Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN, WASHINGTON, D. C., July. 22, 1949. Chairman, Senate Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. 0.: On behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, I wish to heartily endorse the President's Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1949 to create a Department of Welfare to deal with programs currently handled by the Federal Security Agency. American people increasingly look to Federal Government for extended health, education, social security, and other welfare services. These programs have a direct effect on the great mass of our citizens and we believe that the agency directing such functions should be raised to the highest policy level. Only by giving such agency Cabinet rank can welfare needs of this Nation be articulated and properly related to other departments and functions of the Government. I request that this communication be made part of the record. LESLIE S. PERRY, Legislative Representative NAACP. Senator JOHN MCCLELLAN, THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NEW JERSEY, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: The Medical Society of New Jersey wishes to record its opposition to President Truman's Reorganization Plan No. 1, recently submitted to Congress under the new statute granting the President authority to reallocate and "streamline" executive functions, subject to disapproval by a constitutional majority of either House of Congress within 60 days after submission of a specific plan. The objection of this Society is addressed to the provision in Reorganization Plan No. 1 for inclusion of the health and medical functions of the Federal Government within the proposed new Department of Welfare. It is pointed out that the Hoover Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, in its report on medical activities, recommended that, with certain exceptions relating to the military medical services, all Federal medical and health activities be allocated in a single, separate agency which, it is proposed, should be called United Medical Administration. The proposed Department of Welfare as recommended by the Hoover Commission, would embrace only welfare, social security, and educational functions. In reconimending a separate United Medical Administration, the Hoover Commission cited the size and extent of the medical operations of the Federal Government and the "extreme dissimilarities among the activities which would have composed such a Department" (in the event that medical service were to be combined with social security as now proposed by President Truman). For more than a half a century the American Medical Association has urged that the Federal Government should recognize the importance of medical and health activities by uniting and correlating them in a single department with Cabinet ranking. While the report of the Hoover Commission does not propose that the United Medical Administration would be headed by an officer of Cabinet rank, it does, at least, admirably provide for the correlation of these activities and preserves their integrity against the possibility of administration by persons whose primary interest and experience would probably be in almost completely unrelated fields. We would like to emphasize that objection is not here taken to the principle of integrating related activities nor to the general proposal for creation of a Department of Welfare. We object only to the President's recommendation that this proposed Department should embrace health and medical functions. We respectfully request that you urge upon Congress the rejection of Reorganization Plan No. 1 as presently drawn, in favor of a plan which would remove from the Department of Welfare the aforesaid medical and health functions and correlate them under a separate agency as above described. Your consideration of these views and this request will be most gratefully appreciated. Respectfully yours, C. BYRON BLAISDELL, M. D., Chairman, Subcommittee on Legislation. Senator JOHN MCCLELLAN, LOUISIANA STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY, Chairman, Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: We have learned that there will be hearings before the Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments on Thursday, July 21, and Friday, July 22, to consider and hear testimony for or against President's No. 1 Reorganization Plan. This plan establishes the Federal Security Agency as a Department of Welfare and would therefore elevate the present Administrator to a Cabinet post as Secretary. Attached is statement of our objections to this revolutionary recommendation. We hope that you will give serious consideration to these objections and that in your judgment agree with our organization that such a plan would be very objectionable. We, therefore, trust that you will use your influence and vote to defeat this proposal. Thanking you very much for your consideration, I am Very truly, EDWIN L. ZANDER, M. D., Chairman, Committee on Congressional Matters. OBJECTIONS BY LOUISIANA STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY TO PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S No. 1 REORGANIZATION PLAN 1. The medical profession has for years been supporting the constructive plan of having a doctor in charge of the Health Department with Cabinet status. We still think that this is the most constructive policy as the question of health and other phases of medicine is a subject which is probably best understood by a physician and not a lay individual. 2. This plan is contrary to the recommendation made by the Hoover Commission on Reorganization of the Executive Branch of the Government in relation to medical service now being rendered by the Government. The Hoover report recommends establishment of a United Medical Service Organization as an independent administration. The Secretary of this agency would be a member of the Cabinet. The agency would be headed by a professional career director general. 