United States Code
USC most recently checked for updates: Jun 09, 2025
Eff.
Prepared by the President and transmitted to the Senate and the House of Representatives in Congress assembled,
FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY AND DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Section 1. Children’s Bureau
(a) The Children’s Bureau in the Department of Labor, exclusive of its Industrial Division, is transferred to the Federal Security Agency. All functions of the Children’s Bureau and of the Chief of the Children’s Bureau except those transferred by subsection (b) of this section, all functions of the Secretary of Labor under Title V of the Social Security Act (49 Stat. 620, ch. 531), as amended [42 U.S.C. 701 et seq.], and all other functions of the Secretary of Labor relating to the foregoing functions are transferred to the Federal Security Administrator and shall be performed by him or under his direction and control by such officers and employees of the Federal Security Agency as he shall designate, except that the functions authorized by section 2 of the act of April 9, 1912 (37 Stat. 79, ch. 73), as amended [section 192 of Title 42], and such other functions of the Federal Security Agency as the Administrator may designate, shall be administered, under his direction and control, through the Children’s Bureau.
(b) The functions of the Children’s Bureau and of the Chief of the Children’s Bureau under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (52 Stat. 1060, ch. 676), as amended [29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.], are transferred to the Secretary of Labor and shall be performed under his direction and control by such officers and employees of the Department of Labor as he shall designate.
Sec. 2. Vital Statistics
The functions of the Secretary of Commerce, the Bureau of the Census, and the Director of the Bureau of the Census with respect to vital statistics (including statistics on births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and annulments) are transferred to the Federal Security Administrator and shall be performed under his direction and control by the United States Public Health Service or by such officers and employees of the Federal Security Agency as the Administrator shall designate.
Sec. 3. United States Employees’ Compensation Commission
[Repealed. Pub. L. 89–554, § 8(a),
Sec. 4. Social Security Board
The functions of the Social Security Board in the Federal Security Agency, together with the functions of its chairman, are transferred to the Federal Security Administrator and shall be performed by him or under his direction and control by such officers and employees of the Federal Security Agency as he shall designate. The Social Security Board is abolished.
Sec. 5. Assistant Heads of Federal Security Agency
In addition to the existing Assistant Federal Security Administrator, there shall be not to exceed two assistant heads of the Federal Security Agency, each of whom shall be appointed by the Federal Security Administrator under the classified civil service, receive a salary at the rate of $10,000 per annum, and perform such duties and head such constituent unit of the Federal Security Agency as the Administrator may provide.
Sec. 6. Functions Under Act of
The functions of the Office of Education and of the Commissioner of Education under the act of
Sec. 7. Assistant Commissioner of Education
The functions of the Assistant Commissioner of Education, created by the act of
Sec. 8. Federal Board for Vocational Education
The Federal Board for Vocational Education and its functions are abolished.
Sec. 9. Board of Visitors of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital
The Board of Visitors of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and its functions are abolished.
Sec. 10. Coordination of Grant-in-Aid Programs
In order to coordinate more fully the administration of grant-in-aid programs by officers and constituent units of the Federal Security Agency, the Federal Security Administrator shall establish, insofar as practicable, (a) uniform standards and procedures relating to fiscal, personnel, and the other requirements common to two or more such programs, and (b) standards and procedures under which a State agency participating in more than one such program may submit a single plan of operation and be subject to a single Federal fiscal and administrative review of its operation.
Sec. 11. Winding Up of Affairs
Suitable measures shall be taken by the Federal Security Administrator to wind up those outstanding affairs of the agencies herein abolished which are not otherwise disposed of by this plan.
Sec. 12. Transfer of Personnel, Property, Records, and Funds
The personnel, property, records, and unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, and other funds (available or to be made available), which the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall determine to relate primarily to the functions transferred hereunder are transferred to the respective agencies concerned for use in the administration of the functions so transferred, except that all of the personnel, property, records, and funds of the Industrial Division of the Children’s Bureau shall be transferred to such agency or agencies of the Department of Labor as the Secretary of Labor shall designate. Any of the personnel transferred under this plan which the transferee agency shall find to be in excess of the personnel necessary for the administration of the functions transferred to such agency shall be retransferred under existing law to other positions in the Government or separated from the service.
