White House Press Release

252-I IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 9, 1947 The President today transmitted to Congress supplemental appro- priation requests totalling $24,900,000 for the administration of an employees loyalty program in the Executive Branch of the Government. The estimates contained requests for $16,160,000 for the Civil Service Commission and $8,740,000 for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and would cover costs of the program until June 30, 1948. Today's appropriation requests are required to carry out the purposes of Executive Order 9835, prescribing procedures for the adminis- tration of the employees, loyalty program. The executive order was signed March 21 following a report made to the President by his Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty appointed in November, 1946. The letter of the Director of the Bureau of the Budget recom- mending the estimates to the President stated: "In order to achieve the objectives set forth in the Executive Order, the names of all employees now working for the Federal Government, other than those who would be off the rolls by the time the names could be checked, will be checked against the name and fingerprint files of the Federal Eureau of Investiga- tion. "If, as a result of these checks, derogatory information relating to loyalty is discovered, the Federal Bureau of Investi- gation will make a full field investigation and report all derogatory information to the appropriate employing agency. "The employing agency will then consider this derogatory information in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Executive Order. Before final action is taken by the head of the department or agency concerned, the case may, on the request of either the agency or the employee, be appealed to the Loyalty Review Board to be established in the Civil Service Commission. This Board will, after considering the case in the manner pre- scribed in the Executive Order, make appropriate recommendations to the head of the department or agency. "All persons entering the Federal service will be checked against the name and fingerprint files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and with the exception of appointees to so-called sensitive positions, referred to subsequently, their names will be checked by the Civil Service Commission against the other sources of information specified in the Executive Order. "Whenever these checks bring to light derogatory information relating to the loyalty of persons seeking employment in the competitive service and who have been appointed subject to investi- gation, it will be the responsibility of the Civil Service Com- mission to determine their eligibility for continued employment in the service. In the discharge of this responsibility, the Civil Service Commission may call upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation to provide it with all the information which it has or can develop, as a result of appropriate investigations, bearing on the question of loyalty. "The Civil Service Commission will make full field investi- gations of appointees to all so-called sensitive positions, that is, those which may be designated by the head of the employing department or agency as those which in 'the best interests of national security' should be filled permanently only after such an investigation has been conducted. (OVER) Original filed PP7 1-3