Mr. CABELL. Several Members have statements which, without jection, will be made part of the record at this point.

(The statements referred to follow :)

STATEMENT OF HON. JOEL T. BROYHILL

Mr. BROYHILL. Mr. Chairman, I wish to urge the support of my c leagues for the bill H.R. 12710, of which I am pleased indeed to be co-sponsor.

The principal thrust of this proposed legislation is to provide sala increases for the officers and members of the Metropolitan Police for and the Fire Department of the District of Columbia. The bill provid these increases in two phases, the first of which would be effective of January 1, 1972, and the second on July 1, 1972.

The first phase would average some 11 percent overall, a would raise the starting salary for privates from the present $8,500 $9,500, and their maximum salary from $12,240, which is attainal after 17 years of service, to $13,680 after 15 years of service. At t top of the schedule, the minimum salaries of the Police Chief and t Fire Chief would be increased from the present $29,925 to a figu of $33,000, and their maximum salary from $32,775 attainable aft 4 years of service, to $35,000 reached in 2 years of service.

Phase two, averaging 6 percent overall, would establish a minimu salary for privates of $10,000 and a maximum of $14,000. The Chie salaries would start at $34,700 and reach a maximum of $36,800.

Thus, the combined effect would be to increase the starting sala for privates from the present $8,500 to $10,000 per year. Also, the max mum salary for privates would be raised from the present $12,2 to a figure of $14,000 per year, and the time required to attain the ma tem of extra salary credit for service in excess of 15 years, service.

LONGEVITY

This proposed legislation also will eliminate all the longevity ste in the present salary schedule, and in lieu of these will substitute a sy tem of extra salary credit for service in excess of 15 years, as follows:

1. For service beyond 15 years but less than 20 years, addition salary equal to 5 percent of the salary provided for service step of the salary class in which the member is assigned;

2. For service beyond 20 years but less than 25 years, addition salary equal to 10 percent of such salary;

3. For service longer than 25 years but less than 30 years, add tional salary amounting to 15 percent; and

4. For service beyond 30 years, extra salary equal to 20 percer These new longevity provisions are applicable only to members wh are active at the time this measure becomes effective, and will not a ply in any way to the annuities of members who are retired prior that time, regardless of the system of "equalization" which has pr vailed in these services for many years.

I am advised that these proposed longevity increases would app at present to some 815 active members, at an immediate cost of $970 095 per year.

This bill also provides for additional hazardous duty pay to officers and members of the Metropolitan Police force, the Executive Protective Service, and the U.S. Park Police force who are assigned to duty as helicopter pilots. The extra salary is established at $2,100 per year, and is amply justified in view of the fact that aircraft pilots in the military forces all receive such hazardous duty compensation.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT

At this point, Mr. Chairman, I wish to propose an amendment to this bill, which would extend this hazardous duty salary also to the two members of the Metropolitan Police Force who comprise the Explosive Disposal Unit of that service. In the past year, these men have responded to 85 major calls for assistance in their highly dangerous and specialized line of work. These calls have involved the opening of suspicious packages, rendering bombs safe by dismantling, and handling and disposing of explosives, chemicals, and other hazardous materials. The safe handling, dismantlement, and final disposal of these devices and materials is a highly specialized work which calls for extensive training, and also for great dedication and self-sacrifice on the part of the persons involved. And even with their knowledge and skills, these two members face an ever-present element of personal risk which is not normally encountered by other members of the Police Department, unless it be the helicopter pilots. For these reasons, I feel it highly appropriate that the work of these two men be awarded the practical recognition of the extra salary of $2,100 per year which H.R. 12710 provides for helicopter pilots.

EDUCATIONAL INCENTIVE PAY

The bill also provides for additional compensation for officers and members of these services who complete approved educational courses on the college level, leading to a degree in police or fire science or administration. This extra salary will amount to 2 percent of the salary provided at the time for salary step 1 in Salary Class I, for each 15 credit hours of such courses, with a maximum of 16 percent.

