transmit an additional message recommending legislation to place the management and financing of the Post Office Department on a more businesslike basis. * * *

"Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1949 and the legislation I shall recommend both deal with improvements in the operation and management of the Post Office. The plan and legislation would strengthen the top management of the Post Office and afford that Department greater financial and operating flexibility."

In his message transmitting Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1949, the President stated:

"I transmit herewith Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1949, prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949. This plan constitutes an important first step in strengthening the organization of the Post Office Department."

Continuing, he stated:

"This plan carries into effect those of the recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government respecting the Post Office Department which can be accomplished under the provisions of the Reorganization Act. I am also transmitting to the Congress recommendations for legislation which will implement other recommendations of the Commission and place the operations of the Post Office Department on a more businesslike basis" (H. Doc. No. 224, 81st Cong., 1st sess., p. 1; 95 Congressional Record 7968, 7969). [Emphasis supplied.]

On June 24, 1949, the President submitted another message to the Congress which dealt exclusively with the necessity for major reorganizations in the Post Office Department. After reviewing these problems and the recommendations of the Hoover Commission designed to correct them, he said:

"It is an axiom of sound administration that authority should be commensurate with responsibility. No authority of management is more important than that of selecting the personnel who are to operate the business. If the Postmaster General is to be held responsible for the efficient conduct of the postal service, he should be given full authority to appoint postmasters and other postal employees subject only to the provisions of the Civil Service and Classification Acts. Legislation should be enacted which will give such authority to the Postmaster General (H. Doc. No. 239, 81st Cong., 1st sess.; 95 Congressional Record 8340). [Emphasis supplied.]

"In order to strengthen further the management of the Post Office Department, I have transmitted a reorganization plan to the Congress. This plan gives to the Postmaster General essential authority to organize and control his Department by transferring to him the functions of all subordinate officers and agencies of the Department.

"I believe that Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1949, submitted earlier this week, together with legislation along the lines herein recommended, will enable the Government better to make substantial improvements in the existing organization and operations of the Post Office Department."

The Postmaster General

On June 24, 1949, the Postmaster General transmitted to the President of the Senate drafts of the implementing legislation to which the President had referred in his messages to the Congress. One draft, designed to place the Post Office Department under the Corporation Control Act of 1945, was introduced as S. 2212; the other, having to do with the appointment of postmasters, was introduced as S. 2213. In submitting the latter bill, the Postmaster General stated:

"This proposed legislation is designed to vest the Postmaster General with authority to appoint postmasters at post offices of all classes, and is in accord with the recommendation of the President in his message to the Congress. It is also in accord with the recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the executive branch of the Government."

On June 30, 1949, the Postmaster General testified before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, relative to these and related bills, designed to carry out the recommendations of the Hoover Commission. In the course of his testimony, the Postmaster General stated unequivocally that, in his opinion, S. 2213 (relating to the appointment of postmasters) was not a reorganization matter, and its purposes could only be accomplished by legislation. The following colloquy occurred (hearings before the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, United States Senate, 81st Cong., 1st and 2d

sess., on bills to implement recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, p. 28):

"Senator LONG. I would like to ask just a question if I might. Would it be possible, and I wondered if you have been advised on this, to accomplish the purposes of S. 2212 and S. 2213 by merely a reorganization plan of the President. Of course, that included Reorganization Plan No. 3. Do you know of any legal impediment to the President sending down such a reorganization plan as this and simply letting it go into effect?

"Mr. DONALDSON. I think that S. 2212 and S. 2213 can only be accomplished by legislation. [Emphasis supplied.]

"Senator LONG. It is not actually a reorganization at all but it is actually changing a way of doing business where the Federal Government

"Senator THYE. Why had not the President's message embodied what is in the two legislative measures here?

"Mr. DONALDSON. It did embody it, Senator Thye, and recommended it, but left up to the Post Office Department in cooperation with the Bureau of the Budget to draft the suggested legislation to carry his recommendations into effect.

"Senator THYE. In other words, they are in accordance, these two bills, with his message and this is the legislation that was contemplated within his message. "Mr. DONALDSON. That is right.

