The first step towards the creation of such a federal staff college was taken in 1958 when Congress passed the Government Employees Training Act. The act established several precedents that became central to the formation of the Federal Executive Institute. First and foremost, it cleared the way for the establishment of an executive training center funded by its own revenues, rather than by congressional allocations. This allowed FEI freedom of maneuver and sheltered it from political storms. Second, the act gave agency directors the authority to determine how much money they would spend on executive education and where they would send their executives to be trained. This encouraged FEI to remain tied to the senior executives it was founded to serve because they constantly had to market themselves to federal agencies. Finally, the act paved the way for interagency training. Interagency interaction would become one of the hallmarks of FEI, where senior executives from various backgrounds and agencies would live and learn with each other for weeks at a time.