This educational incentive concept, I am informed, is a growing trend in urban police and fire departments. This is illustrated by the results or a survey of 783 U.S. cities, conducted in 1968 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which revealed that 33 cities grant specific pay increases for college work; 20 cities provide higher starting salaries for college completion; 14 cities require continuing college work as a basis for incentive pay increases; and other statistics which indicate a definite trend in this direction. And at this time, four of the six jurisdictions in the Washington Metropolitan Area Montgomery County, Arlington, Falls Church, and Alexandria . presently provide educational incentive pay similar to that proposed by H.R. 12710 for the District of Columbia.

This educational incentive pay, which the bill would make available to all personnel except the Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs, will not be considered salary for the purposes of computing retirement annuities or insurance. At the present time, it is estimated that this provision of H.R. 12710 would cost about $1,020,000 per year.

Less important provisions of this bill would allow credit for unus sick leave at the time of optional retirement, which is presently p vided for teachers and classified employees in the District and Fede governments; authorize clothing allowances up to $300 per year 1 officers and members assigned to plain clothes duty; and correct. existing inequity with regard to overtime pay, by providing that member may earn overtime pay to the extent that his total pay sh not exceed that provided for step 1 of Class 11, the salary class chiefs of the departments. This limit is presently established as t salary of salary step 1 of Class 10 (assistant Chiefs). However, t was originally provided when Class 10 was that of the Chiefs; when the Chiefs were assigned to Class 11 by the salary amendments 1970, this maximum for overtime earnings of the members was 1 changed accordingly. This oversight is corrected in H.R. 12710.

Mr. Chairman, as I have stated, the heart of this bill is to provi for increased salaries for the officers and members of these forces. A it is my opinion that the facts thoroughly substantiate the justificati for the 17 percent average increase provided by the two-phase pr posal in H.R. 12710.

I am informed that both the minimum and the maximum salar for privates in the Metropolitan Police Force and the District. Columbia Fire Department, at this time, are the lowest in the enti metropolitan area. Also, the minimum or entrance salaries for p vates in the District now rank 15th among those offered in the U.S. cities with populations in excess of 500,000 persons. The sala schedules proposed in this bill will put the District in first place f both minimum and maximum salaries in the area, and will raise t starting salary to 7th place among those in the largest cities throug out the country.

These salary adjustments, in my opinion, are absolutely essenti The police and fire forces in the Nation's capital must be able recruit their share of qualified men in the labor market, retain tho competent employees who are giving quality performance, and ce tainly must provide salaries which will give these employees adequa economic security.

It is certainly essential that D.C. policemen and firemen be pa at rates higher than those in the suburban jurisdictions of the Washin ton Metropolitan Area, if the city is to compete successfully wi those jurisdictions, who cite the difficulties of police and fire work the city as a basis for inducing police and fire candidates to their ow forces.

And even though the District has been able, in recent years, to r cruit sufficiently to fill its authorized strength for its police and fi departments, there has been a very disturbing amount of proselytin by which other jurisdictions have been luring experienced personn from the District of Columbia departments to such an extent tha there is today an annual turnover of uniformed police personnel i the city of some 16 percent.

A recent survey of 400 persons leaving the police forces in the cit reveals that about 100 left to accept jobs with other law enforcemen agencies, and approximately 75 left to further their education. Mos disturbing is that most of the persons who left to accept positions i

other police agencies, most had more than one year's service on the Metropolitan Police force. The officers who left to further their education, on the other hand, were mostly in their probationary period. It is obvious that this erosion, involving as it does mostly men with some experience on the District forces, must be combatted with all the means at our command. Admittedly, service with the police and fire departments of this city is beset with difficulties and problems not encountered in a great many other communities. Even though we can do little or nothing to correct some of these problems, we can and must provide adequate salary scales for these local policemen and firemen, and thus at least alleviate this difficulty to the retention of the better qualified members of these services here in the Nation's capital.

