not disturbed. No additional power is given to the Secretary of the Army. No additional power is given to the Secretary of Defense. General COLLINS. That is what we intended here in the simplest form possible. Mr. KILDAY. Are those all your amendments? General COLLINS. Yes, sir; that is the last of our suggested amend ments. Mr. KILDAY. In executive session the subcommittee discussed at some length the advisability of striking out of the bill, wherever it appears, the language: Except as otherwise provided by law, by the President, or by the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army shall That appears many times in the bill. We were considering the advisability of changing that to read: Except as otherwise prescribed by law, the Secretary of the Army shallMr. VINSON. He shall make such assignments and details and so forth. Mr. KILDAY. Wherever it appears. In the grant of power here, all through the bill, it provides: Except as otherwise provided by law, the President, the Secretary of Defense and then you come to the Secretary of the Army. I know that it might be embarrassing to both of you to comment, but if you do have comments we would like to have them. Secretary GRAY. Mr. Chairman, since that primarily involves the Secretary, if I may, I should like to just think out loud with you about that. Mr. KILDAY. Off the record, if you like. Secretary GRAY. Let us take it off the record. (Discussion off the record.) Mr. KILDAY. It is the responsibility of the committee. We just want to know if there is any position that the Department wants to take. Mr. VINSON. Mr. Chairman, I offer the suggestion that you ask the general to give to Mr. Blandford all of his amendments, so that we can study them in executive session. I find myself in agreement with one or two of his suggestions. I do think that we have made improvements on the bill by adopting tentatively the language with reference to the fixed responsibility of the Chief of Staff. I think that helps the bill. I think that nearly every suggestion in here helps the bill. The only question is with regard to the basic branches. You can accomplish under your language that which we are seeking for you not to accomplish. You can do indirectly that which we do not want you to do directly. You could probably eliminate everything in peacetime. In peacetime let us have a little government by law and by statute. In wartime we will turn it absolutely over to you, to run it, and it will not hurt you to have just a few little straitjackets in peacetime. You can abolish any of these basic branches time you see fit in case of war, and you should have that authority, no doubt; but in peacetime let us have a pattern to go back to, which will not hurt you. any Mr. KILDAY. Mr. Chairman, I understand that some people want to be heard on this basic branches proposal. I think there is some objection to abolishing the Cavalry. I do not know why. 60266-50-No. 187-18 The CHAIRMAN. Let us not take up the time to talk about the Cavalry now. Secretary GRAY. Mr. Chairman, you said a few moments ago that "this was the responsibility of the subcommittee." I believe you said that it was your responsibility to determine to strike out the language "except as otherwise prescribed or directed by law, the President, or the Secretary of Defense." Striking that language is the responsibility of the subcommittee, and we, the Army, are not urging, if I may put it that way, any enlarged power at the expense of the constitutional authority of the President as Commander in Chief or the statutory authority of the Secretary of Defense as the Secretary of the Department of Defense. I said that off the record and should like it on the record. I do not mean that I want to shift the responsibility to the subcommittee. It was your suggestion, and we have no objection if it does not, in effect, destroy authorities which already exist. Mr. KILDAY. I do not think there would be any danger of that, because we say "except as otherwise provided by law." Secretary GRAY. That is right, sir. Mr. KILDAY. Of course, the Constitution is the law, and the National Security Act fixes these powers. Secretary GRAY. Right, sir. Mr. KILDAY. There is a good deal of thinking in the subcommittee that it could possibly be construed as an enlargement of the powers granted by the National Security Act, and we do not feel that we want to do that. Secretary GRAY. I understand, sir; thank you. Mr. VINSON. I think we have done good work, General. When you first came in we had a bill that did not do much except tell us how much to appropriate, but I think we have a good bill now. You are not tied down, and we will have an Army establishment that we can be proud of. I do not want to hamstring you, but at the same time we have to have a few