Hoover Commission - History, Membership, and Results

History, Membership, and Results

Authorized by Congress in the Lodge-Brown Act of 1947 (named for Representative Clarence J. Brown, Sr. of Ohio and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. of Massachusetts), the commission first met September 29, 1947. Besides Hoover, its members were, former Postmaster General and F.D.R.'s campaign manager James Farley, Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Senator George Aiken of Vermont, Representative Brown, Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal, Civil Service Commissioner Arthur S. Flemming, former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, political scientist James Kerr Pollock, attorney James H. Rowe, Representative Carter Manasco of Alabama, industrialist George Mead, and Senator John L. McClellan of Arkansas. Aiken, Brown, Flemming, Hoover, Mead, and Pollock were Republicans. Acheson, Forrestal, Kennedy, Manasco, McClellan, and Rowe were Democrats. The commission was supported by a large staff and numerous expert task forces.

In early 1949, the Commission forwarded its findings and a total of 273 recommendations to Congress in a series of nineteen separate reports. The commission was officially terminated on June 12, 1949.

With the impetus of the Hoover Commission, the Reorganization Act of 1949, (Public Law 109, 81st Cong., 1st sess.) was approved by Congress on June 20, 1949. President Truman made a special message to Congress upon signing the act, with eight reorganization plans submitted in 1949, 27 in 1950, and one each in 1951 and 1952.

Much implementation continued into the Eisenhower Administration, with ten reorganization plans in 1953, two in 1954, and one each in 1957 and 1958, although not all were related to the 1949 Act. A later study in 1955 concluded that 116 of the recommendations were fully implemented and that another 80 were mostly or partly implemented.