Message of the President
To the Congress of the United States:
The fundamental strength of a nation lies within its people. Military and industrial power are evidences, not the real source of strength. Over the years the prosperity of America and its place in the world will depend on the health, the education, the ingenuity, and the integrity of its people and on their ability to work together and with other nations.
The most basic and at the same time the most difficult task of any country is the conservation and development of its human resources. Under our system of government this is a joint responsibility of the Federal, State, and local governments, but in it the Federal Government has a large and vital role to play. Through its research, advice, stimulation, and financial aid, it contributes greatly to progress and to the equalization of standards in the fields of education, health, and welfare; and in the field of social insurance it also directly administers a major segment of the program.
To meet its full responsibilities in these fields, the Federal Government requires efficient machinery for the administration of its social programs. Until 1939 the agencies in charge of these activities were scattered in many parts of the Government. In that year President Roosevelt took the first great step toward effective organization in this area when he submitted Reorganization Plan 1, establishing the Federal Security Agency—
to promote social and economic security, educational opportunity, and the health of the citizens of the Nation.
The time has now come for further steps to strengthen the machinery of the Federal Government for leadership and service in dealing with the social problems of the country. Several programs closely bound up with the objectives of the Federal Security Agency are still scattered in other parts of the Government. As the next step, I consider it essential to transfer these programs to the Federal Security Agency and to strengthen its internal organization and management.
Broadly stated, the basic purpose of the Federal Security Agency is the conservation and development of the human resources of the Nation. Within that broad objective come the following principal functions: Child care and development, education, health, social insurance, welfare (in the sense of care of the needy and the defective), and recreation (apart from the operation of parks in the public domain).
These functions constitute a natural family of closely related services, interwoven at many points and in many ways. For example, the development of day-care centers for children has involved joint planning and service by specialists of the Children’s Bureau, the Office of Education, the Public Health Service, and several other agencies. The schools are both a major consumer of public-health services and a leading vehicle for health education and for disseminating the results of research carried on by the Public Health Service. The promotion of social security involves a whole battery of activities, especially social insurance, public assistance, health, and child welfare.
In order to proceed as promptly as possible with the development of the Federal Security Agency to meet the postwar responsibilities of the Government within its field of activity, I am transmitting herewith Reorganization Plan No. 2, which I have prepared in accordance with the provisions of section 3 of the Reorganization Act of 1945 (Public Law 263, 79th Cong., 1st Sess.), approved
(1) To facilitate orderly transition from war to peace;
(2) To reduce expenditures and promote economy;
(3) To increase efficiency;
(4) To group, coordinate, and consolidate agencies and functions according to major purposes;
(5) To reduce the number of agencies by consolidating those having similar functions and to abolish such agencies or functions thereof as may not be necessary for the efficient conduct of the Government; and
(6) To eliminate overlapping and duplication of effort.
The plan includes certain interagency transfers and several abolitions and changes in the internal organization of the Federal Security Agency.
The plan transfers to the Federal Security Administrator the functions of the Children’s Bureau, except those relating to child labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act. These child-labor functions are transferred to the Secretary of Labor in order that they may be performed by, or in close relationship with, the Wage and Hour Division which administers the rest of the act. The plan continues the Children’s Bureau within the Federal Security Agency to deal with problems of child life, but is flexible enough to enable the Administrator to gear in the Bureau’s programs effectively with other activities of the Agency.
The child-labor program is the only permanent program of the Children’s Bureau that is properly a labor function. The other four—child welfare, crippled children, child and maternal health, and research in problems of child life—all fall within the scope of the Federal Security Agency. The transfer of the Children’s Bureau will not only close a serious gap in the work of the Agency, but it will strengthen the child-care programs by bringing them into closer association with the health, welfare, and educational activities with which they are inextricably bound up.
The promotion of the education, health, welfare, and social security of the Nation is a vast cooperative undertaking of the Federal, State, and local governments. It involves numerous grant-in-aid programs and complex intergovernmental relations. The transfer of the Children’s Bureau will simplify these relations and make for better cooperation.
To illustrate, State welfare departments now depend on both the Bureau of Public Assistance in the Federal Security Agency and the Children’s Bureau in the Labor Department for funds for child-care activities. Similarly, State health departments obtain grants from the Public Health Service for general public health work and from the Children’s Bureau for child and maternal health activities. All of these grants involve the establishment of minimum standards and a
