Brownlow Committee

The committee's recommendations formed the basis of the Reorganization Act of 1939 and the creation of the Executive Office of the President.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the committee on March 22, 1936, and charged it with developing proposals for reorganizing the executive branch.

In its third suggestion, the committee said that the managerial agencies – the Civil Service Administration, the Bureau of the Budget, and the National Resources Board – should be part of the Executive Office.

The committee advocated a strong chief executive, including a significant expansion of the presidential staff, integration of managerial agencies into a single presidential office, expansion of the merit system, integration of all independent agencies into existing Cabinet departments, and modernization of federal accounting and financial practices.

[2] The Reorganization Act of 1939 incorporated two of the committee recommendations, and provided President Roosevelt with authority to make changes so that most of the existing agencies and government corporations became accountable to cabinet-level departments.

Charles Merriam ( left ) and Louis Brownlow, members of the Brownlow Committee, leave the White House on September 23, 1938, after they discussed government reorganization with President Roosevelt.