REORGANIZATION PLAN NO. 2 OF 1965 (Creating an Environmental Science Services Administration) WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1965 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 2154, Rayburn Office Building, Hon. William L. Dawson (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives William L. Dawson, Henry S. Reuss, Benjamin S. Rosenthal, John N. Erlenborn, and John W. Wydler. Also present: Elmer W. Henderson, subcommittee counsel, and J. P. Carlson, minority counsel. (Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1965 follows:) [H. Doc. 172, 89th Cong., 1st sess.] MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING REORGANIZATION PLAN No. 2 OF 1965, PROVIDING FOR THE REORGANIZATION OF Two MAJOR AGENCIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE: THE WEATHER BUREAU AND THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY To the Congress of the United States: I transmit herewith Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1965, prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949, as amended, and providing for the reorganization of two major agencies of the Department of Commerce: The Weather Bureau and the Coast and Geodetic Survey. The reorganization plan consolidates the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Weather Bureau to form a new agency in the Department of Commerce to be known as the Environmental Science Services Administration. It is the intention of the Secretary of Commerce to transfer the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards to the Administration when the reorganization plan takes effect. The new Administration will then provide a single national focus for our efforts to describe, understand, and predict the state of the oceans, the state of the lower and upper atmosphere and the size and shape of the earth. Establishment of the Administration will mark a significant step forward in the continual search by the Federal Government for better ways to meet the needs of the Nation for environmental science services. The organizational improvements made possible by the reorganization plan will enhance our ability to develop an adequate warning system for the severe hazards of nature-for hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and seismic sea waves, which have proved so disastrous to the Nation in recent years. These improvements will permit us to provide better environmental information to vital segments of the Nation's economy-to agriculture, transportation, communications, and industry, which continually require information about the physical environment. They will mean better services to other Federal departments and agencies-to those that are concerned with the national defense, the exploration of outer space, the manage ment of our mineral and water resources, the protection of the public health against environmental pollution, and the preservation of our wilderness and recreation areas. The new Administration will bring together a number of allied scientific disciplines that are concerned with the physical environment. This integration will better enable us to look at man's physical environment as a scientific whole and to seek to understand the interactions among air, sea, and earth and between the upper and lower atmosphere. It will facilitate the development of programs dealing with the physical environment and will permit better management of these programs. It will enhance our capability to identify and solve important longrange scientific and technological problems associated with the physical environment. The new Administration will, in consequence, promote a fresh sense of scientific dedication, discovery, and challenge, which are essential if we are to attract scientists and engineers of creativity and talent to Federal employment in this field. The reorganization plan provides for an Administrator at the head of the Administration, and for a Deputy Administrator, each of whom will be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. As authorized by the civil service and other laws and regulations, subordinate officers of the Administration will be appointed by the Secretary of Commerce or be assigned by him from among a corps of commissioned officers. The Administration will perform such functions as the Secretary of Commerce may delegate or otherwise assign to it and will be under his direction and control. Commissioned officers of the Coast and Geodetic Survey will become commissioned officers of the Administration and may serve at the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce throughout the Administration. The reorganization plan authorizes the President at his discretion to fill the Office of Deputy Administrator by appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, from the active list of commissioned officers of the Administration. The reorganization plan transmitted herewith abolishes-and thus excludes from the consolidation mentioned above-the offices of (1) Chief of the Weather Bureau, provided for in the act of October 1, 1890 (15 U.S.C. 312); (2) Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, provided for in the acts of June 4, 1920, and February 16, 1929, as amended (33 U.S.C. 852, 852a); and (3) Deputy Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, provided for in the act of January 19, 1942, as amended (33 U.S.C. 852b). After investigation, I have found and hereby declare that each reorganization included in Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1965 is necessary to accomplish one or more of the purposes set forth in section 2(a) of the Reorganization Act of 1949, as amended. I have also found and hereby declare that by reason of the reorganizations made by the reorganization plan, it is necessary to include in the plan provisions for the appointment and compensation of the officers of the Administration set forth in section 4 of the reorganization plan. The rate of compensation fixed for each of these officers is that which I have found to prevail in respect of comparable officers in the executive branch of the Government. In addition to permitting more effective management within the Department of Commerce, the new organization will ultimately produce economies. These economies will be of two types. The first, and probably the most significant, is the savings and avoidance of costs which will result from the sharing of complex and expensive facilities such as satellites, computers, communication systems, aircraft, and ships. These economies will increase in significance as developments in science and technology bring into being still more advanced equipment. Second, integration of the existing headquarters and field organizations will permit more efficient utilization of existing administrative staffs and thereby produce future economies. It is, however, impracticable to specify or itemize at this time the reductions of expenditures which it is probable will be brought about by the taking effect of the reorganizations included in the reorganization plan. I recommend that the Congress allow the accompanying reorganization plan to become effective. LYNDON B. JOHNSON. THE WHITE HOUSE, May 13, 1965. REORGANIZATION PLAN NO. 2 OF 1965 Prepared by the President and transmitted to the Senate and the House of Representatives in Congress assembled, May 13, 1965, pursuant to the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949 (63 Stat. 203), as amended ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT Section 1. Transfer of functions. All functions vested by law in the Weather Bureau, the Chief of the Weather Bureau, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and any officer, employee, or organizational entity of that Bureau or Survey, and not heretofore transferred to the Secretary of