Richard Nixon and the Creation of the Modern Presidency
Nixon Legacy Forum
Franklin & Marshall College
Lancaster, PA
January 29, 2014

An on-stage discussion featuring Andrew M. Rouse, Executive Director of President Nixon’s Advisory Council on Executive Organization (Ash Council). He talked about how the Council provided recommendations for measuring the impact and efficiency of Federal policy, minimizing bureaucratic inertia, and solving the overlapping and often conflicting missions of departments and agencies government-wide. Geoff Shepard, an Associate Director of President Nixon’s Domestic Council moderated.

The Ash Council (President’s Advisory Council on Executive Organization)

 

PICTURE: President Nixon standing with Ash Council in San Clemente (8_20_69_37whpo-1853-03-i-whpo-ec)

Background

Upon winning the presidential election of 1968 President-elect Richard Nixon began the process of preparing to assume the presidency in January of 1969. Given his experience in government and his vision for a more modern presidency Richard Nixon knew the work that had been assigned to his pre-presidential task force was not a small one. To make the most efficient use of the time as possible President-elect Nixon set up seventeen task forces to study the various aspects of the Executive Branch and determine how to modernize the branch and make the presidency more effective.

After the inauguration President Nixon began to put the task force recommendations into actions. President Nixon recognized the federal government had grown considerably since the 1930s and the ability to govern effectively had been diminished. President Nixon believed the machinery of the federal government of the United States has grown obsolete. Therefore, he sought to reorganize the operations of the Executive Office of the President to make it more responsive to the president’s desires, and more accountable to the people.

President Nixon sought to transform the Executive Office of the President from one where the heads of the various cabinets directed operations of that department nearly independently to one where the president had more direct input into the various activities by the departments. On January 30, 1969 President Nixon issued a special message to Congress requesting new authority to reorganize the Executive Branch. To make these changes President Nixon authorized the creation of the President’s Advisory Council on Executive Organization (PACEO). President Nixon would go on to appoint the council on April 5, 1969 with Roy L. Ash as the Chairman of the council. The first four members of the council were John B. Connally, Fredrick R. Kappel, Richard M. Paget, and George Baker. Walter Thayer would join the council as on June 2, 1969 and held the position of Special Consultant to the President. Thayer was responsible for assisting in the establishment of the council.

During the sixteen months in existence the council made numerous recommendations that would lead to a sweeping reorganization of the Executive Branch to meet the nations needs in an ever-changing world while meeting the president’s expectations of increasing oversight by reducing the number of those who directly report to the president. The most prominent of these recommendations were delivered to the president as fourteen memoranda (listed below) and were delivered between July 19, 1969 and November 19, 1970. Of these fourteen memoranda only three were made public at the time. The creation of a final report was discussed but no such report was prepared.
The recommendations of the President’s Advisory Council on Executive Organization (the Ash Council) set into motion a series of events that transformed and modernized the presidency with the intent of making recommendations for measuring the impact and efficiency of federal policy, minimizing bureaucratic inertia, and solving the overlapping and often conflicting missions of departments and agencies government wide. Prior to the reorganization that would follow from the Ash Council’s recommendations cabinet members would direct the study of recommended changes to their area of oversight and they would decide what policies to implement and tended to operate on their own.

In 1970 the Ash Council proposed the creation of the Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to follow up on the 1969 proposal to organize the Executive Office of the President. The Council also proposed task forces be created to deal with organized crime and the growing trafficking of narcotics.

Reorganization plan number two reorganized the Bureau of the Budget into the Office of Management and Budget bringing the cabinet departments and the budget office under more direct presidential oversight making the president a chief executive in fact as well as in title.

In August of 1970 the President’s Advisory Council on Executive Organization completes its work and resigns. Recommendations from the Ash Council would continue to be implemented throughout President Nixon’s time in office and beyond. Roy L. Ash would continue to advise President Nixon and in 1973 would become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

 

Picture:  August 20, 1969 Ash Council meets with President Nixon at the Western White House in San Clemente (08_20_1969_37WHPO-1854-03-i-whpo-ec)

Fourteen Memoranda from the Ash Council

5 April 1969 – PACEO (Ash Council) is announced and its mission

20 August 1969 From PAECO to President Subj: The Executive Office of the President

17 October 1969 Proposed Organization of the Executive Office of the President

16 January 1970 PACEO Memo to the President: Oceanography and Atmospheric Programs Organization

16 January 1970 Proposed Reorganization of the Federal Organized Crime Strike Force Program

16 January 1970 Overseas Organization of the Federal Government to Deal with Traffic in Narcotics

20 January 1970 Report on Selected Activities in the Executive Office of the President

29 April 1970 Federal Organization for Environmental Protection 

25 June 1970 Federal Organization to Control Drug Abuse

10 July 1970 PACEO Memo to the President: The Independent Regulatory Agencies

17 August 1970 Federal Organization for Foreign Economic Affairs

26 October 1970 The Executive Office of the President–An Overview: Five Steps to Reorganize the EOP

19 November 1970 Organization for Social and Economic Programs

 

