ization, and (d) to provide staff to coordinate the program and to provide a full Senator HILL. Mr. Dodson, we are glad to have you here with us Mr. DODSON. Thank you. I have previously filed with the committee the complete statement Senator HILL. All right, sir. Your complete statement will be in- serted in the hearings at this point. (The statement referred to follows:) The total request for 1958 is $1,619,000. This is a net increase on a com- Decreases: For completion of planning phases of the older worker pro- The breakdown of the estimate by activity, by object, and by purpose is shown on pages SEC-4 and SEC-5 of the material submitted to the committee. I would like to give you a brief explanation of the proposed changes: Excluded from the Office of the Secretary's budget for 1958 is a total of $466,800 for performing certain centralized services for all bureaus of the flected it in the Bureau budgets. I will explain this in detail later on when we come to the item on the proposed new revolving fund. Since the planning phases of the skills of the work force and older worker programs will be completed by the close of fiscal 1957 we have not included in the 1958 request $176,075 for this work during the current year. For expansion of the international labor program, a net increase of 5 jobs and $51,815 is requested to provide staff for a Deputy Assistant Secretary, 2 additional area specialists and 1 clerk and 1 additional staff specialist and a clerk to work on increased ILO participation. One position available in 1957 has been eliminated. Assistant Secretary Wilkins in charge of the Office of International Labor Affairs is here and available to the committee for any interrogation they may desire to make of him. For my own office I am requesting one additional position at $7,570 in order to strengthen our management improvement program. We have much more work to do now on legislative reports and recommendations than in the past. Public Law 801 passed by the 84th Congress requires an estimate for each of the first 5 years of operation of any proposed legislation by the administration or referred by Congress to us for comment. In addition we must calculate manpower required by major classification and the cost of administration whenever the activity involved exceeds $1 million. This has added greatly to our work and at present our only recourse is to work overtime to fulfill our responsibility in this field. An increase of $16,915 is requested for new positions for the Office of Personnel Administration to handle increased activities in the field of recruitment, training, executive development and performance appraisal. For several years Congress has allowed a staffing formula of 1 personnel person to every 105 employees. It is estimated that the personnel office will be required to handle employment matters for approximately 6,400 employees. If we are to use the full application of the formula of 105 to 1, this would allow a personnel staff of 61 employees. The current authorized strength of the Office of Personnel Administration is 45 positions. This increase would provide for 4 additional employees or a total staff of 49 positions which is substantially below the ratio allowable by Congress. For the departmental library we are requesting an increase of $26,125 of which $5,000 is for equipment and the balance for salaries. This will provide six additional positions in the library. At the present time we have a staff of 19. The functions of the library were the subject of a study several years ago by an outside consultant who recommended a total staff of 29 people. We have not been successful in getting increases for the library that we believe are essential to maintain the books and other reference documents in a manner and condition that will enable satisfactory service to be rendered to the employees of the Department, other Federal agencies, and outsiders using the library for reference such as labor, management organizations and staffs of colleges. The justifications appearing on pages SEC-14 and SEC-15 go into greater detail as to need. The emergency shifting of personnel that is required to meet the day-today demands upon the library is not a satisfactory method of operation. For example, catalogers are shifted to do reference work while at the same time there is a backlog of cataloging. The additional positions requested would provide 1 additional reference librarian and 2 catalogers, as well as a clerk-typist, which would relieve higher paid people being diverted from their duties to those of a lesser skill. The $68,020 for retirement contributions is requested pursuant to Public Law 854, 84th Congress; $4,170 for the extra day of pay in 1958, and $24,915 for the executive pay increases authorized by the last session of Congress. The functions of the Office of the Secretary share of the increase required for the service functions proposed to be financed out of a revolving fund is $13,945. In our 1956 estimate we included request for funds for carrying out the Department's delegated responsibilities in the defense mobilization program. These responsibilities are those delegated to us by the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization. The committee at that time disapproved our request which was also inclusive of funds needed to carry out the delegations to the department from the Federal Civil Defense Administration and stated “* ** it would be for the central agency charged with the primary responsibility to prepare and present to the Congress a total integrated program *99 As a result of the position taken by this committee and confirmed by the Congress this matter has been the subject of discussions at high levels and we have been informed that the Director of the Bureau of the Budget under date of January 18, 1957, forwarded a communication to Chairman Clarence Cannon setting forth the principles that the administration had followed in connection with the approval of funds for defense mobilization activities. Our understanding is that the Bureau of the Budget followed the policy of approving requests for funds where an agency has been assigned responsibilities through defense mobilization orders for the conduct of programs beyond the agency's regular peacetime resources and also for significant nonrecurring costs such as those for alterations of buildings and the initial moves to a relocation site. The estimate before you has been appraised by the Bureau of the Budget in keeping with this policy. We have specific delegations of authority from ODM for work in the fields of manpower and wage stabilization planning. The funds are requested to be appropriated to the Office of the Secretary in order that we may have flexibility of administration through using such facilities of the several bureaus of the Department as may be deemed necessary to properly do the developmental and planning work involved. In addition to working on the delegated responsibilities the Department desires to locate permanent staff at its relocation point and in this connection the estimate includes $50,000 to defray rental and related costs during the first year of occupancy of an office to be established at our relocation point for performing their regular duties but at the same time assuming certain responsibilities for quickly placing into operation the Department's emergency plans if and when an emergency occurs. It is quite possible that in future years the General Services Administration will be requested to pick this item up. Of course, space for which rent is now being paid that we may vacate both in Washington and at field locations will represent an offset to the cost for rent at the relocation