I recently submitted to the Congress my proposals to reorganize the Federal energy structure and the hard choices which remain if we are serious about reducing our dependence upon foreign energy.  These include programs to reverse our declining production of natural gas and increase incentives for domestic crude oil production.  I proposed to minimize environmental uncertainties affecting coal development, expand nuclear power generation, and create an energy independence authority to provide government financial assistance for vital energy programs where private capital is not available.

We must explore every reasonable prospect for meeting our energy needs when our current domestic reserves of oil and natural gas begin to dwindle in the next decade.  I urgently ask Congress and the new administration to move quickly on these issues.  This Nation has the resources and the capability to achieve our energy goals if its Government has the will to proceed, and I think we do.

I have been disappointed by inability to complete many of the meaningful organizational reforms which I contemplated for the Federal Government, although a start has been made.  For example, the Federal judicial system has long served as a model for other courts.  But today it is threatened by a shortage of qualified Federal judges and an explosion of litigation claiming Federal jurisdiction.  I commend to the new administration and the Congress the recent report and recommendations of the Department of Justice, undertaken at my request, on “the needs of the Federal Courts.”  I especially endorse its proposals for a new commission on the judicial appointment process.

While the judicial branch of our Government may require reinforcement, the budgets and payrolls of the other branches remain staggering.  I cannot help but observe that while the White House staff and the Executive Office of the President have been reduced and the total number of civilians in the executive branch contained during the 1970’s, the legislative branch has increased substantially although the membership of the Congress remains at 535.  Congress now costs the taxpayers more than a million dollars per Member; the whole legislative budget has passed the billion dollar mark.

We have made some progress in cutting back the expansion of government and its intrusion into individual lives, but believe me, there is much more to be done—­and you and I know it.  It can only be done by tough and temporarily painful surgery by a Congress as prepared as the President to face up to this very real political problem.  Again, I wish my successor, working with a substantial majority of his own party, the best of success in reforming the costly and cumbersome machinery of the Federal Government.

The task of self-government is never finished.  The problems are great; the opportunities are greater.

America’s first goal is and always will be peace with honor.  America must remain first in keeping peace in the world.  We can remain first in peace only if we are never second in defense.