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Spokesmen for President-elect Jimmy Carter's transition team yesterday denied published reports that the incoming administration has held off on key White House appointments while transition staffers debate a reorganization study submitted to them by Graham T. Allison '62, professor of public administration at the Kennedy School of Government.
Allison's plan, outlined in a new book he co-authored entitled "Remaking Foreign Policy," recommends that the National Security Council and Domestic Council be abolished and replaced by a combined Executive Cabinet Committee (Excab).
Excab would provide the President with advice on issues that cut across domestic and foreign jurisdictions such as energy and agricultural exportation.
Ray Calamaro, a member of the transition team, said yesterday that, contrary to reports published in Thursday's New York Times, Carter is not deferring appointments pending a decision on the Allison plan.
Calamaro said he was unsure if Carter even knew of the reorganization proposal, which Allison submitted in memo form to Jack H. Watson, Jr., coordinator of the transition.
A transition team policy analyst who wished to remain unidentified said last night that the Excab plan is "not being taken too seriously."
"It is extremely unlikely that the Councils will be abolished," he said, adding that Allison's document is "just one of thousands floating around here."
The source said that Carter has been slow to make White House appointments not as a result of Allison's report or any others, but because of a decision to break with tradition by naming cabinet members before White House staffers.
Allison, who served on Carter's task force on foreign policy during the campaign and is now a consultant to the Defense Department transition team, said yesterday he doubted if the "radical changes" he proposed for the Domestic and National Security Councils would be fully implemented.
He said he was unable to assess the impact of his report on the transition team, but speculated it was "unlikely" that debate over the recommendations would stall White House appointments.
In addition to the Excab proposal, Allison has recommended that the CIA be split into two units--one for covert operations and the other for intelligence gathering
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