"Senator FREAR. But including Reorganization Plan No. 3 that supplements it. "Mr. DONALDSON. That is right, and that requires no legislation" (hearings before the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, op. cit. p. 33).

The Postmaster General reiterated this position in a letter to the chairman of this committee, dated August 3, 1949, responding to the chairman's request for comments relative to the recommendations of the Hoover Commission which affected the Post Office Department. Mr. Donaldson wrote:

"On June 30, 1949, the President transmitted his Reorganization Plan No. 3 to the Congress. This plan constitutes an important first step in the strengthening of the organization of the Post Office Department. It has been implemented by my action in submitting to the Congress a bill relating to the appointment of postmasters, introduced in the Senate as S. 2213.

* * *

"Reorganization Plan No. 3 carries into effect those recommendations of the Hoover Commission which can be adopted by resort to the provisions of the Reorganization Act. S. 2213, implementing Reorganization Plan No. 3, is designed to place the appointment of postmasters within the scope of the authority of the Postmaster General, a recommendation of the Hoover Commission." (This letter is in the files of the committee.)

Testifying again on March 14, 1950, the Postmaster General stated: "There were nine recommendations submitted by the Hoover Commission in their report. I objected to only one of them, which is not paramount here this morning, and the President went along and supported the eight recommendations to which I made no objection. Some of the recommendations that could be put into effect in the reorganization plan have been placed in effect and those that require legislation have been submitted to the Congress with drafts of the legislation to accomplish this purpose. So, in this particular one I would support the bill before this committee, S. 2213" (hearings, etc., op. cit. p. 120). [Emphsis supplied.]

Hon. Herbert Hoover, Chairman of the Hoover Commission

On June 30, 1949, former President Herbert Hoover testified before this committee in response to an invitation of the chairman for his comments relative to the operation of the Reorganization Act of 1949 and the first seven reorganization plans which had been submitted by the President.

Addressing himself first to the act and all of the plans, he stated:

"I wish to say at once that the seven plans are all steps on the road to better organization of the administrative branch. They are, insofar as they go, substantially all in accord with the recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government.

"The difficulty with this subject is that the President's authority under the Reorganization Act of 1949 is very limited. In most of the seven cases the full accomplishment of reorganization as recommended by the Commission requires also extensive and specific special legislative action, one that goes beyond the

President's authority under this act. Either most of the seven plans must be regarded as simply preliminary steps, or must be absorbed, now or later, in full legislation if we are to effect the efficiencies and economies sought by the Commission" (hearings before the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, U. S. Senate, 81st Cong., 1st sess., on Message of the President on Initial Program of Reorganization of the Executive Branch of the Government, and Reorganization Plans Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of 1949, June 30, 1949, p. 19). Addressing himself to Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1949 (reorganizations in the Post Office Department), Mr. Hoover stated:

"The President's Plan No. 3 relates to the Post Office. Again it is a preliminary step, going as far as the President's authority under the Reorganization Act of 1949 permits. * *" (hearings, etc., op. cit., p. 21).

*

Senator Long subsequently raised the question of whether a reorganization plan has the effect of law and whether it would supersede existing legislation. Mr. Hoover replied that he assumed that legislation on the whole of one of these questions might supersede one of these plans. The following colloquy occurred: "Senator LONG. That is what I had in mind which caused me to wonder whether it is actually necessary for Congress to act any further if the President sent down the proper reorganization plans.

"Mr. HOOVER. I have been advised by all of our legal friends, that it would be utterly impossible, for instance, to reorganize the Post Office or the armed services or to provide a new accounting or budgeting system and a new personnel system in the Government without special legislation by the Congress. The President's authority, I am advised, does not extend that far" (hearings, etc., op. cit., p. 26).

