Eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3178, 64 Stat. 1273, as amended Reorg. Plan No. 7 of 1961, § 305, eff. Aug. 12, 1961, 26 F.R. 7315, 75 Stat. 840; Oct. 21, 1970, Pub. L. 91–469, § 37, 84 Stat. 1036; Pub. L. 109–304, § 19, Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1710

Prepared by the President and transmitted to the Senate and the House of Representatives in Congress assembled, March 13, 1950, pursuant to the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949, approved June 20, 1949 [see 5 U.S.C. 901 et seq.].

PART I. FEDERAL MARITIME BOARD

Secs. 101–106. [Superseded. Reorg. Plan No. 7 of 1961, § 305, eff. Aug. 12, 1961, 26 F.R. 7315, 75 Stat. 840. Section 101 established the Federal Maritime Board. Section 102 provided for the composition of the Federal Maritime Board. Section 103 transferred certain functions from the Chairman of the United States Maritime Commission to the Chairman of the Federal Maritime Board. Section 104 transferred regulatory functions of the United States Maritime Commission to the Federal Maritime Board. Section 105 transferred subsidy award and other functions of the United States Maritime Commission to the Federal Maritime Board. Section 106 provided that the Board was to be an agency within the Department of Commerce, but would be independent of the Secretary of Commerce with respect to functions transferred to it under section 104.]

PART II. MARITIME ADMINISTRATION

Sec. 201. [Repealed. Pub. L. 109–304, § 19, Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1710. Section related to the creation of Maritime Administration in the Department of Commerce. See section 109 of Title 49, Transportation.]

Sec. 202. [Superseded. Reorg. Plan No. 7 of 1961, § 305, eff. Aug. 12, 1961, 26 F.R. 7315, 75 Stat. 840. Section provided for a Maritime Administrator to be at the head of the Maritime Administration, and that the Chairman of the Federal Maritime Board would be such Administrator and would perform duties prescribed by the Secretary of Commerce.]

Secs. 203, 204. [Repealed. Pub. L. 109–304, § 19, Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1710. Section 203 related to the Deputy Maritime Administrator. Section 204 related to transfer of functions of the United States Maritime Commission to the Secretary of Commerce. See section 109 of Title 49.]

PART III. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sec. 301. Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation

There shall be in the Department of Commerce an additional office of Under Secretary with the title “Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation.” The Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall receive compensation at the rate prescribed by law for Under Secretaries of Executive departments, and shall perform such duties as the Secretary of Commerce shall prescribe.

Secs. 302–307. [Superseded. Reorg. Plan No. 7 of 1961, § 305, eff. Aug. 12, 1961, 26 F.R. 7315, 75 Stat. 840. Section 302 provided that person who was both Administrator and Chairman was to make joint use of the personnel under his supervision. Section 303 made conflict of interest provisions of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936, applicable to members of the Federal Maritime Board and officers and employees of the Board or of the Maritime Administration. Section 304 allowed the President to make interim appointments to the Federal Maritime Board from officers of the Executive Branch. Section 305 transferred to the Department of Commerce all property, personnel, records, and funds of the United States Maritime Commission. Section 306 abolished the United States Maritime Commission. Section 307 provided that the functions transferred by this reorganization plan would not be subject to Reorg. Plan No. 5 of 1950.]

Message of the President

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith Reorganization Plan No. 21 of 1950, prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Reorganization Act of 1949. This plan effects a basic reorganization of the functions of the United States Maritime Commission along the lines recommended by the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government.

Within the last 3 years three different bodies have studied the administration of the Maritime Commission. All have concluded that the operating deficiencies of the agency arise from inappropriate and unsound organization and that a fundamental reorganization is essential. The first of these bodies, the President’s Advisory Committee on the Merchant Marine, in 1947, stated:

It appears to the Committee that the organization structure of the Maritime Commission as set up in the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 is wholly inadequate for the efficient conduct of the multitude of diverse activities for which the Maritime Commission is now responsible. The deficiencies of the statutory organization for administrative action are regarded by the Committee to be the most serious obstacle standing in the way of the development of the Merchant Marine of this country.

