EOM PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION MATERIALS

“The President Must Develop a Strong Capacity to Meet Executive Organization Requirements” by Dwight Ink and Herbert Jasper

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Executive Summary

This issue paper reviews the significant staff work performed by a now-defunct Government Organization Branch in the Budget Bureau and in OMB. That staff work led to major government reorganizations from the 1940s to the 1970s, including:

organizing the World War II agencies that mobilized the nation (for President Roosevelt)
organizing the Marshall Plan (for President Truman)
developing the inter-governmental structure for the interstate highway system (for President Eisenhower)
organizational arrangements to carry out the Great Society programs, and the Department of Transportation (for President Johnson)
establishing the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, and the New Federalism program to streamline our federal system of assistance to state and local governments (for President Nixon).

The authors describe how absence of an expert staff on Government Organization in OMB left the President weakened in dealing with unwise organization proposals, whether originating in the White House or Congress, such as:

the absorption of the Agency for International Development by the State Department and
elimination of the US Information Agency
the creation of the Department of Homeland Security
reorganization of the Intelligence Community

The authors believe that these reorganizations could have been forestalled or improved by expert staff analysis. That would include the development of alternative arrangements that might have achieved the purposes of these reorganizations far more quickly and effectively and without the immense dislocations of many thousands of employees and dozens of agencies.

The paper recommends the creation by statute of a small, career-led “Office of Government Organization” in the Office of Management and Budget (or in any successor to which its management functions might be transferred.). This, the authors conclude, would help to meet the needs of a modern president to achieve optimal organization and reorganization of the Executive Branch.

Related Resources

EOM Panel Minutes:
Topic presented at EOM Panel on February 17, 2006.

Associated Presentation Materials:
None

Other Related NAPA Materials:
“Moving Toward More Capable Government: A Guide for Organizational Design,” report by Thomas Stanton, June 2002

“Principles of Federal Organization,” EOM Panel Working Paper, January 1997

“Government Reorganization: Issues and Principles,” Testimony by Comptroller General Charles Bowsher, (GAO-T-GGD-AIMD-95-166) May 1995.

About the Author

Dwight A. Ink served in policy positions under seven presidents. His responsibilities covered a variety of functions in both national security and domestic areas, as well as heading economic and technical assistance for Latin America and the Caribbean. He headed two independent agencies, was vice-president of two government corporations, and headed several presidential task forces. He was assistant director of BOB and OMB for management where he was responsible for presidential organization initiatives, including plans for establishing OMB and EPA. He designed much of President Nixon’s New Federalism and President Carter’s Civil Service Reform.

He can be reached at: dwightink@aol.com, or (571) 333-2500.

Herbert N. Jasper, a Senior Fellow of the Academy, was project director for the Academy’s 2000-2001 Presidential Transition Project. He was the Assistant Chief of the former Bureau of the Budget’s Government Organization Branch and worked on both Executive Branch and Congressional organization matters while employed in the U.S. Senate. He played a key role in formulating the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. He has an A.B. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree in Public Administration from Wayne State University.

He can be reached at: herbjasper@hotmail.com, or (301) 229-0644.