United States. Office of Management and Budget

The Director, assisted by the Deputy Director, the Associate Director, the Assistant Director, the Executive Assistant to the Director, the Secretariat, and other staff members of the Office of the Director, is responsible for the general direction and coordination of Office Activities, and for maintaining relations with the President, Congress, other Government agencies, and the public. The Office of the Director provides administrative services for the Office as a whole. The Director, as head of the Office, is responsible for all office actions and decisions. He determines Office policy and programs, defines the Office's organization, and personally or through his immediate assistants provides executive direction for the Office.

These records are primarily reference materials accumulated by Schwartz and relate to outdoor recreation, the Northeast water problem, research and development of natural resources, meetings with local interest groups, and related subjects.

The Office of Management and Budget was established in the Executive Office of the President by Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1970, 35 F.R. 7959, which became effective July 1, 1970. The Plan designated the Bureau of the Budget as the Office of Management and Budget and transferred to the President all functions vested by law in the Bureau of the Budget or the Director of the Bureau of the budget. By Executive Order No. 11541 of July 1, 1970, the functions thus vested in the President were delegated to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. That Order also continued in effect all outstanding delegations, rules, regulations, and other forms of Executive or administartive action issued or taken by or relating to the Bureau of the Budget prior to the effective date of the Reorganization Plan.

The Division, established in 1939, acted as a clearing house for legislation to be drafted and submitted, for analysis of bills that were already introduced in Congress, for obtaining departmental views on these bills, for determining the relationship of legislation to the program of the President, and for coordinating the departmental viewpoints to be expressed in testimony.

The Legislative Reference Division reviews the annual programs of the agencies submitted with budget estimates, and agency recommendations for the President's legislative program as it is expressed in the State of the Union Message, the Budget Message, the Economic Report, and special messages. The Division assists the White House Staff and the Director on Presidential messages and statements relating to legislation. It maintains a continuing record of major legislative proposals under consideration in the Executive Branch and Congress.

The Division also assists in the exercise of the Office's responisbilities for clearing and coordinating agency legislative proposals and reports on pending legislation and for reporting to the President on enrolled bills, except appropriation bills, and reorganization plans. It acts primarily as a staff arm to the Director on such matters, developing policy alternatives when necessary, reviewing work performed by other divisions as part of the clearance process, and coordinating their views. The Division also maintains orderly and appropriate channels of communication to the agencies on legislation, except for appropriation bills and reorganization plans.