In 1961, the Kennedy Administration and Congress decided that the tasks of regulating the activities of international liner shipping companies and promoting a healthy U.S. merchant marine should be pursued by separate agencies. By executive order (called Reorganization Plan No. 7) signed by President John F. Kennedy, two agencies were established: the Federal Maritime Commission and the Maritime Administration (MARAD). As an independent agency, the FMC was charged with regulating U.S. ocean commerce, and MARAD was formed to promote America’s merchant marine and oversee an emergency reserve of cargo ships for use in times of conflict.