Commission on Economy and Efficiency

The Commission on Economy and Efficiency was a presidential commission appointed by President William Howard Taft between 1910 and 1913 to look at and propose reforms for the United States federal government, particularly the presidential budget. It is also known in government reorganization and reform scholarship as the Taft Commission, however, this is a bit of a misnomer as the Taft Commission originally referred to the Philippine Commission of which Taft was the chairman. The Commission on Economy and Efficiency is most notable for proposing the first budget for the federal government but also is notable for creating the procedure for the President to establish a commission to study administrative reform.

The Commission, like the Keep Commission, was established to study and propose more efficient methods of organization and reform. Its primary purpose was the study of a budget for the national government but its other purposes included looking at department or agency jurisdiction, personnel practices, accounting and finance procedures, and business practices.

Taft learned from Roosevelt's efforts with the Keep Commission, which had its reforms largely ignored by Congress, to involve Congress up front to have its reforms embraced. He therefore received approval from Congress prior to forming the commission and received a series of appropriations to fund the Commissions work.

The Commission was headed by legendary member of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, Frederick Cleveland, who was already famous by this time for creating one of the first municipal budgets for New York City. New York City was the largest government in the United States by expenditures at the time. The other members of the commission were William Willoughby, Judge Walter Warwick, Frank Goodnow, and Harvey Chase. The Congressional legislation also provided for a Board of Referees and a Board of Experts.

Since the end of the 19th Century, the federal government was running deficits because of a weak tax base and pent up demand for services. Therefore, the primary purpose of the Commission was to develop a better method for providing for a more rationalized budget system. The members of the Commission brought their work from the New York Bureau of Municipal Research and began applying it to the national government. From their early studies of the federal government and previous experience of creating the New York budget, the Commission published The Need for a National Budget, a report calling for the federal government to create a national budget.

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