Nixon's Super-Secretaries: The Last Grand Presidential Reorganization Effort

5 Counsellor for Human Resources Caspar Weinberger: The Super-Secretary as Assistant President

5 h Counsellor for Human Resources Caspar Weinberger The Super-Secretary as Assistant President The memorandum the three counsellors received in early January from Ehrlichman outlining their duties and responsibilities (discussed in chapter 3) was strictly confidential, which meant that no one else knew precisely what their roles were. The three were not supposed to share the memo even with their counsellor staff, let alone with the Cabinet and subcabinet members who were in their domain.That secrecy bred internal and external ambiguity about their roles.Whether intentional or not,this situation gave the each counsellor the opportunity to develop his office and exercise powers based on his particular self-conceptualization of this unprecedented position.Weinberger had the most expansive approach.He saw himself as an assistant president, with direct line powers to supervise the agencies that were his responsibility. His was an audacious and bold approach to being the president’s counsellor for human resources. Scope h Based on Ehrlichman’s congressional briefing of January 5, 1973, the jurisdiction of the human resources counsellor was described as encompassing eight functional policy areas: health, education, manpower 108 : chapter 5 development,income security,social services,Indians and native peoples, drug abuse treatment, and consumer protection.1 In John Dean’s early January memo, the jurisdiction of the HR counsellor was described according to administrative entities: •฀Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW): all except National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and public library construction grants •฀Department of Labor: Manpower Administration, Employment Service Women’s Bureau, unemployment compensation for federal employees and ex-servicemen only, unemployment insurance benefits, and Bureau of Employee’s Compensation •฀Department of Interior: only Native American programs •฀HUD: college housing program •฀Department of Commerce: product safety programs of the National Bureau of Standards •฀USDA: Economic Research Service (Human Resources Branch), Agriculture Research Service (human nutrition and consumer research programs), Food and Nutrition Service, and meat, poultry, and egg inspection •฀OEO (a unit in EOP): all except Community Action Programs and special impact programs •฀Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (the drug “czar”) (a unit in EOP) •฀Office of Consumer Affairs (a unit in EOP) •฀Veterans Administration (VA) •฀National Cancer Institute •฀ACTION •฀Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) •฀Railroad Retirement Board •฀Fine Arts Commission •฀National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities2 Notwithstanding this long list of relevant agencies, the National Journal later opined that of the three counsellors,Weinberger’s coordinative duties were the least cumbersome“since most policy issues fell solely within the jurisdiction of HEW.” However, contradictorily, the same article identified Weinberger as the counsellor who “tried hardest to make the system work,”spending about a third of his time at his OEOB office.3 Had it been Caspar Weinberger : 109 true that most policy issues fell within his secretarial scope, he would not have needed to spend so much time at his OEOB office and could have functioned largely out of his HEW office. Indeed, based on the preceding list of the administrative units under his jurisdiction, he had at least as broad an interdepartmental scope as the other two counsellors. That, along with his self-definition of the super-secretary role, made him the most involved of the three counsellors. Weinberger viewed his role as an assistant president, responsible for overseeing all aspects of the agencies in his domain. During his confirmation hearings, Weinberger was asked to explain what his role as counsellor would be.He blandly stuck to the themes used by the president and Ehrlichman at the congressional breakfast.However, he also hinted at the central role that he expected to play, interposing himself between the president and the departments, both on an incoming and an outgoing basis: “I would transmit to the President their [the departments’ and agencies’] requirements, their recommendations, their thoughts, and their reactions to various events.I would transmit to them, from the President,Presidential policy and Presidential requirements,and would insure that there is a coordinated response, that there is a coordinated series of activities.”This did not sound like he was going to be a mail forwarding service. He was going to be the one to ensure coordination. Weinberger explicitly disclaimed any “administrative, day-to-day, operational kind of task,”limiting himself to policy.4 But the difference between policy and administration is easier to assert than define. Setting Up h Weinberger’s service as OMB director late in Nixon’s first term meant...