★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
🎲
Cite
Executive Order 11122 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. I §8: Delegated Tariff & Commerce Execution

Executive Order 11122—Establishing the Rural Development Committee

John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy
•
Wednesday, October 16, 1963
•
4 min read (710 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 4 min read (710 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

There is hereby created the Rural Development Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee") which shall consist of the following members, all ex officio: the Secretary of Agriculture, who shall be the chairman of the Committee, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Housing and Home Finance Administrator, and the Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. I §8: Delegated Tariff & Commerce Execution
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners Foreign Nations & International Entities
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 John F. Kennedy on October 16, 1963, this order concerns Establishing the Rural Development Committee. There is hereby created the Rural Development Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee") which shall consist of the following members, all ex officio: the Secretary of Agriculture, who shall be the chairman of the Committee, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Housing and…

Constitutional Assessment: This action represents an orderly exercise of Article II administrative discretion, managing the internal machinery and personnel of the executive branch without abridging the ancient liberties of the people.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

▪

There is hereby created the Rural Development Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee") which shall consist of the following members, all ex officio: the Secretary of Agriculture, who shall be the chairman of the Committee, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Housing and Home Finance Administrator, and the Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

▪

Each member of the Committee may designate an officer of his agency to act for him as a member of the Committee with respect to any matter considered by the Committee.

▪

The Committee shall provide leadership and uniform policy guidance to the several Federal departments and agencies responsible for rural-development program functions and related activities so that they may take more effective and concerted actions in carrying out those functions and activities and cooperate more effectively with non-Federal participants, both private and governmental, in the work.

▪

In conducting its activities the Committee shall place particular emphasis on effective public and private cooperation and leadership for rural development at the State and local levels, and to that end, shall provide guidance for the conduct of Federal rural-development program functions and related activities in a manner designed to produce optimum State, local, and private participation and initiative in identifying and meeting local needs.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners 🏛️ Foreign Nations & International Entities 🏛️ Public Health & Medical Institutions

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Agriculture 🏷️ Economy & Finance
🏛️

The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

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

🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority)
§

"When the President acts pursuant to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his authority is at its maximum, for it includes all that he possesses in his own right plus all that Congress can delegate."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"The constitutional magistracy was designed not to invent policy, but to be the faithful instrument of the laws passed by the people's representatives." — Speech in the First Congress (1789)

Madison would approve the structural posture of this order. The President acts strictly in subordination to statutory authority granted under Article II, Section 3 ("take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"). The checks and balances hold firm because the policy origin remains with the legislature.

Madisonian Stance: Concurring (Statutory)
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: Supportive of Execution
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
📐

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
34 / 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

Low Friction

Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.

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

Federalism & State Sovereignty

High Friction

Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.

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

Due Process & Individual Rights

Moderate Friction

Applies regulatory or compliance standards to private contractors or commercial entities.

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

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Low Friction

The President operates strictly as the constitutional Chief Executive, carrying out policy established by Congress with strong statutory backing.

Benchmark: Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
⚖️ 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%).
ℹ️
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
710
4,558 characters
Estimated Read Time
4 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
23.5
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS a substantial number of families, both farm and non-farm, living in rural areas have relatively low cash incomes and do not share equitably in the economic and social progress of the Nation, and it is desirable to encourage and assist such families by providing greater opportunity for their participation in the Nation's production of goods and services and in community, civic, and other affairs; and WHEREAS the Federal Government, in cooperation with the several States and local governments and private agencies and individuals, pursues a rural-development program designed to develop the human resources in rural America by a series of concerted actions to identify the needs of low-income rural people and to help them to achieve greater rewards for their contributions to our national progress; and WHEREAS the meeting of legitimate rural-development needs requires vigorous and sustained Federal effort; and WHEREAS it is necessary to provide suitable Federal organization for the purpose of promoting the coordination of the efforts of the various departments and agencies in this work:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows: SECTION 1. There is hereby created the Rural Development Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee") which shall consist of the following members, all ex officio: the Secretary of Agriculture, who shall be the chairman of the Committee, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Housing and Home Finance Administrator, and the Administrator of the Small Business Administration. The chairman may from time to time invite the participation of officials of other agencies of the executive branch interested in the functions of the Committee. Each member of the Committee may designate an officer of his agency to act for him as a member of the Committee with respect to any matter considered by the Committee. SEC. 2. The Committee shall provide leadership and uniform policy guidance to the several Federal departments and agencies responsible for rural-development program functions and related activities so that they may take more effective and concerted actions in carrying out those functions and activities and cooperate more effectively with non-Federal participants, both private and governmental, in the work. SEC. 3. In conducting its activities the Committee shall place particular emphasis on effective public and private cooperation and leadership for rural development at the State and local levels, and to that end, shall provide guidance for the conduct of Federal rural-development program functions and related activities in a manner designed to produce optimum State, local, and private participation and initiative in identifying and meeting local needs. SEC. 4. The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Commerce, jointly and individually, shall institute and maintain appropriate measures for the effective coordination of each of the following: (1) the rural-development program of the Department of Agriculture and the functions of the Department of Commerce under the Area Redevelopment Act (75 Stat. 47), and (2) the activities of the Committee and the activities of the Area Redevelopment Advisory Policy Board (75 Stat. 48). SEC. 5. Each department and agency responsible for functions and activities that can contribute to the objectives of the rural-development program and related activities shall carry those functions and activities forward in such a manner as to make the fullest possible contribution to the objectives of' rural development. SEC 6. The departments and agencies represented on the Committee shall as may be necessary for the purpose of effectuating the provisions of this order, furnish assistance to the Committee in consonance with Section 214 of the Act of May 3, 1945, 59 Stat. 134 (31 U.S.C. 691). Such assistance may include the detailing of employees to the Committee, one of whom may serve as its executive secretary, to perform such functions consistent with the purpose of this order as the Committee may assign to them. SEC 7. Nothing in this order shall be deemed to authorize any executive department or any other executive agency established by law to carry out any program which is inconsistent with law. SEC. 8. Executive Order No. 10847 of October 12, 1959, is hereby revoked. JOHN F. KENNEDY

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

October 16, 1963

🔗

Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)

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

References Executive Order 11307—Coordination of Federal Programs Affecting Agricultural and Rural Area Development
Lyndon B. Johnson • 1966-09-30
📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 11,122 (Oct. 16, 1963), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11122-establishing-the-rural-development-committee.