto, and to grant reorganization authority for only two years. Roosevelt also agreed to submit the legislation as a standalone bill rather than part of an omnibus act, and to consider reform of the Works Progress Administration as part of the package."Roosevelt to Ask Reorganization." New York Times. December 10, 1938. Adhering to this strategy, Roosevelt then declined to submit a reorganization plan in January."Roosevelt's Plans All in, Says Early." New York Times. January 26, 1939.
On January 31, Rep. John J. Cochran submitted a resolution requesting the formation of a House Committee on Governmental Reorganization, which was approved over strong Republican opposition the next day."Spurs House Move On Reorganization." New York Times. February 1, 1939; "House Opens Way to Reorganization." New York Times. February 2, 1939. This committee revived the Roosevelt bill which had been tabled in 1937. A revised version of the bill was reported by the committee on March 2, which contained the provisions outlined in December as well as a list of exempt agencies and new "fast-track" procedures to limit debate and move any concurrent resolutions opposing reorganization out of committee within 10 days."Clash on New Bill on Reorganization." New York Times. March 3, 1939. In the Senate, a bill offered by Senator Harry F. Byrd was reported out of the United States Senate Select Committee on Executive Agencies of the Government on March 6.Dorris, Henry N. "House Group Backs Byrd Economy Plan." New York Times. March 8, 1939. The House approved its version of the bill 246–153 on March 8 after it accepted an amendment, specifying that reorganization be for the purpose of efficiency and economizing, and defeating efforts to require positive congressional action in both chambers to approve a reorganization plan."Reorganizing Bill Is Passed By House By Vote of 246–153." New York Times. March 9, 1939. The Senate committee refused to include affirmative approval in the Byrd bill on March 14, and reported the revised bill in essentially the same form as the House-passed bill."Reorganizing Bill Speeded in Senate." New York Times. March 15, 1939. An amendment by Senator Byrd making efficiency and economy the official goal of the bill was adopted on March 20."Spending Foes Put Senate On Record." New York Times. March 21, 1939.