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Executive Order 9617 🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority Constitutional Fidelity (+0.47) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 9617—Transfer of Certain Agencies and Functions to the Department of Labor

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Wednesday, September 19, 1945
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4 min read (882 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 4 min read (882 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

Except as otherwise provided herein, all functions, agencies, officers, employees, records, property, and funds of the War Manpower Commission, established by Executive Order 9139 of April 18, 1942, are hereby transferred to the Department of Labor and shall be administered under the supervision, direction, and control of the Secretary of Labor.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
🏛️✅ Zone 1: Maximum Authority
Express or Implied Congressional Authorization
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 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 Harry S Truman on September 19, 1945, this order concerns Transfer of Certain Agencies and Functions to the Department of Labor. 1. (a) Except as otherwise provided herein, all functions, agencies, officers, employees, records, property, and funds of the War Manpower Commission, established by Executive Order 9139 of April 18, 1942, are hereby transferred to the Department of Labor and shall be administered under the supervision, direction, and control of the Secretary of Labor.

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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Except as otherwise provided herein, all functions, agencies, officers, employees, records, property, and funds of the War Manpower Commission, established by Executive Order 9139 of April 18, 1942, are hereby transferred to the Department of Labor and shall be administered under the supervision, direction, and control of the Secretary of Labor.

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All of the functions of the Chairman of the War Manpower Commission, exclusive of so much thereof as relates to the functions of the Procurement and Assignment Service transferred by paragraph 5 of this order, are transferred to the Secretary of Labor.

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The War Manpower Commission is hereby terminated.

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In order to maintain the essential coordination of public employment service and unemployment compensation functions and to avoid any necessity for establishing duplicate public employment office facilities, the Department of Labor is directed to provide for making available to agencies charged with the administration of unemployment compensation laws such services, information, and facilities by the United States Employment Service as the Secretary of Labor shall find not inconsistent with the purposes of this order.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners
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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 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: 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
46 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Moderate Friction

Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.

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

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%).
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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
882
5,544 characters
Estimated Read Time
4 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
22.4
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.47
Constitutional Fidelity
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes, including Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941, and as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: 1. (a) Except as otherwise provided herein, all functions, agencies, officers, employees, records, property, and funds of the War Manpower Commission, established by Executive Order 9139 of April 18, 1942, are hereby transferred to the Department of Labor and shall be administered under the supervision, direction, and control of the Secretary of Labor. (b) All of the functions of the Chairman of the War Manpower Commission, exclusive of so much thereof as relates to the functions of the Procurement and Assignment Service transferred by paragraph 5 of this order, are transferred to the Secretary of Labor. (c) The War Manpower Commission is hereby terminated. (d) In order to maintain the essential coordination of public employment service and unemployment compensation functions and to avoid any necessity for establishing duplicate public employment office facilities, the Department of Labor is directed to provide for making available to agencies charged with the administration of unemployment compensation laws such services, information, and facilities by the United States Employment Service as the Secretary of Labor shall find not inconsistent with the purposes of this order. To the extent that Federal funds under the jurisdiction of the Social Security Board are involved in the effectuation of this section, services, information, and facilities shall be furnished only when, and to the extent that the Social Security Board shall approve. 2. (a) The National War Labor Board, established by Executive Order 9017 of January 12, 1942, and all of its functions, officers, employees, records, property, and funds are hereby transferred to the Department of Labor and shall, except as otherwise provided in this order, be administered under the supervision, direction, and control of the Secretary of Labor. (b) The National War Labor Board in the Department of Labor shall be in all respects subject to and governed by such policies, consistent with law, as the Secretary of Labor shall prescribe; and so much of the functions of the Board as is required to effectuate this subsection is transferred to the Secretary of Labor. The provisions of this section notwithstanding, decisions made by the National War Labor Board in individual cases brought before it pursuant to law shall not be subject to modification by the Secretary of Labor but shall have the same degree of finality as existed prior to the issuance of this order. 3. (a) The Retraining and Reemployment Administration, established by section 301 of the War Mobilization and Reconversion Act of 1944, and all of its functions, officers, employees, records, property, and funds are hereby transferred to the Department of Labor and shall be administered under the supervision, direction, and control of the Secretary of Labor. (b) The functions of the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion relating to the Retraining and Reemployment Administration are hereby transferred to the Secretary of Labor. 4. (a) The Secretary of Labor may perform the functions transferred to him by this order through such officials, persons, or agencies and in such manner as he shall determine. (b) The United States Employment Service and all functions in the Department of Labor relating to employment service, the National War Labor Board and its functions, and the Retraining and Reemployment Administration and its functions shall be administered as organizational entities within the Department of Labor. All other functions transferred to the Department of Labor by this order shall be administered, and the internal staff and service activities relating to the aforesaid agencies may be administered, by such agencies in the Department of Labor as the Secretary may designate or establish for the purpose. 5. The functions of the Procurement and Assignment Service of the War Manpower Commission and the functions of the Chairman of the War Manpower Commission with respect thereto are hereby transferred to the Federal Security Administrator. There shall be transferred to the Federal Security Agency, for use in connection with such functions, all of the personnel of the Procurement and Assignment Service, and so much of the other personnel of the War Manpower Commission and so much of the records, property, and funds of the War Manpower Commission as the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall determine to relate primarily to the Procurement and Assignment Service. 6. All prior regulations, rulings, and other directives relating to any agency or function transferred by this order shall remain in effect except insofar as they are in conflict with this order or are hereafter amended under proper authority. 7. Such further measures and dispositions as may be determined by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to be necessary to effectuate the transfer or redistribution of the functions provided for in this order shall be carried out in such manner as the Director may direct and by such agencies as he may designate. 8. All provisions of prior Executive orders which are in conflict with this order are amended accordingly; provided that no functions or duties of any agency or officer not expressly transferred hereunder shall be deemed to have been transferred or modified by this order. HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

September 19, 1945

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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (2)

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

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 9617 (Sept. 19, 1945), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9617-transfer-certain-agencies-and-functions-the-department-labor.