Reorganization Plan

• Author: Jeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps

Page 300

A scheme authorized by federal law and promulgated by the president whereby he or she alters the structure of federal agencies to promote government efficiency and economy through a transfer, consolidation, coordination, authorization, or abolition of functions.

A reorganization plan must specify the reorganizations that the president deems to be necessary after making an investigation. A plan may provide for

the transfer of the whole or a part of an agency, or of the whole or a part of the functions thereof, to the jurisdiction and control of another agency;

the abolition of all or a part of the functions of an agency, except that no enforcement function or statutory program shall be abolished by the plan;

the consolidation or coordination of the whole or a part of an agency, or of the whole or a part of the functions thereof, with the whole or a part of another agency or the functions thereof;

the consolidation or coordination of a part of an agency or the functions thereof with another part of the same agency or the functions thereof;

the authorization of an officer to delegate any of his or her functions; or

the abolition of the whole or a part of an agency that does not have, or on the taking effect of the reorganization plan will not have, any functions.

No more than three plans may be pending before Congress at one time. In the message conveying a reorganization plan, the president must specify, with respect to each abolition of a function encompassed in the plan, the statutory authority for the exercise of the function. The message must also estimate any reduction or increase in expenditures, itemized whenever practicable, and describe in detail any improvements in management, delivery of federal services, execution of the laws, and increases in efficiency of government operations that, it is expected, will ensue from the reorganization plan.

The president can withdraw the plan at any time prior to the conclusion of 60 calendar days of a continuous session of Congress, following the date on which the plan is submitted to Congress.

Additional contents of a reorganization plan are permitted by federal law. A reorganization plan submitted by the president

may change, in such cases as the president considers necessary, the name of an agency affected by a reorganization and the title of its head and shall designate the name of an agency resulting from a reorganization and the title...