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Heretofore these programs have been administered by USIA and the Department of State. As the scope of these activities has increased, the desirability of consolidating them under the management of a single agency has become increasingly evident. This is what the proposed reorganization is designed to accomplish under the aegis of the new agency.

I would like to concentrate my remarks to this Committee on two particular aspects of the Plan. First, the provisions that assure the relevance and utility

of the activities to be conducted by the new Agency for International Communication to the international relations concerns of this nation. And second, the protection provided for our educational and cultural programs to assure their continued integrity.

In the first instance, coordination with other foreign policy goals is assured by the fact that the new agency will operate under the direction of the Secretary of State. At the same time, the new agency will not be a part of the Department of State and will therefore not be tied too closely to the day-to-day concerns of foreign policy. Thus the close but not immediate relationship of the new agency to the Department of State should ensure that its programs are neither too closely related to foreign policy

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concerns to threaten their integrity, nor so distant as to be irrelevant to the needs of this nation.

Secondly, strong guarantees of the integrity of the educational and cultural exchange program are built into the plan and accompanying message.

3.

These guarantees include the following:

1. The President has stated emphatically that
"Maintaining the integrity of the educational

4.

and cultural exchange program is imperative."

2. The Plan provides for the continuation of the Board
of Foreign Scholarships and thus protects the integrity
of the selection process for the candidates for
participation in the academic program.

The President has announced that, should this plan
be approved, he intends to nominate an Associate
Director of the new agency to be responsible for
the administration and supervision of the educational
and cultural exchange functions consolidated in the
new agency.

The two distinct but related goals set by the
President in his message on the basic mission of

the new agency establish a modern, relevant
course for the future, one which focusses on

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mutuality and the articulation of our aims and

policies. The President went on to say that

this mission would be pursued by an open, candid and representative agency which would not operate in covert, manipulative or propagandistic ways. I believe that this statement, which replaces all previous such statements, should create an environment in which the educational and cultural exchange programs whose central objective is the encouragement of mutual understanding or mutuality should thrive.

It is therefore the view of the Department of State that these statements and the plan itself should establish a mutually supportive but distinct relationship between the new agency's media-information programs and its educational and cultural exchange activities. This will assure the individuals, Fulbright Commissions and foreign governments participating in the educational and cultural exchange program of its continued integrity and objectivity.

This

is essential to maintain individual participation and foreign government support.

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The new agency that the President has proposed

to the Congress offers a unique opportunity for us to build on the strengths of the past and to establish links between the people of this nation and those of the world in purposeful, cooperative and productive relationships to the benefit of all.

Should the Congress consent to the establishment

of this new agency, the Department of State pledges itself to do everything possible to see that this new venture succeeds.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Hitchcock and I will be pleased to attempt to answer any questions that the Committee may have.

Mr. BROOKS. Our next witness is Charles W. Bray III. He is Deputy Director of the USIA. He is a career Foreign Service officer. He was born in New York City and graduated from Princeton magna cum laude. He was a Fulbright fellow in France and served in the U.S. Army in Germany. He is married and has three children.

Are you accompanied by some of your staff?

STATEMENT OF CHARLES W. BRAY III, ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. INFORMATION AGENCY; ACCOMPANIED BY STANLEY SILVERMAN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR BUDGET AND FINANCE; AND NORMAND POIRIER, DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL

Mr. BRAY. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Stanley Silverman is at the table with me. He is the Assistant Director for Budget and Finance of USIA. I also have Mr. Normand Poirier of our General Counsel staff here.

Mr. BROOKS. We are delighted to have them with you. Please proceed.

Mr. BRAY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It is a privilege to appear before the committee in behalf of Reorganization Plan No. 2.

I will, with your permission, simply submit for the record, as though read, my opening statement and address myself to two questions, both of which have arisen Tuesday and again today.

The first is the question of what analytical work preceded the submission of this reorganization plan to the Congress. It is, to my knowledge of reorganization plans, a unique phenomenon. Mr. Hitchcock has alluded to the fact that the basic intellectual underpinnings for this plan were created beginning 22 years ago with the submission for the record of a report compiled by Dr. Frank Stanton and a distinguished panel. It has formed the major point of discussion on this subject in the intervening 212 years.

That, of course, was followed by the consideration of the same subject by the so-called Murphy Commission, the Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy; and it, by a report by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information submitted this spring.

Finally, and perhaps of greatest interest to this body in particular, were a series of hearings conducted by Chairman Fascell's subcommittee on the subject of public diplomacy in the future in the early summer of 1977, with an extensive list of witnesses with a wide range of background.

In short, by the beginning of this past summer, extensive analytical work had been done from a variety of perspectives, including, I might say, the employee unions-the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Foreign Service Association, and indeed, I believe, a statement by the president of the AFL-CIO submitted to Chairman Fascell's subcommittee. Extensive preparation for consideration within the executive branch had already been completed. And on August 3, the subcommittee which Chairman Fascell chairs submitted to the President a memorandum on this subject on the basis of its hearings.