In the 1950s, the federal civilian workforce was larger than it had ever been. Millions of workers had been hired to manage the programs of the New Deal in the 1930s, and more still were brought into federal service to manage the American mobilization during World War II. However, the United States had not implemented any kind of education programs to prepare federal executives to manage this expanded workforce. As a result, the Society for Personnel Administration published a proposal for a "federal staff college" in 1953.