Executive Order 9361—Supplementing the Executive Order Establishing the Office of War Mobilization and Providing for the Unifying of Foreign Economic Affairs

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States, particularly by the First War Powers Act, 1941, as President of the United States and as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, and in order to provide for the more effective unification of the agencies concerned with foreign economic affairs, it is hereby ordered as follows: 1. The Board of Economic Warfare, existing pursuant to paragraph 2 of Executive Order No. 8839, July 30, 1941, as amended by Executive Order No. 8982, December 17, 1941, is terminated. There is established in the Office for Emergency Management an Office of Economic Warfare, at the head of which shall be a Director, appointed by the President, who shall exercise the functions, powers, and duties of the Board of Economic Warfare. The Director shall receive such salary, travel, subsistence, or other allowances as the President may determine. There are transferred to the Office of Economic Warfare for use in connection with the exercise and performance of its functions, powers, and duties so much of the unexpended balances, appropriations, allocations and other funds now available for, as well as all the personnel, property, and records heretofore used in the administration of the functions, powers, and duties of, the Board of Economic Warfare. No part of any funds appropriated or made available under Public Law 139, approved July 12, 1943, shall be used, directly or indirectly, after August 15, 1943, by the Office of Economic Warfare for the procurement of services, supplies, or equipment outside the United States except for the purpose of executing general economic programs or policies formally approved in writing by a majority of the War Mobilization Committee and such writing has been filed with the Secretary of State prior to any such expenditure. 2. The United States Commercial Company, the Rubber Development Corporation, the Petroleum Reserve Corporation, and the Export-Import Bank of Washington and their functions, powers, and duties, together with the functions, powers, and duties of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and of the Secretary of Commerce with respect to them are transferred to the Office of Economic Warfare. All personnel, property, records, funds (including all unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, or other funds now available), contracts, assets, liabilities, and capital stock of these corporations, together with so much of the personnel, records, and property of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation used in the administration of these corporations as the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall determine, are transferred with these corporations to the Office of Economic Warfare for use in connection with the exercise and performance of its functions, powers, and duties. The Director of the Office of Economic Warfare may reconstitute the Boards of Directors of these corporations and take such other action as he deems necessary in respect of them to carry out the purposes of this Order. 3. (a) Until such time as the Congress shall provide other means of financing, the Secretary of Commerce and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation are authorized and directed to supply necessary funds to the corporations transferred to the Office of Economic Warfare by this Order through loans, using for this purpose all the borrowing powers and unobligated funds of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Such funds shall be supplied at such times and in such amounts and in such manner and upon such terms and conditions as the Director of War Mobilization, on the request of the Director of the Office of Economic Warfare, may from time to time determine. The disbursement of the funds so supplied shall be under the exclusive direction of the Director of the Office of Economic Warfare, except as otherwise provided in this Order. (b) The functions, powers, and duties and outstanding contracts and obligations relating to activities and transactions in or pertaining to foreign countries, now vested in, or in the name of, any corporation created and organized under Section 5(d) of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act, or of any other corporation organized by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, shall, unless the Director of War Mobilization otherwise determines, be transferred to the corporation or corporations designated by the Director of the Office of Economic Warfare, and the charter and by-laws of the corporations affected by such transfers, so far as necessary, shall be amended accordingly. Following such transfers, no corporations created and organized by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, other than those transferred to the Office of Economic Warfare by this Order, shall exercise any of its powers and functions in regard to any activity or transaction in or pertaining to any foreign country except as ordered by the Director of War Mobilization. The Secretary of Commerce, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and any corporation organized by it, shall execute and deliver all instruments which may be deemed necessary by the Director of War Mobilization to carry out the provisions of this Order. 4. The functions of the Office of War Mobilization shall include the authority to arrange for the unification and coordination of the activities of the Federal Government relating to foreign supply, foreign procurement, and other foreign economic affairs in conformity with the foreign policy of the United States as defined by the Secretary of State. In providing for such unification the Office of War Mobilization may utilize the facilities of other departments and agencies, including the machinery for the coordination of foreign economic affairs established in the Department of State. 5. All prior Executive Orders and directives in so far as they are in conflict herewith are amended accordingly. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, July 15, 1943.