President Nixon walking with Ash Council in San Clemente (8_20_69_37whpo-1853-11-i-whpo-ec)

Background Documents that led to the proposed changes

15 September 1967 Heinman Presidential Task Force Reports on Government Organization

17 December 1968 Letter from Lindsay to President-elect Nixon – Task Force on Organization of the Executive Branch

20 December 1968 Lindsay Letter Burns to President-elect Nixon seeking clarification

Members List for Lindsay’s Task Force on Organization of the Executive Branch

December 1968 Recommendations of Lindsay Task Force on Organization of the Executive Branch

Lindsay Task Force on Organization of the Executive Branch Supplemental Memo on thoughts toward an Office of Executive Management 

Approach to Improve Management

Ash Memo – Background and Problems – Basis for Change 

PICTURE: President Nixon with John Connally in the White House (12_4_70_37-whpo-5208-05-i-2020-js)

Supporting Documents from throughout the process

30 January 1969 – President asks Congress to renew reorganization authority (American Presidency Project) 

3 July 1969 PACEO Study Plan – The Social Agencies

July 1969 – Organization Chart proposal from Ash Council 

11 July 1969 PACEO paper on Federal Communications Organization

14 July 1969 Notes for Thayer’s Meeting with the President 

14 July 1969 Thayer Memo to Flanigan on meeting with the President

15 July 1969 Flannigan note to Haldeman and Chapin on the President meeting with the Ash Council in August in California

16 July 1969 Thayer Memo to President Nixon on PACEO and priorities  

19 July 1969 Ash Memo for the President on two focal points of PACEO

Memo: Discussion with PACEO Guests on the purpose of reorganization

4 August 1969 Memo from Rouse to Ash on key papers used as sources for recommendations with index

14 August 1969 Advising the President of the Council’s Upcoming Agenda for 20 August 1969 meeting in California 

Conceptual Chart of Part of the Functions of the EOP

22 August 1969 Coleman Memo on distribution of copies of the 20 August 1969 Memo on reorganization of the Executive Office of the President

August 1969 Recommendations from PACEO on the Office of Executive Management

PACEO – Background on Proposed Oceanographic Organization Memo

27 January 1970 Memo on Implementation on PACEO’s EOP Report

29 January 1970 Memo on Bureau of the Budget reaction to PACEO’s EOP report

12 March 1970 White House to Congress: Proposal for OMB (Reorganization Plan 2) (American Presidency Project) 

29 April 1970 Memo PACEO to president background on EP

29 April 1970 Federal Organization for Environmental Protection

12 May 1970 The Establishment of a Department of Natural Resources 

25 June 1970 Federal Organization to Control Drug Abuse

26 June 1970 DRAFT Briefing Book for Ash to Congress in Support of Reorganization Plan 3

6 July 1970 President Nixon’s Briefing Paper on Remarks to OMB Staff

7 July 1970 Remarks to OMB Staff

7 July 1970 Andy Rouse Memo to Shultz (Dir of OMB) on Organization

9 July 1970 President to Congress call for Reorganization Plan 3 of 1970

9 July 1970 President to Congress call for Reorganization Plan 4 of 1970

13 July 1970 Rouse Memo to PACEO on 10 July 1970 PACEO Memo to the President: The Independent Regulatory Agencies

August 1970 – Ash Council completes its work and resigns

2 November 1970 Ash memo to president on collection of memoranda of PACEO

6 November 1970 Rouse memo to Cole on PACEO Production Schedule 

6 November 1970 Draft of Resignation Letters for members of PACEO

19 November 1970 Organization for Social and Economic Programs

22 January 1971 President Nixon proposes four new Departments in his State of the Union Address (AmericanPresidencyProject)

25 March 1971 White House to Congress Press Release on Comprehensive Reform

25 May 1971 Shultz announcement of 25 March Reorganization Plan (four bills)

7 May 1971 President Nixon accepted the resignation of the Council

AUDIO: 4 August 1971 Reorganization the Ash Council and OMB 554b

AUDIO: 14 August 1972 Need for Reform 768-24b

AUDIO: 1 May 1973 Reorganization and Design 120a

AUDIO: 3 May 1973 Shultz on Roles and Loyalty 911-032

30 November 1973 Ash memo to the President on Next Steps: President’s Departmental Reorganization Program

Other Sources

Books

Ash, Roy. The political world, government regulation, and spending. 1979