Senior Executive Service

“ The head of each Executive department and agency shall designate a senior official of his or her department or agency to provide leadership in and support for the Federal commitment to community service through employee awareness and participation within his or her department and agency. The senior official shall report to, his or her department or agency head to ensure that community service activities receive a high level of visibility and promotion. ”

“ Except for the career members of the Senior Foreign Service from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the International Communication Agency, and the United States International Development Cooperation Agency, the members of the Board shall be selected from among those who have the rank of Assistant Secretary or higher or a position of comparable responsibility. ”

“ In the early years of the administration of the Government the personal direction of appointments to the civil service may not have been an irksome task for the Executive, but now that the burden has increased fully a hundredfold it has become greater thin he ought to bear, and it necessarily diverts his time and attention from the proper discharge of other duties no less delicate and responsible, and which in the very nature of things can not be delegated to other hands. ”

“ But with us there is no such intimate relationship between legislative and executive service. From experience in state administration to trial in the larger sphere of federal administration is the only natural order of promotion. We ought, therefore, to hail the recognition of this fact as in keeping with the general plan of the federal Constitution. The business of the President, occasionally great, is usually not much above routine. Most of the time it is mere administration, mere obedience of directions from the masters of policy, the Standing Committees. ”

“ A president is the chief executive officer of a railway, and the other officers are generally one or more vice-presidents, a treasurer and secretary, and a general manager. The treasurer has charge of all moneys collected and disbursed, and is responsible directly to the president, who is assisted in certain duties by the vice-president. The duties of the general manager extend to every department of the service, all of which are under his control. ”

“ If the chief-justice, the head of an independent branch of government, could be sent abroad as an Envoy Extraordinary in Executive employment, no objection could exist to sending an Executive officer on a temporary service of the same kind, unless on the score of expediency. ”

“ Section 7.⁠Effective February 1, 1939, there is established a Council of Personnel Administration consisting of the directors of personnel of the several departments and independent establishments, one additional representative of the Bureau of the Budget, one additional representative of the Civil Service Commission, and such additional members as the President shall designate. The President shall designate one of the members of the Council to act as chairman thereof, and the Council may designate an executive director. ”

“ I am counting on our civil servants to seize upon that order and make our Government dramatically more accountable, effective, and efficient, by going beyond the modernization efforts of the past and re-examining the operational core of our executive departments and agencies. Together, through these and other efforts, we will fulfill our responsibilities to make our Government work better for the American people. ”

“ The Board of Governors shall designate a senior officer of the executive organ to serve as the Acting Secretary General whenever the Secretary General is absent or is unable to discharge his duties, or if the office of Secretary General should become vacant. The Acting Secretary General shall have the capacity to exercise all the powers of the Secretary General pursuant to this Agreement and the Operating Agreement. ”

“ Each Senior Administrator shall be nominated by the Minister of the particular Department or agency from among persons in the senior lists of the World Civil Service Administration, as soon as senior lists have been established by the World Civil Service Administration, and shall be confirmed by the Presidium. ”

“ I've asked Cabinet secretaries and agency heads to name a chief operating officer, who will be held accountable for the performance of that agency. These officers will make up the President's Management Council, to build a leadership team that listens, learns and innovates. ”

“ The Financial Secretary and the Parliamentary Secretary are political officers, that is, they sit in the House of Commons, and they change with every change in the Government. The Permanent Secretary, on the other hand, is a non-political officer, or civil servant, who retains office through the successive changes of Government, and secures the continuity of the office. He is the official head of the Department, and of the whole civil service. ”

“ For the good of the service itself, for the protection of those who are intrusted with the appointing power against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several Executive Departments and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made during the terms for which incumbents have been appointed. ”

“ The Commission shall be composed of not more than thirty-six members who shall be appointed from time to time by the President from among leaders in the private sector and the Executive branch of the Government. The President shall seek, so far as he deems practicable or advisable, to appoint up to seventy-five percent of the Commission membership from the ranks of Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Chairmen, Senior Partners or other individuals of comparable rank and stature from the private sector. ”

“ The same officers, together with the rest of the new organization, are able at all times to give to American citizens accurate information as to conditions in foreign countries with which they have business and likewise to cooperate more effectively with the Congress and also with the other executive departments.
MERIT SYSTEM IN CONSULAR AND DIPLOMATIC CORPS
Expert knowledge and professional training must evidently be the essence of this reorganization. Without a trained foreign service there would not be men available for the work in the reorganized Department of State. ”

“ On that same basis, the President alone has the responsibility for their administration. I find that this task of Executive management has reached the point where our administrative machinery needs comprehensive overhauling. I shall, therefore, shortly address the Congress more fully in regard to modernizing and improving the Executive branch of the Government. ”

“ The appointment of citizens to the various executive and judicial offices of the Government is, perhaps, the most difficult of all duties which the Constitution has imposed upon the Executive. The convention wisely demands that Congress shall coöperate with the Executive Department in placing the civil service on a better basis. Experience has proved that, with our frequent changes of administration, no system of reform can be made effective and permanent without the aid of legislation. ”

