The steel crisis issue was now out of Putnam's hands. In Executive Order 10233, President Truman had expanded the WSB's powers in April 1951. To ease the threat of strikes and make the Board's wage stabilization efforts easier, the Board was now authorized to make recommendations on economic and non-economic issues in collective bargaining disputes—a power it had previously lacked. The Board could not, however, force parties in a labor dispute to accept its findings. When making recommendations, the Board was authorized to report only to the president—bypassing Putnam and his superior, Charles Edward Wilson, administrator of the Office of Defense Mobilization (of which ESA was a part). As one incentive to get the union to postpone the strike, Truman agreed to let the WSB investigate the labor dispute and invoke the direct presidential reporting provisions of E.O. 10233.