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Executive Order 10802 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 10802—Establishing the Committee on Government Activities Affecting Prices and Costs

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower
•
Friday, January 23, 1959
•
3 min read (578 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (578 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

There is hereby established the Committee on Government Activities Affecting Prices and Costs (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee").

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
Inspect unabridged text ↓

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 23, 1959, this order concerns Establishing the Committee on Government Activities Affecting Prices and Costs. There is hereby established the Committee on Government Activities Affecting Prices and Costs (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee"). The Committee shall be composed of the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, who shall serve as Chairman; and a representative of each of the following agencies, to be designated by the head of such agency—the Department of Defense, the Post Office Department, the…

Constitutional Assessment: Scrutinized through Article II, Section 2, this action exercises the President's constitutional role as Commander in Chief. Early Framers recognized broad executive discretion in commanding military forces during conflict, provided it remains bounded by congressional declarations and respects civilian domestic courts.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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There is hereby established the Committee on Government Activities Affecting Prices and Costs (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee").

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The Committee shall be composed of the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, who shall serve as Chairman; and a representative of each of the following agencies, to be designated by the head of such agency—the Department of Defense, the Post Office Department, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Bureau of the Budget, the General Services Administration, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Federal Aviation Agency and the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization; and a representative to be designated by the head of each other Federal agency the President may from time to time request to participate in the activities of the Committee.

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The Committee shall: (a) Examine and study the operation of Federal procurement, stockpiling, commodity price support, rate regulation, subsidy and similar programs and activities as to their effect upon the level and trends of prices and costs; (b) Recommend to the agencies involved administrative actions, procedures, and policies to assure that existing programs and activities are, insofar as practicable under existing law and with due regard to national security requirements, being carried out in the light of the need for reasonable stability of the price level, and in the light of other national economic objectives; (c) Advise the President periodically as to (i) the effect of Federal programs and activities within the scope of this…

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The heads of all Federal departments and agencies engaged in procurement, stockpiling, commodity price support, rate regulation, subsidy and similar programs which directly affect prices and costs shall reexamine their programs in the light of the need for reasonable stability of the price level, and shall take such administrative actions or recommend such changes in legislation as are deemed desirable after such review.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Economy & Finance
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The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight)
§

"When the President acts in absence of either a congressional grant or denial of authority, he can only rely upon his own independent powers, but there is a zone of twilight in which he and Congress may have concurrent authority."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"Power is of an encroaching nature, and it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." — Federalist No. 48 (1788)

Madison would view this order with watchful scrutiny. Operating in the 'Zone of Twilight' where Congress is silent, each such directive establishes an administrative precedent that steadily expands the executive perimeter at the expense of legislative primacy.

Madisonian Stance: Vigilant / Cautionary
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Strong Prerogative Support
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)

The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Eternal Vigilance Required
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Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone
35 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Low Friction

Operates within delegated statutory execution without modifying legislative appropriations or taxing powers.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

Moderate Friction

Engages state and local partners in cooperative federalism programs.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Low Friction

Focuses on internal governmental operations with no direct impairment of private rights or property.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Moderate Friction

The order relies on inherent Article II executive discretion, civil service management, or foreign diplomacy where Congress has neither expressly approved nor prohibited action.

Benchmark: Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).
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How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.
Total Words
578
3,600 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
22.6
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS serious injury to the national economy may result from a lack of reasonable stability in the level of prices and costs; and WHEREAS it is essential that the programs and activities of the Federal Government affecting prices and costs be administered in the light of the need for reasonable stability of the price level:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, including the Employment Act of 1946, as amended (60 Stat. 23 ; 15 U.S.C. 1021, et seq.) and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows: SECTION 1. There is hereby established the Committee on Government Activities Affecting Prices and Costs (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee"). The Committee shall be composed of the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, who shall serve as Chairman; and a representative of each of the following agencies, to be designated by the head of such agency—the Department of Defense, the Post Office Department, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Bureau of the Budget, the General Services Administration, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Federal Aviation Agency and the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization; and a representative to be designated by the head of each other Federal agency the President may from time to time request to participate in the activities of the Committee. SEC. 2. The Committee shall: (a) Examine and study the operation of Federal procurement, stockpiling, commodity price support, rate regulation, subsidy and similar programs and activities as to their effect upon the level and trends of prices and costs; (b) Recommend to the agencies involved administrative actions, procedures, and policies to assure that existing programs and activities are, insofar as practicable under existing law and with due regard to national security requirements, being carried out in the light of the need for reasonable stability of the price level, and in the light of other national economic objectives; (c) Advise the President periodically as to (i) the effect of Federal programs and activities within the scope of this order upon the level and trends of prices and costs; and (ii) its recommendations for improving administrative actions, procedures, and policies under which programs and activities are being conducted, in order to carry out more effectively the policy recited in this order. SEC. 3. The heads of all Federal departments and agencies engaged in procurement, stockpiling, commodity price support, rate regulation, subsidy and similar programs which directly affect prices and costs shall reexamine their programs in the light of the need for reasonable stability of the price level, and shall take such administrative actions or recommend such changes in legislation as are deemed desirable after such review. SEC. 4. The heads of all departments and agencies referred to in section 3 shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent with the Committee. SEC. 5. The agencies designated in section 1 of this order shall, as may be necessary for the purpose of effectuating the provisions of this order, furnish assistance to the Committee in accordance with section 214 of the act of May 3, 1945 (59 Stat. 134; 31 U.S.C. 691). Such assistance may include detailing employees to the Committee, one of whom may serve as its executive officer, to perform such functions consistent with the purpose of this order as the Committee may assign to them. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

January 23, 1959.

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

References Executive Order 10928—Abolishing the Committee on Government Activities Affecting Prices and Costs
John F. Kennedy • 1961-03-23
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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 10,802 (Jan. 23, 1959), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-10802-establishing-the-committee-government-activities-affecting-prices.