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CRS-5 1937, the instrument certified that four Washington counties were distressed emergency areas and, therefore, not subject to the loan limitations stated in the law. Although there is evidence that Presidents had issued statutorily authorized certificates prior to this time, no directives of this designation have appeared in subsequent CFR Title 3 compilations.

Designations of Officials

Since the establishment of the Federal Register and the CFR, presidential letters designating individuals to hold specified official positions in the government have been reproduced in these publications. The first, dated May 28, 1941, vested Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes with the additional position and accompanying duties of Petroleum Coordinator for National Defense. The second, however, established a new position, Coordinator of Information, and designated William J. Donovan, a private individual, to fill it. Subsequent designations have been of both types — some being an additional position for an individual already holding an official post, others being an original appointment of a private person to an existing vacant or newly created position. The President may unilaterally make designations where no Senate approval of the appointment is required and where he has the authority and resources to create new official positions to be filled by designees. Some designations are merely delegations of presidential authority to constitutional officers such as Cabinet secretaries. Two more recent designations, one in 1979 and another in 1982, were of a slightly different character: officials, by title, were designated to have authority to security classify information at the “Top Secret” level.

Executive Orders

Executive orders are one of the oldest types of presidential directive, an early model appearing in June 1789, when President Washington directed the acting holdover officers of the Confederation government to prepare for him a report “to impress me with a full, precise, and distinct general idea of the affairs of the United States” handled by each official. Like most executive orders, it was directed to, and governed actions by, executive officials and agencies. However, some executive orders, such as perhaps those concerning emergency situations and relying upon the President's constitutional authority or powers statutorily delegated to him by Congress to respond to exigencies, were of a more profound character. For example, President Roosevelt used an executive order (E.O. 9066) on February 19, 1942, to