The last legislation affording salary increases to the policemen and firemen of the District was approved on June 30, 1970; and in recognition of the fact that other city employees had had more recent increases, the effective date of this Act was made retroactive to July 1, 1969. Since that date, Federal and D.C. classified workers have had a total of some 17 percent increase in salaries, and also during that period of time, the cost of living in the District has gone up by about 10.6 percent. Further, during this period of nearly three years, all the surburban jurisdictions in this area have increased the salaries of their policemen and firemen, as have most of the other large U.S. cities. Under these circumstances, I believe the 17 percent increase provided in H.R. 12710 is justified at this time.

COST

I am advised that the annual cost of the provisions of this bill are estimated as follows:

Phase I
Phase II

Total

$13, 182, 000

6, 581, 500 19, 763, 500

The District of Columbia Committees of the House and the Senate, in their conference report on the D.C. Revenue Act of 1971, have placed the District of Columbia government on notice that the costs of legislation relating to salary increases for its policemen and firemen, through fiscal year 1973, must be met by local revenues, or at least without the benefit of further authorization regarding the Federal payment to the city. I am confident that the D.C. government can meet this obligation within its present and available resources, and that they will do so in recognition of the critical need for the salary increases provided in this bill, for the welfare of every citizen of this city.

Mr. Chairman, in view of all the facts as I have outlined them, I heartily endorse this proposed legislation and urge its speedy enactment into law.

STATEMENT OF HON. GILBERT GUDE

Mr. GUDE. Mr. Chairman, H.R. 12710 is a bill to provide the District of Columbia Police and Firemen with salary increases, and other benefits. Briefly, the Act will establish a two-phase increase repre

senting an approximate 11% increase retroactive to January 1, 197 and an additional 6% increase effective July 1, 1972.

The last salary increase for these employees was enacted three year ago and compared favorably at that time with surrounding jurisdic tions and cities of similar size. Today, however, such comparabilit no longer holds true. At both entrance and maximum salary level for police and fire privates, the District of Columbia ranks low in deed, and suffers from both a distinct morale problem among presen employees, and a recruitment problem in attracting prospective mer as a result. Furthermore, since 1970, the city's other employees hav had three raises totaling between 17.7% and 19.2%.

In view of all of these factors, and added to them the sharp rise i the nation's cost of living from which all of us have suffered durin the past few years, and most important of all-the increasing effective ness of Washington's police force in keeping down the crime rateI urge prompt and favorable action on this legislation. Fightin crime and fire in Washington is hazardous, and these days, unpopular These heroic men and fine public servants deserve no less.

STATEMENT OF HON. LAWRENCE J. HOGAN, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND

Mr. HOGAN. Mr. Chairman, the bill you are considering today pro poses raises for the policemen and firemen of the District of Columbia This bill would raise their pay a total of 17 percent, from $8,500 a year to $9,500 immediately and to $10,000 on July 1.

I think this pay boost is necessary and equitable for several reasons In the last two fiscal years, 755 patrolmen have quit the metropolitar police department with the majority of them citing low pay as the

reason.

It is a fact that District police and fire privates' salaries rank las compared with other jurisdictions in the metropolitan area, and in 13th place among cities with over 500,000 population.

Since Congress normally considers the police-firemen pay bill only every other year, the men working as D.C. policemen and firemen have not had a raise in nearly two years. Yet in this same time the salaries of other District and Federal employees have been increased.

Our policemen and firemen need and deserve an immediate raise in pay. Everett L. Cooper, president of the Policemen's Association, has pointed out that between August 1969, and last November, the cost of living in Washington, D.C. has risen by 10.6 percent, creating a defi nite hardship for many line police officers.

We are all very proud that crime is down in Washington. The fine work being done by our police is one of the reasons.

In February 1968, the force was composed of 3,500 policemen. Congress twice increased the authorized strength to the present 5,100 men. and the department undertook a massive recruitment drive.

Since that time, a tremendous effort behind the anti-crime campaign in our Nation's Capital has allowed President Nixon to remark, "Washington is one of the safest cities in this country." Robbery, considered a barometer of serious crime, has shown a steady decrease in the last several years. Statistics released by the department showed that serious