Office of the Historian

116. Memorandum From President Carter to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies and the White House Staff1

Washington, May 30, 1979

SUBJECT

  • The Economic Policy Group and the Coordination of Economic Policymaking

To assure efficient coordination of economic policymaking, the following procedures shall be implemented immediately:

1. Under the direction of the President the Economic Policy Group (EPG) shall be the exclusive vehicle for coordinating the formulation, [Page 480] execution, and presentation of the Administration’s domestic and international economic policies.

2. The EPG should normally operate through meetings of its Steering Group, consisting of the Secretary of the Treasury as the Chairman, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Advisor to the President on Inflation. The Vice President, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs and Policy, and a representative of the National Security Advisor shall participate ex officio in all meetings of the Steering Group. The Chairman of the EPG, consulting with the Steering Group, shall invite the participation of other Cabinet-level members of the Administration as appropriate to consider the issues under review. At the Chairman’s call, the Steering Group should meet several times a week in the White House.

3. The Secretary of the Treasury, as Chairman of the EPG, is the Administration’s chief economic spokesman, and major statements on economic policy by Administration officials should, whenever possible, be reviewed and coordinated by the EPG Steering Group.

4. The EPG Steering Group is responsible for advising the President so that all Presidential-decision memoranda reflect sound economic analysis and accurately relate the options presented to the Administration’s overall economic program and priorities. For this purpose:

  • —The EPG shall have an office in the White House.
  • —The EPG Steering Group shall have access to decision memoranda—from agencies and from EOP and White House staff units—which involve policy issues having a significant impact on economic variables (e.g., inflation, employment, real growth, productivity, competition, international accounts, etc.).
  • —The departments, agencies, and Executive Office and White House staffs shall work closely with the EPG to assure the efficient coordination of economic policymaking.

5. These procedures should be implemented without modification of normal Executive Office, domestic policy and legislative clearance processes.

Jimmy Carter
  1. Source: Carter Library, White House Central Files, Box FG–95, FG 6–18, 1/20/77–1/20/81. No classification marking. The memorandum was released on June 1. See Public Papers: Carter: 1979, Book I, pp. 977–978.↩