“ If you are enlisting in government service, you will have to commit in writing to rules limiting your role for two years in matters involving people you used to work with, and barring you from any attempt to influence your former government colleagues for two years after you leave. And you will receive an ethics briefing on what is required of you to make sure that our government is serving the people's interests, and nobody else's -- a briefing, I'm proud to say, I was the first member of this administration to receive last week. ”

“ But the system now proposed, while thus allowing the frequent bringing in of new and capable men from public life at home, requires that a large proportion of each grade above that of secretary, save a very small number of diplomatic agents, commissioners, and the like, shall be appointed from those thoroughly trained for the service, and that all secretaries, without exception, shall be thoroughly trained and fitted. ”

“ Under our government the Secretaries who form the Cabinet are in the strictest sense the President’s own ministerial appointees; the men, chosen out of all the nation, to whom he thinks he can best depute the most important and laborious of his executive duties. Of course they all advise him on matters of general policy when he so desires it, and in practice each Cabinet officer has a very free hand in managing his own department, and must have it if he is to do good work. ”

“ The unit system is applicable to every phase of modern organization. When its principles are better understood, you will see develop in the great financial centers some such important title as vice-chairman, in order that rank and authority may be conferred superior to that of the presidents of the constituent properties. Both the chairman and the president need a senior vice-chairman and a senior vice-president, respectively, to act as chief of staff. ”

“ The Chair shall oversee the activities of agencies to assure that their systems operate smoothly through the year 2000, act as chief spokesperson on this issue for the executive branch in national and international fora, provide policy coordination of executive branch activities with State, local, and tribal governments on the Y2K problem, and promote appropriate Federal roles with respect to private sector activities in this area. ”

“ The Secretary is not merely a minister for foreign affairs, but is the guardian of the seals of state, the medium through whom the laws are promulgated, the depositary of the government archives, and the first assistant of the Chief Executive. Tradition has conferred upon him a dignity next to that of President, the law making him second in the order of succession to the presidency by vacancy of the office, while it has become the custom for the President to invite him to participate in the performance of his duties rather as a colleague and associate than as an adviser and servant. ”

“ Secretary, whether it is not better, in your opinion, that the Congress of the United States should prescribe the duties of executive officers, so that they can act in pursuance of law, rather than the executive officer should be acting on his own notions of what is best? ”

“ The executive, therefore, ought to be so constituted as to be the great protector of the mass of the people. It is the duty of the executive to appoint the officers, and to command the forces, of the republic—to appoint, first, ministerial officers for the administration of public affairs ”

“ The executive department of the government stands in relation to the people of the nation as the business manager of a corporation stands in relation to the stockholders. He must see that the will of the people, as expressed by their representatives, is carried into effect; he must appoint the necessary administrative officials for efficient service; he must keep his finger upon the pulse of the nation, and use his influence to hold the legislature to its duty ”

“ All those who understand our Constitutional system will admit that the President, himself and alone, can do many things toward that end by a simple exercise of the powers of his office. He can, for himself and for the heads of Departments, establish the rule that not party service, but honesty, competency and fidelity shall be regarded as the only qualifications for nomination or appointment to be considered. He can keep every officer in place who has performed his duties with integrity and efficiency. ”

“ By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, including section 153 of Public Law 99-93, it is hereby ordered that Section 9 (e) of Executive Order No. 12293, as amended, relating to the appointment of the Chairman of the Board of the Foreign Service, is revoked, and that Section 9 (f) of that Order is redesignated as Section 9 (e) . ”

“ It is at times embarrassing to diplomatic representatives, for no sooner have they completed negotiations with one cabinet official than he is succeeded by another. [366] No vice-president is elected, the executive office, if vacated by death or resignation, is filled temporarily by the Minister of the Interior, who is usually a member either of the Senate or House of Deputies. The Congress will then select a new executive. ”

“ The pace of world events doesn’t pause to allow the United States Government to change from one secretary of state to another, but it’s because of your dedication and professionalism that this department has continued to meet its mission for the American people. ”

“ The president shall, as typed in Exodus, chapter four, and in Numbers, chapter sixteen, verses twelve and twenty-five to thirty-two, act as chairman of the Executive Council as chief administrator of the affairs of the Association, and as a worker and minister in the general interest of the Association. ”

“ It shall be the duty of each director of personnel to act as liaison officer in personnel matters between his department or establishment and the Civil Service Commission, and to make recommendations to the departmental budget officer with respect to estimates and expenditures for personnel. ”

“ Mr. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State; Mr. William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. John C. Calhoun, Secretary at War; Mr. Smith Thompson, of New-York, Secretary of the Navy; Mr. John McLean, Postmaster General; William Wirt, Esq., Attorney General. These constituted the Executive Department, and it would be difficult to find in any government, in any country, at any time, more talent and experience, more dignity and decorum, more purity of private life, a larger mass of information, and more addiction to business, than was comprised in this list of celebrated names. ”