Replying to a question by Senator Mundt concerning the manner in which one of the Hoover Commission's recommendations could be carried out, Mr. Hoover said:

*

*

* * The Commission's recommendations with regard to the Post Office were rather radical, but rather simple. They first proposed an overhead set-up very much as is provided in the President's plan. * And then the Commission recommended that senatorial confirmation of all officials except the Postmaster General and the Director of Posts should be abolished. That the civil service system should be adjusted to that Department to make it a system of open examinations on merit with proper regard to local selection of employees. That there be an entire revolution in the whole business methods of the Post Office. That there be a requirement that the Postmaster General should fix rates on subsidiary mail services * so that they would be self-supporting. And finally, that the Postmaster General should report the actual amount of subsidiaries for air and overseas mail, and that Congress should authorize the amounts in order to bring into the open the drains on the postal service. Those were four additonal items in the Post Office reorganization beyond that which may be accomplished under this Presidential authority. The important part of Post Office reoganization must be accomplished by special legislation" (hearings, etc., pp. 30, 31). [Emphasis supplied.]

The Reorganization Act of 1949

* *

A detailed analysis of the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949, as they relate to Reorganization Plans 2, 3, and 4 of 1952, is set forth in Staff Memorandum No. 82-2-28. However, in view of the fact that the President, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, the Postmaster General and the Chairman of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government were all of the opinion that the transfer of the appointment of postmasters from the President, with Senate confirmation, to the Postmaster General required substantive legislation and could not be accomplished by the President under the Reorganization Act of 1949, some discussion appears to be in order.

The Reorganization Act of 1949 authorizes the President to submit reorganization plans to the Congress in order to accomplish certain stated purposes. Section 2 of the act sets forth these purposes; section 3 lists the types of reorganizations which are authorized; section 4 specifies certain provisions which a reorganization plan, authorized under section 3, may or must contain; and section 5 contains limitations with respect to the reorganizations which may be accomplished.

Section 3 of the Reorganization Act of 1949 authorizes the President to submit only those reorganization plans which would

1. Transfer all or any part of any agency or of all or any part of its functions to the jurisdiction and control of any other agency; or

2. Abolish all or any part of the functions of any agency;

3. Consolidate or coordinate the whole or any part of any agency, or all or any of its functions, with all or any part of any other agency, or its functions; or

4. Consolidate or coordinate any part of any agency or of its functions with any other part of the same agency or any of its functions; or

5. Authorize any officer to delegate any of his functions; or

6. Abolish all or any part of any agency which agency or part does not have, or upon the taking effect of any reorganization plan, will not have any functions.

An examination of the provisions of this section, in the light of the history of this and prior reorganization acts, reveals that the reorganizations contemplated are those which would involve (1) transfers of functions and/or agencies within the executive branch of the Government; (2) transfers or consolidations of functions and/or offices, bureaus, divisions, and other subdivisions of the same agency; and (3) abolition of functions and/or agencies. In prior instances of reorganization, the abolitions, transfers, and consolidations proposed were actually effected and resulted in a change in the structure, organization, and functions of agencies and individuals.

In contrast, although Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1952 provides for the abolition of the existing office of postmaster at post offices of the first three classes, and the establishment of a new office entitled "Postmaster," it does not appear that any reorganization, transfer, or abolition of either functions or agencies will actually occur. Furthermore, the abolition of agencies, provided for in subsection (6) of section 3 of the act, is authorized only in the case of agencies whose functions have been abolished or transferred, leaving them with no functions to perform after the effective date of a reorganization plan. It is, therefore, difficult to find, in the types of reorganizations provided for in section 3 of the act, any authority for action which does nothing but change the method of appointment.

In this connection, the American Law Section of the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress was requested by the committee to make an examination of all of the reorganization plans submitted by the President since the Reorganization Act of 1932, in order to determine whether any of these had proposed only the action contemplated by plan No. 2 of 1952. In a letter, dated April 24, 1952, addressed to this committee, Mr. Hugh P. Price wrote:

"We have examined all reorganization plans submitted under the acts of 1932, 1933, 1939, 1945, and 1949 without finding any instance in which the entire plan comprised merely a change in the method of appointment of personnel from appointment by the President with Senate confirmation to appointment by the head of a department or agency."