Similarly, the survey of the Maritime Commission in 1948 for the Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments concluded that—

The fundamental weakness of the Maritime Commission, as it is now constituted, lies in its proscribed organization.

On the basis of investigations of the Maritime Commission by two of its task forces, the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch stated:

It is an anomaly that a regulatory commission should also conduct the executive function of managing a huge business; that executive functions should be carried on by an agency that is not subject to Presidential directions; that executive functions should be carried on by a full-time board * * *.

While the recommendations of the various studies differ in some details, they agree on principles and on the main features of reorganization.

Basically, the administrative difficulties of the Maritime Commission have arisen, as all these studies agree, from the fact that the Commission is responsible for performing two fundamentally different types of functions which call for different types of organization. These two classes of functions are (a) regulatory and (b) operating and promotional. Under various acts the Commission regulates rates and services of water carriers; passes on agreements among carriers; and protects shippers against unfair and discriminatory practices. This type of activity requires the deliberation and independence of judgment which a board or commission is especially well designed to provide. But at the same time the Commission is charged with the conduct of a variety of large and costly promotional and business-type programs demanding the prompt and vigorous administration for which experience both in Government and in private enterprise has demonstrated that a single executive is essential.

The Maritime Commission has charge of the construction of merchant vessels for subsidized operators and for Government account. It owns and maintains the largest merchant fleet in the world, consisting of 2,200 vessels aggregating more than 22,000,000 dead-weight tons. It charters and sells ships and, in time of war or national emergency, requisitions and operates vessels for the Government. It grants construction and operating differential subsidies to private shipping companies to maintain an active privately operated American merchant marine. It makes loans and insures mortgages to assist carriers in acquiring new vessels, and it conducts programs for training officers and seamen for the merchant marine. For the present fiscal year the performance of these functions will involve the expenditure of approximately $162,000,000 and the direction of an organization of 5,500 employees. In short, the administration of the Maritime Commission is a vast business undertaking. Moreover, the work of the Commission affects significantly the interests of both business and labor in the maintenance of a sound maritime industry.

Further than this, many of the activities of the Maritime Commission are closely related to other programs of the Government and have to be coordinated with them. In the construction of a subsidized ship the Commission must cooperate with the Coast Guard on those features of design, materials, and equipment which affect the safety of the vessel and with the Navy on those which especially affect the use of the ship for national defense. Furthermore, the whole program of subsidized ship construction needs to be adjusted to the plans and requirements for national defense. At the same time the Commission’s programs for the development of the merchant marine must be coordinated with our foreign policy and with Federal programs with respect to other branches of transportation.

While an independent commission is an appropriate instrument for the performance of the regulatory functions of the Maritime Commission, such an agency obviously is not the type required to provide strong and efficient administration of the large operating programs now entrusted to the Commission or to obtain the needed coordination with other activities of the executive branch. This fact is amply demonstrated by the administrative difficulties and the complicated problems of coordination encountered in the operation of the Commission since the war and by the necessity of transferring a large part of its functions to the War Shipping Administration, headed by a single executive, during the war.

Briefly, this reorganization plan provides for a small Federal Maritime Board and a Maritime Administration in the Department of Commerce to perform the functions of the Maritime Commission, and abolishes the existing Commission. It transfers to the Board the regulatory functions of the Commission and definitely guarantees the independence of the Board in the performance of these functions. In addition, it vests directly in the Board the determination and award of construction and operating differential subsidies. In the performance of its subsidy functions the Board will be subject to general policy guidance by the Secretary of Commerce. The Board, however, and it alone, will determine to whom subsidies shall be granted and will make and award the subsidy contracts. Its actions therein will be conclusive and will not be subject to modification by any other agency or officer of the Department of Commerce. The other functions of the Maritime Commission, including carrying out the subsidy agreements made by the Board and administering the various operating programs, are transferred to the Secretary of Commerce for administration through the Maritime Administration. Thus, the plan provides for each of the two types of functions now vested in the Maritime Commission the type of organization best suited to its performance. At the same time, the plan will facilitate coordination of maritime policies and programs with other related policies and programs.