3. Even if this recommendation by the Hoover Commission had not been made, the medical profession is opposed to elevation of the Federal Security Agency, with its complex problems, to a position where it would dominate and control the practice of medicine in this country. Furthermore, we are of the opinion that the present Administrator, Mr. Oscar Ewing, would be very objectionable to the citizens of this country in such a position as he and his workers in the Federal Security Administration have been most diligent and persistent in their determination to force compulsory health insurance on the American people. 4. Our profession is opposed to any form of compulsory health insurance or to the elevation of any agency or group which will soft pedal the way or open up the possibility of effecting compulsory health insurance. This recommendation by the President is the first step in that directiion. THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION, Hon. JOHN MCCLELLAN, Chairman, Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: The American Public Health Association wishes to place on record its considered opinion with reference to the proposal of the administration that there should be a Department of Welfare created from the present structure of the Federal Security Agency. It is our hope that it may be possible for you to insert this opinion in the record of the hearings, which I understand are scheduled for the near future. The American Public Health Association, as a professional society of nearly 12,000 public health workers, believes it manifest that a structure of Cabinet 94651-49-10 rank is an essential to the importance of the task at the Federal level. The association recommends the prompt establishment of such a Cabinet Department to be set up in a simple and flexible manner, allowing wide latitudes for the adaptation of administrative structure of scientific advance. We would prefer that this Cabinet Department be designated as the Department of Health, Education, and Security, since it would comprise functions not ordinarily included under the term "welfare." The association believes that the Federal Security Agency should have departmental status in view of its broad scope and its character. This seems true whether it is regarded in terms of financial involvement, in terms of the numbers of persons concerned, or the importance of the functions of health, education, and welfare. It seems appropriate to us that the agency dealing with health, education, and security at the Federal level should be thoroughly coordinated at the top because corresponding agencies at the local and State level are so generally separate and distinct. A first-rate example of coordination in the proposed Federal Department would be useful. The association believes it sound to transfer the powers and duties of the Agency to a new Department and to its Secretary. The matter of transferring any additional functions or units of other governmental agencies performing related services should be left, we believe, for subsequent legislative action. The association believes that the functional operating divisions or other units of the Department should be headed by career officers of high professional and administrative competence in their particular fields. These latter positions should be nonpolitical in character. It is imperative, we believe, that suitable steps should be taken to insure freedom of State and local agencies, both public and voluntary. Of equal importance, however, it should be clear that this legislation permits the administration of Federal funds in an orderly and nonpolitical manner, as provided, for example, by the 1939 amendments to title V of the Social Security Act. In summary, the American Public Health Association supports the idea of Cabinet status for the Federal Security Agency. Faithfully yours, REGINAL M. ATWATER, M. D., AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN, Chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: The American Federation of Labor advocates the elevation to Cabinet status of the Federal Government's activities in the fields of health, education, and social security. As president of the American Federation of Labor, I respectfully urge that reorganization plan No. 1 of 1949 be allowed to become effective and ask that this letter be incorporated in the record of the hearings now being held on this subject. This plan constitutes the Federal Security Agency a Department of Welfare, giving proper recognition in the highest councils of the Government to Federal programs for the preservation and development of the Nation's human resources. Such recognition is long overdue. The American Federation of Labor has always insisted that equality of opportunity in education, a high standard of health for all, and assurance of some protection against the unpredictable hazards of insecurity are essential to the maintenance of the American system of free enterprise and free institutions. Enlightened management also has come to accept this view, the validity of which becomes increasingly evident as our industrial society becomes more and more complex. These are the objectives of the Federal Security Agency which would be administered by the proposed Department of Welfare. They are far too vital, too important to the preservation of our way of life, to relegate them any longer to a secondary rank in the Government. Sincerely yours, WILLIAM GREEN, President. Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN, CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS, Chairman, Expenditures Committee, United States Senate, Washington, D. O. DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: The CIO supports Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1949 to establish a Department of Public Welfare. The reasons for the recommendation have been adequately explained in the President's proposal. Such a department would strengthen the ability of the Federal Government to bring security to American workers. Would you kindly have this communication put in the record? Sincerely, NATHAN E. COWAN, |