MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENT ON THE BUDGET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R001700060018-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 19, 2003
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: September 16, 1966
• Content Type: MFR

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Approved For Release 2003/08/25: CIA-RDP80B01676R
16 September 1966
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Meeting with the President on the Budget
1. On Friday, 16 September 1966, the Director and I attended
a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House for selected heads
of departments and agencies to discuss the President's plans for
holding down expenditures and combating inflation insofar as they
apply to funds spent by the Federal Government. (The meeting was
scheduled for 1330. However, the President was delayed, and the
meeting actually began at 1425. )
2. After some brief introductory remarks the President said
that he intends to move on five fronts as follows:
a. There will be immediate reductions in the Fiscal Year
1967 budget. I understood this to mean the reductions of which
agencies have already been notified. In our case.. this is
b. The Bureau of the Budget will notify agencies of addi-
tional reductions.
c. For the next three or four months, any obligation or
expenditure which can be deferred will be postponed. His ob-
jective is to give the private sector no excuse to blame their
inflationary actions on the Government.
d. Overtime will be eliminated to the degree possible.
The President pointed out that the cost of overtime in the
Federal Government has doubled in the past year.
e. Funds requested for the FY 68 budget will be reduced
to the absolute minimum. The President said tnat the budget
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has increased 33 1/3 percent since he became President. He
said that Charlie Schultze had told him many agencies feel the
target figures which they have been given for FY 68 are woe-
fully inadequate. Regardless, he cannot and will not approve
anything like the figures which have been requested.
3. In addition to the foregoing, the President said that the sixth
action he proposes to take is to freeze Federal employment. He
said that the Federal payroll has increased by 143, 000 in the last
twelve months and that he does not want one single additional vacancy
to be filled unless it is an absolute must.
4. The President mentioned that the American public has
$50 billion more in its pockets to spend now than it did a year ago.
Since the Federal Government spends about $113 billion of the roughly
$740 billion gross national product, he intends for the Federal Gov-
ernment to set the right example and hopes that the private sector
will follow. If not, he does not want it to have as a legitimate excuse
the claim that it is receiving additional orders from the Federal Gov-
ernment. The President emphasized that he expects all heads of
departments and agencies to work at this full time with their minds
and with their hearts.
5. The President then asked Charlie Schultze if he had any com-
ments. Charlie said that he would merely like to say that there are
two general problems. The first is to reduce expenditures to the
maximum degree possible during FY 67, and the second is to hold
obligations and expenditures to the absolute minimum during the next
three or four months.
6. The meeting adjourned at 1445.
25X1
E. K. W ie
Executive Director-Comptroller
cc: D/PPB
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