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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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of associating people and programs, that Hopkins was taking care of the unemployed, therefore Hopkins would have an interest in this economic security planning.

That committee was certainly a full-fledged Cabinet committee. It met regularly. It made a report. It adopted a program. It recommended legislation. And it stuck. It was the basis of the legislation. I know that some of them were weak-kneed about it. I know that some of the members didn't give a hang about it. I realized that at the time, and I realize that now as I look back. But nevertheless it was a working committee, and everyone on it, even if they didn't work on it themselves, assigned somebody who did. The work was done in that committee by a staff that we employed. I got the President's authority for having a staff, not just doing it by the good intentions of Cabinet officers, who couldn't give the time to it, of course. So the staff did the work. The subordinate in each of the departments that were represented by a Cabinet officer on the committee had ample time for consultation, for analysis, for criticism, and so forth.

So I regarded it as a real committee. They brought forth a real program, and it came into being, came true. That was perhaps the fullest Cabinet committee the President appointed.





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