SALARIES FOR SENIOR CIA OFFICIALS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP59-00224A000100680037-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2000
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: March 5, 1955
• Content Type: MF

1. The passage of legislation to increase Congressional and
Judicial salaries, and the imminent passage of legislation increasing
the salaries of Federal employees, opens the way for an Executive
pay bill to increase the salaries of appointed officials. This presump-
tion is strengthened by the problem created by the inclusion in the
Congressional pay bill of provisions establishing the salaries of the
Deputy Attorney General at $21,000 per annum, the Solicitor General
at $20,500, and Assistant Attorneys General at $20,000 per annum.
As Assistant Attorneys General are classified for pay purposes in
the same category as Assistant Secretaries of the Executive Depart-
ments, it is presumed that the salaries of Assistant Secretaries will
be placed at $20, 000 per annum in any Executive pay bill submitted.
2. You will recall earlier discussions with yourself, Assistant
Director/Personnel and the Director in which it was at least tenta-
tively agreed that we should seek authority for the Director to appoint
no more than six principal assistants, one of whom shall be the
General Counsel of the Agency, and each of whom shall perform
such duties as the Director may prescribe, who would be paid com-
pensation either at the rate of $16,000 per annum or at the rate
prescribed for Assistant Secretaries of the Executive Departments.
It is considered preferable if the latter alternative were used so that
any subsequent Executive pay raise for Assistant Secretaries would
automatically mean a raise for these six officials. The alternative
of tieing them to a specific monetary sum means that in any future
Executive pay raise a specific amendment would have to be included
to raise the salaries of these six officials. If we now tie these salaries
to the rate payable to Assistant Secretaries, these six senior officials
will be compensated at the rate of $20,000 per annum if the proposed
Executive pay bill follows the precedent set for the Assistant Attorneys
General in the Congressional pay bill.
3. on 2 March I talked with Mr. Spencer Platt, of the Bureau
of the Budget, who has the major responsibility for this type of legis-
lation, and it did not appear that he had received any final guidance on
 the subject of an Executive pay bill. It was his recommendation,
however, that when an Executive pay bill was forthcoming CIA should
establish its positions in parallel legislation to avoid the problem
of reclassification in the Executive pay bill itself. You will recall
that the problem regarding the Director's and Deputy Director's
salaries is not only a question of raising the monetary amount, but
also reclassifying the position into a higher category in the Executive
pay bill itself, and present thinking is to avoid reclassification of
positions to prevent major log rolling on the floor of the Congress
by various agencies having voter appeal.
4. As soon as it has been determined what salary rate the
Administration is prepared to support for heads of departments,
Under Secretaries, and positions such as Chairman of the Alt and
agencies whose work falls more nearly into a category comparable
to CIA, then it will be possible to assign a specific figure which we
would like to request as the salary of the Director and Deputy
Director.
5. In addition to the Executive salaries, the Bureau of the
Budget must now consider the problem created by the fact that the
GS-18 salary remains at $14,800, leaving a major gap between that
figure and an Assistant Secretary at $20,000. Two lines of thinking
are presently under consideration: One is to reassign the salary
rates of GS-16s, 17s, and 18s to fill the gap up to $20,000; the second
is to create two new supergrades -- 19 and 20 -- and place them be-
tween GS-18 (with an increase in rate for the latter) and $20,000 per
annum.
6. I have alerted the AD/Personnel to this overall problem
and both he and I will keep in close touch with the situation so that
we can advise you as the Executive pay program begins to jell.
Walter L. Pforsheimer
Legislative Counsel
OGC: W LP/blc
1 - AD/Personnel
2 - Signer