point. Assistant Secretary Siciliano will be in charge of the program aspects of the delegated responsibilities and is here available to the committee. I would now like to take up our request for the establishment of a revolving fund. This proposal for the establishment of a revolving fund is new for the Department but is not new with many large agencies of Government such as Agriculture, Interior, Commerce, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In essence, it is a device to finance operating costs of centralized services used by all bureaus and offices of the Department in order to (a) more accurately reflect proper program costs, (b) simplify method of payment, and (e) enable bureaus to exercise better self-control of services and items requisitioned. This method of financing has the approval of the General Accounting Office, the General Services Administration and the Bureau of the Budget. Last year during our hearings in the Senate, Senator Hill suggested that our 1958 budget reflect in Bureau budgets their fair share of the costs of certain centralized service operations and the committee report directed us to develop and submit such a plan. The testimony on this matter appears in the Senate hearings on page 23. We are proposing that,beginning in 1958, the activities referrred to on page REV-3 of the budget justifications be financed through the revolving fund by reimbursement from bureaus on the basis of services rendered. In addition to the types of services illustrated in the Senate report, we have also included items of information, accounts and audits, and visual presentation. We are requesting an appropriation of $150,000 for working capital to get this program underway. It will be replenished by reimbursements from the bureaus for actual services performed. In 1957, $769,065 of which $590,780 was in the appropriation for the Office of the Secretary, was appropriated to the Department to finance the activities concerned and, for 1958 we are asking $95,335 additional. The total amount, $864,400 is distributed among the appropriations of the several bureaus for reimbursement to the fund. The increase includes $77,335 for additional personal services including 6 new positions in the Office of Information, publications, and reports to carry out the Secretary's desire to maintain a better and more coordinated service to the various segments of our economy by keeping them more fully informed of the activities of and services available in the Department. Through the medium of employee details we have experimented with the idea of developing certain basic informational media on a departmentwide basis and are convinced that this is the most comprehensive, effective and economical way to acquaint man 91359-57-5 agement, workers and the public with the aims and functions of the Department. For example, during the past year there was developed the American Workers' Fact Book. The Superintendent of Documents rode our requisition for 10,000 copies for sale to the public. Within 36 days after delivery these publications for sale were completely exhausted and a reprint of 7,500 copies was authorized. To date there has been a total of 16,800 of these publications sold at a unit cost of $1.50 per copy. Further evidence of the value of this publication has been forthcoming from various sources. The steelworkers union purchased 1,000 copies and the United States Information Agency has ordered 15,000 copies; 10,000 copies of a revised and translated version are being prepared for Pakistan. The press notices were most complimentary. For example, the New York Times in an editorial said, "tells a story of economic progress more exciting than a shelf full of Horatio Alger novels." Other publications which because of their very nature, must be developed at the departmental level but at the same time have great value to all of the bureaus, are The United States Department of Labor . . . Today; The United States Department of Labor . . . and What It Does; A Subject Listing of Publications of the United States Department of Labor. There are also programs directed toward special projects such as our most recent ones-the older worker project, the skills of the work force-which have resulted in a departmental approach to the issuance of material to the public to bring into focus the extent of the problem and efforts being made to provide a solution to it. Very often the development of material for radio and television use should be at the departmental level and here again staff is required to work with the bureaus and with the companies involved in order that the presentation may be most effective to the public and most comprehensive of the Department's functions. One new position in the Division of Budget and Fiscal Control is included to handle the additional budget and fiscal work caused by the creation of the fund and two new positions in the Division of Accounts and Audits to perform the accounting and cost distribution for the revolving fund. We have requested that the Division of Accounts and Audits of the Office of the Secretary be included in the revolving fund because it renders a truly centralized service in the fields for which it is responsible. It performs all accounting and audit and payroll functions for five bureaus and offices of the Department: the Office of the Secretary, Office of the Solicitor, Bureau of Veterans' Reemployment Rights, Bureau of Labor Standards, and the Bureau of Apprenticeship. It also handles, on a departmentwide basis, all necessary relationships with the Treasury Department and the General Accounting Office in the field of accounting. Two new positions in this Division are requested to perform the accounting and cost distribution for the revolving fund. The remaining $18,000 increase is for first year depreciation on the equipment involved. Page REV-7 shows distribution of the costs to bureaus. Percentages used for each activity are based on prior years' experience of services furnished to the Bureaus. Finally, I would like to refer to the new language requested in the general provisions. We are requesting that the words "stenographic reporting" be deleted from the current authorization to use section 15 of the act of August 2, 1946. Heretofore, several bureaus had separate authorization to employ experts and consultants under that act and the Department had general authority to contract for stenographic reporting services. Other bureaus have occasional need for the employment of experts and consultants so we are seeking, by the elimination of the two words, to extend the authority to the Department generally and, at the same time, simplify our appropriation language by elimination of the specific provisions in other appropriations. I think I should point out here that, if this request is denied, the specific authorizations previously enjoyed by the several bureaus should be reinstated. The request for authority to pay special per diem allowances to employees and their dependents is needed to compensate for the economic disruption of families in the event of moves of personnel contemplated in connection with the decentralization of the functions of the Bureau of Employees' Compensation and the transfer of some regular functions of the Department to its permanent relocation point outside of Washington. We feel that ample precedent exists for granting this request in similar provisions which were made in the cases of organizational relocation during and after World War II. Without this provision, the loss of personnel inherent to these moves will be greatly aggravated, with attendant loss of efficiency by reason of the necessity to restaff on such a large scale. |