Apparently recognizing that there was considerable doubt as to whether the action proposed was, in fact, authorized by the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949, the draftsmen of plan No. 2 of 1952 provided for the abolishment of existing offices and the establishment of what is characterized as "new offices," but which, to all intents and purposes, is actually the establishment of the same office. This raises the question of whether the proposal for a change in the method of appointing postmasters was not merely couched in the language of a reorganization in order to bring it under the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949.

This view seems to be amply substantiated by (1) the fact that the actual reorganization of the Post Office Department was accomplished by Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1949; (2) the President, in his message transmitting plan No. 3 of 1949, stated that the plan "carries into effect those of the recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the executive branch of the Government respecting the Post Office Department which can be accomplished under the provisions of the Reorganization Act; (3) the testimony and statements of the Postmaster General and former President Herbert Hoover that a change in the method of appointment of postmasters required substantive legislation and could not be accomplished by reorganization plan; and (4) the Bureau of the Budget, in its analysis of the Hoover Commission recommendations, found that the purposes of plan No. 2 of 1952 would necessitate direct legislative action by the Congress.

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS DESIGNED TO CARRY OUT THE PURPOSES OF
REORGANIZATION PLAN NO. 2 OF 1952

Eighty-first Congress

During the Eighty-first Congress, a number of bills were introduced which would have transferred the appointment of all postmasters from the President, with Senate confirmation, to the Postmaster General, under civil service.

S. 2062 (H. R. 5177) was prepared by the legal staff of the Hoover Commission. It was designed to implement the Commission's recommendations contained in its report on the Post Office and included a section which would have carried out the purposes of Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1952.

S. 2213 (H. R. 5643) was prepared by the Post Office Department and submitted as an administratinn measure. It provided only for the appointment of postmasters by the Postmaster General and the elimination of Presidential appointment and Senate confirmation.

These bills were referred to the Senate Committee on Post Office and Civil Service which appointed a subcommittee to study and report on them. After extensive hearings, the subcommittee recommended that action on S. 2062 be indefinitely postponed, but that favorable action be taken on S. 2213. At an executive session of the full committee, S. 2213 was indefinitely postponed by a vote of eight to four.

Eighty-second Congress

Six bills are presently pending in the Senate and the House of Representatives, any one of which, if enacted, would carry out the purposes of Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1952.

S. 1148 (H. R. 3312, and H. R. 3691), drafted by the Citizens Committee for the Hoover Report contains, in addition, provisions which would implement certain of the Hoover Commission's recommendations relative to the post office, upon which the Congress has not yet acted. S. 1160 is substantially the same as S. 2213 of the Eighty-first Congress, and S. 2970 would provide for the appointment of postmasters, United States attorneys, United States marshals, and customs collectors by the heads of their respective departments, and the elimination of Presidential appointment with Senate confirmation. H. R. 5905 is similar to S. 1160. S. 1148, S. 1160, and the companion House bills were referred to the Committees on Post Office and Civil Service of the Senate and the House of Representatives; S. 2970 was referred to the Committee on Finance. No action has been taken on any of these measures to date.

PRESENT METHOD OF APPOINTING POSTMASTERS

Since 1917, first by Executive order, and since 1938, by the act of June 25, 1938 (Public Law 720, 75th Cong.), all postmasters are appointed in the civil service, after competitive examinations, pursuant to rules and regulations prescribed by the Civil Service Commission. Prior to 1938, postmasters of the first three classes served for terms of 4 years. Since 1938, they have had status and tenure and served for indefinite terms, in the same manner as all other civil-service employees. Postmasters of the first three classes are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Postmasters of the fourth class have been appointed by the Postmaster General for indefinite terms since 1872.

Procedures followed in appointment of postmasters of the first three classes

When the Postmaster General has determined that a vacancy exists, he may fill the position by (a) promotion of a classified employee within the postal service; or (b) open competitive examination. In either case, the applicants must meet residence requirements and the experience, training, and suitability standards established by the Civil Service Commission. According to information supplied by the Civil Service Commission, the following procedures are involved:

A. Announcement, examination, eligibility determination, and rating

1. The Postmaster General notifies the Civil Service Commission that a vacancy exists.

2. The Civil Service Commission issues an announcement of an examination which is posted in the post office where the vacancy exists, and is also publicized in local papers.