Commerce, hereinafter referred to as the Secretary, are hereby transferred to the Secretary. Sec. 2. Abolitions. (a) The offices of Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Deputy Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Chief of the Weather Bureau are hereby abolished. The Secretary shall make such provisions as he shall deem to be necessary respecting the winding up of any outstanding affairs of the officers whose offices are abolished by the provisions of this section. (b) The abolitions effected by the provision of subsection (a) of this section shall exclude the abolition of rights to which the present incumbents of the abolished offices would be entitled under law upon the termination of their appointments. Sec. 3. Environmental Science Services Administration. (a) The Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Weather Bureau are hereby consolidated to form a new agency in the Department of Commerce which shall be known as the Environmental Science Services Administration, hereinafter referred to as the Administration. (b) The Secretary shall from time to time establish such constituent organizational entities of the Administration, with such names, as he shall determine. Sec. 4. Officers of the Administration. (a) There shall be at the head of the Administration the Administrator of the Environmental Science Services Administration, hereinafter referred to as the Administrator. The Administrator shall be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and shall receive compensation at the rate now or hereafter prescribed by law for offices and positions of level V of the Federal Executive Salary Schedule (78 Stat. 419). He shall perform such functions as the Secretary may from time to time direct. (b) (1) There shall be in the Administration a Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Science Services Administration, hereinafter referred to as the Deputy Administrator, who shall be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall perform such functions as the Secretary may from time to time direct, and, unless he is compensated in pursuance of the provisions of paragraph (2), below, shall receive compensation in accordance with the Classification Act of 1949, as amended. (2) The office of Deputy Administrator may be filled at the discretion of the President by appointment (by and with the advice and consent of the Senate) from the active list of commissioned officers of the Administration in which case the appointment shall create a vacancy on the active list and while holding the office of Deputy Administrator the officer shall have rank, pay, and allowances not exceeding those of a vice admiral. (c) The Deputy Administrator or such other official of the Department of Commerce as the Secretary shall from time to time designate shall act as Administrator during the absence or disability of the Administrator or in the event of a vacancy in the office of Administrator. (d) At any one time, one principal constituent organizational entity of the Administration may, if the Secretary so elects, be headed by a commissioned officer of the Administration, who shall be designated by the Secretary. Such designation of an officer shall create a vacancy on the active list and while serving under this paragraph the officer shall have rank, pay, and allowances not exceeding those of a rear admiral (upper half). (e) Any commissioned officer of the Administration who has served as Deputy Administrator or has served in a rank above that of captain as the head of a principal constituent organizational entity of the Administration, and is retired while so serving or is retired after the completion of such service while serving in a lower rank or grade, shall be retired with the rank, pay, and allowances authorized by law for the highest grade and rank held by him; but any such officer, upon termination of his appointment in a rank above that of captain, shall, unless appointed or assigned to some other position for which a higher rank or grade is provided, revert to the grade and number he would have occupied had he not served in a rank above that of captain and such officer shall be an extra number in that grade. Sec. 5. Authority of the Secretary. Nothing in this reorganization plan shall divest the Secretary of any function vested in him by law or by Reorganization Plan No. 5 of 1950 (64 Stat. 1263) or in any manner derogate from any authority of the Secretary thereunder. Sec. 6. Personnel, property, records and funds. (a) The personnel (including commissioned officers) employed in the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the personnel employed in the Weather Bureau, and the property and records held or used by the Weather Bureau or the Coast and Geodetic Survey shall be deemed to be transferred to the Administration. (b) Unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, and other funds available or to be made available in connection with functions now administered by the Weather Bureau or by the Coast and Geodetic Survey shall be available to the Administration hereunder in connection with those functions. (c) Such further measures and dispositions as the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall deem to be necessary in order to effectuate the foregoing provisions of this section shall be carried out in such manner as he shall direct and by such agencies as he shall designate. Sec. 7. Interim officers. (a) The President may authorize any person who immediately prior to the effective date of this reorganization plan held a position in the executive branch of the Government to act as Administrator until the office of Administrator is for the first time filled pursuant to the provisions of this reorganization plan or by recess appointment, as the case may be. (b) The President may similarly authorize any such person to act as Deputy Administrator. (c) The President may authorize any person who serves in an acting capacity under the foregoing provisions of this section to receive the compensation attached to the office in respect to which he so serves. Such compensation, if authorized, shall be in lieu of, but not in addition to, other compensation from the United States to which such person may be entitled. Chairman DAWSON. This meeting of the subcommittee has been called to hold a hearing on Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1965, transmitted to the Congress by the President on May 13 under the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949, recently extended by the Congress. Such plans take effect if they are not vetoed by the Congress within 60 days. Although, to date, no disapproval resolution has been filed, the committee is following its usual procedure of careful study of the plan. Reorganization Plan No. 2 consolidates the Weather Bureau and the Coast and Geodetic Survey into a new Environmental Science Services Administration in the Department of Commerce. The heads of the present bureaus are abolished and an administrator of the new agency created. In his message accompanying the plan, the President stated that this reorganization would provide a single national focus for our efforts to describe, understand, and predict the state of the oceans, the state of the lower and upper atmosphere, and the size and shape of the earth. I think, because of the experience of our astronauts, it is well timed and fitting that we describe this matter at this time. The organizational improvements, he said, will enhance our ability to develop an adequate warning system for the severe hazards of nature, including hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, among others, which have proved so disastrous to the Nation in recent years. He asserted that economics would be ultimately produced by the new organization. |