★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
🎲
Cite
Executive Order 12764 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.52) 📜 Art. II §3: Administrative Management & Civil Service

Executive Order 12764—Federal Salary Council

George Bush George Bush
•
Wednesday, June 5, 1991
•
2 min read (418 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (418 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

The Council shall meet with the President's Pay Agent, as desingated under section 2(a) of Executive Order No. 12748 of February 1, 1991, to provide views and recommendations regarding: (a) the establishment or modification of pay localities; (b) the coverage of annual surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics under subsection 5304(d)(1)(A) of title 5, United States Code (including, but not limited to, the occupations, establishment sizes, and industries to be surveyed, and how pay localities are to be surveyed); (c) the process of comparing the rates of pay payable under the General Schedule with rates of pay for the same levels of work performed by non-Federal workers; and (d) the level of comparability payments that should be…

View all 2 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. II §3: Administrative Management & Civil Service
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Branch Departments General Body of the People
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 George Bush on June 5, 1991, this order concerns Federal Salary Council. There is established a Federal Salary Council (the "Council"). The Council shall be composed of nine members appointed by the President in accordance with section 5304(e)(1) of title 5, United States Code. The President shall designate one of the members to serve as Chairman of the Council and shall designate another member to serve as Vice Chairman of the Council.

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

▪
Function

The Council shall meet with the President's Pay Agent, as desingated under section 2(a) of Executive Order No. 12748 of February 1, 1991, to provide views and recommendations regarding: (a) the establishment or modification of pay localities; (b) the coverage of annual surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics under subsection 5304(d)(1)(A) of title 5, United States Code (including, but not limited to, the occupations, establishment sizes, and industries to be surveyed, and how pay localities are to be surveyed); (c) the process of comparing the rates of pay payable under the General Schedule with rates of pay for the same levels of work performed by non-Federal workers; and (d) the level of comparability payments that should be…

▪
Administration

Members of the Council shall receive no pay by reason of their service on the Council.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Branch Departments 🏛️ General Body of the People

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Labor & Employment
🏛️

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

"A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government." — Federalist No. 70 (1788)

Hamilton would view this directive as the natural and indispensable functioning of administrative leadership. Without the power to coordinate agencies, manage personnel, and resolve operational ambiguities, the modern presidency would be reduced to an impotent figurehead.

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
32 / 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

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
418
2,608 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
18.5
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.52
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document
📑Sections Outline (3 sections)
Sec. 1: EstablishmentSec. 2: FunctionSec. 3: Administration

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 5304(e) of title 5, United States Code, as amended, and in order to establish, in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. App.), an advisory committee on locality-based comparability payments for General Schedule employees, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. #sec-1

Establishment . There is established a Federal Salary Council (the "Council"). The Council shall be composed of nine members appointed by the President in accordance with section 5304(e)(1) of title 5, United States Code. The President shall designate one of the members to serve as Chairman of the Council and shall designate another member to serve as Vice Chairman of the Council. The Vice Chairman shall act as Chairman in the absence of the Chairman.

Sec. 2. #sec-2

Function . The Council shall meet with the President's Pay Agent, as desingated under section 2(a) of Executive Order No. 12748 of February 1, 1991, to provide views and recommendations regarding: (a) the establishment or modification of pay localities; (b) the coverage of annual surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics under subsection 5304(d)(1)(A) of title 5, United States Code (including, but not limited to, the occupations, establishment sizes, and industries to be surveyed, and how pay localities are to be surveyed); (c) the process of comparing the rates of pay payable under the General Schedule with rates of pay for the same levels of work performed by non-Federal workers; and (d) the level of comparability payments that should be paid in order to eliminate or reduce pay disparities in accordance with the requirements of section 5304 of title 5, United States Coce.

Sec. 3. #sec-3

Administration . (a) Members of the Council shall receive no pay by reason of their service on the Council. (b) To the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations, the Office of Personnel Management (the "Office") shall provide such facilities and administrative support to the Council as the Director of the Office determines appropriate. (c) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other Executive order, the functions of the President under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, except that of reporting to the Congress, which are applicable to the Council, shall be performed by the Director of the Office, in accordance with the guidelines and procedures established by the Administrator of General Services. George Bush The White House, June 5, 1991

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 12,764 (June 5, 1991), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-12764-federal-salary-council.