little things in here where the Congress must do something besides just give you $4,000,000,000 every year. Mr. BLANDFORD. Mr. Chairman, may I make one comment on the new proposed section 407? It will now read: Nothing in this act shall be construed as detracting from, adding to, or in any way modifying the National Security Act of 1947, as amended. I think that the record should show that the committee very properly omitted the words "duties, powers, limitations, missions," and any other language with any similar connotation, so that we would not be accused of omitting any portion or effect of the National Security Act. In other words, it is all inclusive. It is everything in the National Security Act. I think the record should show that. Mr. VINSON. Before we adjourn, Mr. Chairman, I asked General Collins to give to Mr. Kilday his amendments, so that we can have them when we get into executive session. General COLLINS. Right, sir. We will leave those with Mr. Blandford. Mr. KILDAY. And a copy of the bill you used. Mr. VINSON. We will pass some bill. We are trying to fix up a good bill. General COLLINS. Yes, sir. Mr. KILDAY. There has to be a bill. The subcommittee will meet again whenever the chairman of the full committee gives us the opportunity. Secretary GRAY. Thank you very much. (Thereupon, at 11:40 a. m., Monday, March 20, 1950, an adjournment was taken to meet at the call of the chairman.) MEMORANDUM: LAWS NOT AFFECTED BY ARMY ORGANIZATION BILL (H. R. 5794) (The following was supplied for the record :) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, Washington, D. C., March 16, 1950. Memorandum for: Mr. John R. Blandford, Professional Staff, Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives. Subject: List of statutes for inclusion in the transcript of hearings on H. R. 5794. 1. On March 2, 1950, during the hearings on H. R. 5794, Eighty-first Congress, Mr. Vinson requested that there be put in the record of the hearings the statutes applicable to the Army which will not be repealed or amended by the Army organization bill. 2. Pursuant to that request, there is submitted herewith a list of those sections of the United States Code which are primarily applicable to the Army and which will not be repealed or amended by the bill (enclosure 1). The citation “U. S. C." on the attached list is to the United States Code, 1946 edition, including supplement II thereto, which includes enactments to January 2, 1949. The attached list does not include laws enacted during the first session of the Eighty-first Congress, but no laws enacted during that session are repealed or amended by the bill. 3. For comparison there is attached (enclosure 2) a list of those sections of the United States Code which will be repealed by the Army organization bill and another list of those sections which will be amended by the bill (enclosure 3). 4. An accurate estimate of the proportion of existing law applicable to the Army which will be affected by the Army organization bill can be obtained from the following table: Sections Number of sections of United States Code primarily applicable to the 945 106 Number of sections of United States Code amended by Army organization bill (enclosure 3). 22 Total____. 1,073 *NOTE. The laws repealed are for the most part either in substance reenacted by the Army organization bill or are already obsolete and superseded by subsequent enactments. 5.It will be seen from these figures (a) That 10 percent of the laws primarily applicable to the Army will be repealed by the bill; (b) That 2 percent will be amended; (c) That 88 percent will remain untouched. 6. In addition to the laws cited on the attached lists there are approximately 3,000 sections of the United States Code scattered through the 50 titles thereof which apply directly or indirectly to the Army, but not exclusively or primarily thereto. These additional sections may be classified generally in three groups as follows: (a) Those which apply to the National Military Establishment as a whole, such as the National Security Act, the Armed Services Procurement Act, and the Career Compensation Act. (b) Those which affect all officers, departments, and agencies of the Government equally, such as found in title 5 of the code, "Executive Departments and Government Officers and Employees"; title 31, "Money and Finance"; title 40, "Public Buildings, Property, and Works"; and title 41, "Public Contracts.". (c) Those which deal with matters of concern to the Army, but not with military matters, such as title 18 of the Code, "Crimes and Criminal Procedure"; and title 35, "Patents." GEORGE E. BAYA, Lieutenant Colonel, GSC, Management Division, TABLE 1.-Sections of the United States Code applicable to the Army not affected by Army organization bill |