The division of functions under this plan conforms directly to the recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government. While the award of subsidies is a promotional rather than a regulatory function and might logically be assigned to the Maritime Administration instead of the Board, its impact on the shipping industry and on individual carriers is such as to make desirable the deliberation and combined judgment of a board. Accordingly, I have adhered to the recommendation of the Commission on Organization that this function be vested in a multiple body rather than a single official. Likewise, in line with the recommendations of the Commission, the plan assigns the determination of the over-all route pattern to the Secretary of Commerce.

The Maritime Board will consist of three members appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate for overlapping terms of 4 years. Not more than two of the members can be of the same political party. The Board, therefore, will be a smaller and more wieldy body which can function with greater expedition and efficiency than the existing five-member Commission. The Chairman will be designated by the President from the members of the Board and will be, ex officio, the Maritime Administrator and as such the head of the Maritime Administration. The plan also provides for a Deputy Maritime Administrator appointed by the Secretary of Commerce under the classified civil service. After investigation I have found, and hereby declare, that by reason of the reorganizations made by this plan, it is necessary to include in the plan provisions for the appointment and compensation of the members of the Federal Maritime Board and for the appointment of the Deputy Maritime Administrator.

In making the Chairman of the Federal Maritime Board the Maritime Administrator, the plan adopts an arrangement substantially similar to that which prevailed during the war, when the same individual served as Chairman of the Maritime Commission and head of the War Shipping Administration. This arrangement will have important advantages. It will facilitate cooperation between the Board and the Administration on matters of concern to both. Also, it will avoid dividing the personnel of the Maritime Commission, since the Chairman of the Board will supervise the personnel assisting it in the performance of its functions, as is now the case in the Maritime Commission, and in his capacity as Administrator he will have charge of the personnel carrying on the work of the Maritime Administration. The plan provides for the joint operation of the officers and employees under the Administrator and Chairman as a single body of personnel. The maintenance of a unified staff is essential for efficient and economical administration because many of the technical and professional personnel, such as ship designers and attorneys, now assist the Maritime Commission on problems of subsidy determination and also participate in the subsequent administration of subsidy agreements and in performing nonsubsidy functions.

The inclusion of the new Board in the Department of Commerce will permit the use of the administrative services of the Department. More important, it will eliminate the necessity of splitting the personnel of the Maritime Commission between the Department and an outside agency. In addition, it will relieve the President of having to handle relations with a separate maritime agency.

In establishing the Department of Commerce the Congress provided in the organic act of the Department that—

It shall be the province and duty of said Department to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce, * * * shipping, * * * and the transportation facilities of the United States.

Over the years, however, transportation functions have become widely scattered throughout the executive branch. As a result, intelligent planning and budgeting of Federal transportation activities and the necessary coordination of transportation programs have become extremely difficult or impossible. The transfer of the functions of the Maritime Commission to the Department of Commerce will constitute a major step in correcting this condition.

Without question the Department of Commerce is now the appropriate center for transportation programs. It contains the Civil Aeronautics Administration—the major operating and promotional agency of the Government in the field of air transportation—and the Weather Bureau, and the Coast and Geodetic Survey, which provide vital services to transportation. As a result of Reorganization Plan No. 7 of 1949, it now also includes the Bureau of Public Roads, the leading promotional agency dealing with land transportation. Also, it has the Inland Waterways Corporation in the field of water transportation. The transfer of the functions of the Maritime Commission will bring into the Department the principal water-transportation agency of the Government. These actions will go a long way toward the establishment of a sound and effective organization for the operating and promotional programs of the Government relating to transportation.