PresidentialPositionsIssuesReceptionTimelineDocuments

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1932 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Reorganization of the executive branch

Reorganize the Department of Agriculture as the machinery for national agricultural planning

pledge_forwardspecific_pledgecandidate_directevidence A AgricultureExecutive Power similar solutions · similar reasoning

Solution

Reorganize the USDA to cut unnecessary functions and useless jobs and redirect it toward "a program of national planning" in agriculture, replacing "heterogeneous and disassociated" agency efforts.

Rationale

Departmental growth has been "irregular, illogical and haphazard"; farm policy needs "unity of planning, coherence in our Administration and emphasis upon cures rather than upon drugs."

Statements (2)

1932-09-14 · Campaign address on the farm problem, Topeka, Kansas · generalcandidate_directto Kansas farmers; national farm audience ✓ verified
First, I would reorganize the United States Department of Agriculture, looking toward the administrative machinery needed to build a program of national planning.
1932-09-14 · Campaign address on the farm problem, Topeka, Kansas · generalcandidate_direct ✓ verified
We must have, I assert with all possible emphasis, national planning in agriculture.

Follow-through

partial

The AAA was placed inside the Department of Agriculture and the Farm Credit Administration consolidated the credit agencies (Executive Order 6084, March 27, 1933), giving USDA the planning machinery Topeka called for; a general reorganization came only with the 1939 Reorganization Act.

Mechanisms

DateTypeNameEffectConsistent?Source
1933-03-27executive_orderExecutive Order 6084 — Farm Credit AdministrationConsolidated farm credit agencies.yesMessage to Congress on Consolidation of Federal Farm Credit Agencies.
1933-05-12statuteAgricultural Adjustment Administration within USDAyesStatement on Signing the Farm Relief Bill

Assessments

partial William E. Leuchtenburg — Franklin D. Roosevelt: Domestic Affairs | Miller Center

Executive reorganization authority was delayed to 1939.

But in 1939, Congress did pass a reorganization bill that created the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and allowed FDR to shift a number of executive agencies (including the Bureau of the Budget) to its watch.

Other positions on this issue

1932-fdr-reorganize-agriculture-department · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed