37 



Mr. Pelly. I just want to correct you as far as the President wanting 

 a Council and Commission. I was one of the conferees on the legislation. 

 My recollection is that it was the Senate version of the bill that con- 

 tained the two bodies. The House bill only had the Commission. We 

 finally compromised along the lines now reflected in the law. There was 

 some doubt despite the compromise language as to whether the Presi- 

 dent would accept it. 



We blame plenty of things on the President. I don't want to add this. 



Mr. MosHER. Will the gentleman yield ? 



It is my memory that the Bureau of the Budget very strongly op- 

 posed the Council at one point and, in fact, the President's pocket veto 

 of the original legislation was because of the Council. 



Also I would like to testify here personally that I have sat in with 

 the Commission at a good many of its meetings and have been in very 

 close touch with the members at its work, and I don't find the slightest 

 sense among the Commission members that the Council is intruding 

 into its domain in any way. I think the Commission feels completely 

 free to make the recommendations, the independent recommendations, 

 that the Congress wants from them. 



Mr. Eeinecke. I am glad to hear that. 



I was concerned by the nature of the report here that the Council 

 was moving into the areas of responsibility of the Commission. We 

 certainly don't want to settle back to the comfortable position where 

 everybody goes his own way, as we had previously. 



This is the reason I bring this out. 



Mr. Rogers. Will the gentleman yield? 



Mr. Reinecke. Certainly. 



Mr. Rogers. I think it is well to bring this out because, as the gen- 

 tleman already said, it was clearly the intent of the Congress that the 

 Commission be completely independent of the Council. In fact, we 

 said that the Commission would make its report directly to the Presi- 

 dent and to the Congress, not to anyone else. This was the intent of 

 the Congress and I hope this is the way it is functioning. Certainly it 

 should. 



Mr. Reinecke. I hope so, too, Mr. Chairman. 



I point out that one of the problems to which the Council will 

 address itself is consideration of the optimum Federal organization. 

 It was my opinion that that was purely and solely the business of the 

 Commission, not of the Council, but that the Council would help to 

 coordinate and improve the intergovernmental relations of ongoing 

 programs over the next couple of years, and that the Commission would 

 address itself to the problems of this nature. 



I am sure you gentlemen can be of great assistance to the Commis- 

 sion and apparently this has been the case, but I think we do want to 

 make it very clear that we want to move forward. We want a program 

 that will continue without a lot of interdepartmental and interagency 

 rivalries. 



We would like to see some improvement on the coordination of these 

 problems and exchange of ideas. 



Dr. Wenk. I appreciate the gentleman's remarks. I would like to 

 just amplify one or two comments made regarding the relationship 

 between the Council and the Commission, and then a brief point with 

 regard to this matter of Federal structure. 



