U/MSA files, lot 56 D 551, “MSP FY 1956”
The Director of the Bureau of the Budget (Hughes) to the Director of Foreign Operations (Stassen)1
My Dear Mr. Stassen: Your budget estimates for the fiscal year 1956 and the information presented by your representatives and those of the other agencies concerned have been given careful analysis. The President has approved the inclusion in the budget of the following recommendations for Mutual Security appropriations:
| Military Assistance (Including $0.2 billion expected to be required because of utilization of military assistance funds in FY 1955 for other programs.) | $1,400,000,000 |
| Direct Forces Support | 630,000,000 |
| Other Mutual Security Programs | 1,500,000,000 |
| Total | $3,530,000,000 |
The total for Military Assistance includes the appropriation for infrastructure which has already been authorized by the Congress. This total also includes $500 million to offset assumed losses resulting from section 1311 of the Supplemental Appropriation Act, 1955, as modified by section 110 of the Mutual Security Appropriation Act, 1955. In case actual losses are significantly less than $500 million, the totals should be reduced correspondingly prior to transmission of the 1956 authorization request to the Congress.
The President has also approved for presentation in the budget the following expenditure estimates:
| 1955 | 1956 | |
| Military Assistance | $2,675,000,000 | $3,075,000,000 |
| Department of Defense | (2,500,000,000) | (3,000,000,000) |
| Other Agencies | (175,000,000) | (75,000,000) |
| Direct Forces Support | 550,000,000 | 600,000,000 |
| Other Mutual Security Programs | 1,075,000,000 | 1,025,000,000 |
| Total | $4,300,000,000 | 4,700,000,000 |
Members of the Bureau of the Budget staff will communicate with your budget officer concerning the narrative statement and other details relating to the above amounts. Please have your budget officer prepare the figures for 1955 and 1956 in the schedules of obligations to agree with the approved estimates. The schedules should be submitted not later than December 16, 1954.
The recommendations of the President, the estimates submitted, and any other information used in the formulation of these recommendations are to be kept confidential until the budget message is presented to Congress, except that in those cases where the Bureau of the Budget releases estimates to the committees on appropriations prior to that time, the estimates may be discussed with members and staff of those committees. In such cases the agency will be advised before the estimates are released.
Sincerely yours,
- The source text is an enclosure to a memorandum of Dec. 14, 1954, by Ohly to 14 addressees in the Foreign Operations Administration and the Departments of State and Defense, which reads as follows: “There is forwarded herewith for information, and in certain cases for appropriate action, a copy of the FY 1956 allowance letter from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to the Director of the Foreign Operations Administration dated December 13, 1954.” The copy printed here is that sent to Nolting.↩