By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code and as President of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: SECTION 1. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is hereby designated and empowered to exercise, without approval, ratification, or other action of the President, the authority of the President (1) under section 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-112) to issue regulations with respect to joint respect to the transfer of unexpended appropriations. SEC. 2. The Secretary of Labor is hereby designated and empowered to exercise, without approval, ratification, or other action of the President, the authority of the President (1) under section 503 (a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to prescribe regulations, after consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Administrator of General Services, with respect to the employment of qualified handicapped individuals under Federal procurement contracts, and (2) under section 503 (c) of that act with respect to prescribing, by regulation, guidelines for waiving the requirements of section 503 of the act. Changes in any regulations prescribed by the Secretary pursuant to the preceding sentence shall be made only after consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Administrator of General Services. SEC. 3. The head of a Federal agency may, in conformity with the provisions of section 503 (c) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and regulations issued by the Secretary of Labor pursuant to section 2 of this order, exempt any contract and, following consultation with the Secretary of Labor, any class of contracts, from the requirements of section 503 of the act. SEC. 4. The Federal Procurement Regulations, the Armed Services Procurement Regulations, and, to the extent necessary, any supplemental or comparable regulations issued by any agency of the executive branch shall, following consultation with the Secretary of Labor, be amended to require, as a condition of entering into, renewing or extending any contract subject to the provisions of section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, inclusion of a provision requiring compliance with that section and regulations issued by the Secretary pursuant to section 2 of this order. RICHARD NIXON The White House, January 15, 1974.
Executive Order 11758 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02)
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Executive Order 11758—Delegating Authority of the President Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Executive Brief • At a Glance
⏱️ 2 min read (374 words) •
● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is hereby designated and empowered to exercise, without approval, ratification, or other action of the President, the authority of the President (1) under section 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-112) to issue regulations with respect to joint respect to the transfer of unexpended appropriations.
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Private Citizens & Property Owners
Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis
Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.
Signed by President Richard Nixon on January 15, 1974, this order concerns Delegating Authority of the President Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is hereby designated and empowered to exercise, without approval, ratification, or other action of the President, the authority of the President (1) under section 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-112) to issue regulations with respect to joint respect to the transfer of unexpended appropriations. SEC. 2.
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
▪
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is hereby designated and empowered to exercise, without approval, ratification, or other action of the President, the authority of the President (1) under section 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-112) to issue regulations with respect to joint respect to the transfer of unexpended appropriations.
▪
The Secretary of Labor is hereby designated and empowered to exercise, without approval, ratification, or other action of the President, the authority of the President (1) under section 503 (a) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to prescribe regulations, after consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Administrator of General Services, with respect to the employment of qualified handicapped individuals under Federal procurement contracts, and (2) under section 503 (c) of that act with respect to prescribing, by regulation, guidelines for waiving the requirements of section 503 of the act.
▪
Changes in any regulations prescribed by the Secretary pursuant to the preceding sentence shall be made only after consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Administrator of General Services.
▪
The head of a Federal agency may, in conformity with the provisions of section 503 (c) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and regulations issued by the Secretary of Labor pursuant to section 2 of this order, exempt any contract and, following consultation with the Secretary of Labor, any class of contracts, from the requirements of section 503 of the act.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments
🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners
Policy Areas & Topics
🏛️
The Framers' Constitutional Council
1787 PrismEvaluating 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
📐
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
55 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8
High Friction
Legislative Encroachment & Purse
Touches upon core congressional prerogatives: raises appropriations reallocation, tariff imposition, or statutory preemption questions.
Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3
Moderate Friction
Executive Scope & Faithfulness
Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.
Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment
Moderate Friction
Federalism & State Sovereignty
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
Moderate Friction
Due Process & Individual Rights
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
Moderate Friction
Youngstown Jacksonian Tier
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%).
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
374
2,355 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
27.3
Post-Graduate Legal
Text size:
🔗
Referenced By Later Executive Orders (3)
Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.
Amends Executive Order 12608—Elimination of Unnecessary Executive Orders and Technical Amendments to Others
Ronald Reagan • 1987-09-09
Gerald R. Ford • 1975-06-19
Related Executive Orders
Other executive actions signed by Richard Nixon around this period.
EO 11759 Jan 15, 1974
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11759—Prescribing the Compensation of Certain Officials in the Domestic and International Business Administration, Department of Commerce
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
The compensation for the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Domestic and International Business, Department of Commerce, is hereby fixed at the rate now or hereafter prescribed by law for level V of the Executive Schedule (5 U.S.C. 5316). SEC. 2.
Richard Nixon High School • 1m
EO 11763 Jan 17, 1974
🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority) Fidelity (+0.44)
Executive Order 11763—Establishing a National Commission for the Observance of World Population Year
📜 5th Amend: Regulatory Execution with Due Process
In a message to the Congress on 'July 18, 1969, I stated that "One of the most serious challenges to human destiny in the last third of this century will be the growth of the population.
Richard Nixon College Level • 4m
EO 11762 Jan 17, 1974
🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11762—Delegating to the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs Certain Authority Relating to Grants-in-Aid to the Republic of the Philippines for Medical Care and Treatment of Veterans
📜 10th Amend: Intergovernmental Federalism Cooperation
Subject to the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) of this section, the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is hereby designated and empowered to exercise, without the approval, ratification, or other action of the President, the authority vested in the President by sections…
Richard Nixon Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
EO 11761 Jan 17, 1974
🏛️✅ Zone 1 (Maximum Authority) Fidelity (+0.33)
Executive Order 11761—To Facilitate Coordination of Federal Education Programs
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Sound public policy requires a continuing appraisal of the relation of Federal educational activities to the educational needs and goals of the Nation and to its educational systems and institutions.
Richard Nixon Post-Graduate Legal • 5m
EO 11760 Jan 17, 1974
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11760—Designating the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) as a Public International Organization Entitled to Enjoy Certain Privileges, Exemptions, and Immunities
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
I hereby designate the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) as a public international organization entitled to enjoy those privileges, exemptions, and immunities provided for by the International Organizations Immunities Act. SEC. 2.
Richard Nixon High School • 1m
EO 11765 Jan 21, 1974
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 11765—Sale of Vessels of the Navy
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Vessels of the Navy stricken from the Naval Vessel Register pursuant to section 7304 of title 10 of the United States Code, and not subject to disposition under other law, may be sold at public sale to the highest acceptable bidder, regardless of their appraised value, after…
Richard Nixon Post-Graduate Legal • 2m
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Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order No. 11,758 (Jan. 15, 1974), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11758-delegating-authority-the-president-under-the-rehabilitation-act-1973.
