Charles Merriam and Louis Brownlow - White House - 1938-09-23

The President's Committee on Administrative Management, commonly known as the Brownlow Committee or Brownlow Commission, was a presidentially commissioned panel of

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

experts that in 1937 recommended sweeping changes to the

executive branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a State (polity), state. In poli ...

of the

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

. The committee had three members –

Louis Brownlow Louis Brownlow (August 29, 1879 – September 27, 1963) was an American author, political scientist, and consultant in the area of public administration. As chairman of the Committee on Administrative Management (better known as the Brownlow Comm ...

Charles Merriam Charles Edward Merriam Jr. (1874–1953) was an American professor of political science at the University of Chicago, founder of the behavioralism, behavioral approach to political science, a trainer of many graduate students, a prominent intellec ...

, and Luther Gulick. The staff work was managed by Joseph P. Harris, director of research for the committee. The committee’s recommendations formed the basis of the

Reorganization Act of 1939 The Reorganization Act of 1939, , codified at , 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 ...

and the creation of the

Executive Office of the President The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The EOP consists of several offices and agenc ...

History

President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

established the Committee on March 22, 1936, and charged it with developing proposals for reorganizing the executive branch.Karl, Barry Dean. ''Executive Reorganization and Reform in the New Deal: The Genesis of Administrative Management, 1900–1939.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963. The three-person committee consisted of

, and Luther Gulick.Dickinson, Matthew J. ''Bitter Harvest: FDR, Presidential Power and the Growth of the Presidential Branch.'' New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Parrish, Michael E. ''The Hughes Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy.'' Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002. Gulick's

POSDCORB POSDCORB is an acronym widely used in the field of management and public administration that reflects the classic view of organizational theory. It appeared most prominently in a 1937 paper by Luther Gulick (in a set edited by himself and Lyndall ...

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," 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, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.

Recommendations

The committee delivered a 53-page report, which included 37 recommendations. Some of its most important recommendations included the creation of aides to the president to deal with administrative tasks of the president. It also suggested that the president should have direct control over the administrative departments. In its third suggestion, the committee said that the managerial agencies – the Civil Service Administration, the Bureau of the Budget, and the National Resources Board – should be part of the Executive Office. The committee warned that the existing agencies had grown increasingly powerful and independent, and proposed reforms designed to tighten the president's control over these agencies. The committee proposed a plan to consolidate over 100 agencies into 12 departments and allowed the president to appoint several assistants. The committee advocated a strong chief executive, including a 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 Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

departments, and modernization of federal accounting and financial practices.

Effects

The

incorporated two of the committee recommendations, and provided President Roosevelt with authority to make changes so that most of the existing agencies and government corporations became accountable to cabinet-level departments. The most important results of the actions taken by Roosevelt were the creation of the

and the creation of a group of six executive level assistants. Roosevelt combined several government public works and welfare agencies into the

Federal Works Agency The Federal Works Agency (FWA) was an independent agency of the federal government of the United States which administered a number of public construction, building maintenance, and public works relief functions and laws from 1939 to 1949. Along wi ...

and the Federal Security Agency. He also transferred the powerful Bureau of the Budget from the Treasury Department to the Executive Office of the President. The new law also made possible in 1940, the Office of Emergency Management, which enabled the immediate creation of numerous wartime agencies. The reorganization is best known for allowing the President to appoint numerous assistants and advisers. Those who built a network of support in Congress became virtually independent "czars" in their specialized domains.

Criticism

Most Americans opposed giving the president any more power, as a Gallup poll found in April 1938. Nevertheless, after winning the approval of Congress, Roosevelt signed the Reorganization Act of 1939 and then established the Executive Office of the President, which increased the president's control over the executive branch.

Other similar commissions

Hoover Commission The Hoover Commission, officially named the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, was a body appointed by President Harry S. Truman in 1947 to recommend administrative changes in the Federal Government of the Unit ...

, two commissions in 1947–1949 and 1953–1955. *

Grace Commission The Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (PSSCC), commonly referred to as the Grace Commission, was an investigation requested by United States President Ronald Reagan, authorized in on June 30, 1982. In doing so President Reagan used the now fam ...

, 1982–1984 *

National Partnership for Reinventing Government The National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), originally the National Performance Review, was an interagency task force created under the Clinton administration to reform the way the United States federal government works. The NPR was ...

, 1993–1998 *

Project on National Security Reform The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) is a nonpartisan non-profit organization mandated by the United States Congress to recommend improvements to the U.S. national security system. Advocates of reform of the U.S. national security system c ...

, 2006–present

Precursor commissions and committees

Committee on Department Methods The Committee on Department Methods, popularly known as the Keep Commission, was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. The Commission's members were Charles H. Keep, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and Chairman of the Commission, ...

, 1905 *

Commission on Economy and Efficiency The Commission on Economy and Efficiency was a presidential commission appointed by President William Howard Taft between 1910 and 1913 to look at and propose reforms for the United States federal government, particularly the presidential budget. ...

, 1910–1913

History

Recommendations

Effects

Criticism

Other similar commissions

Precursor commissions and committees

See also

References

Further reading