INVESTIGATION PROCEDURE Investigation is proceeding independently with people who are not part of the Department. The Department of Justice has been notified of what has been taking place and we will proceed in an orderly, judicial manner, sir. Senator HILL. What would be your attitude toward a person who made charges that were false? Secretary RIBICOFF. I would say we would have to see what the charges are, who these individuals are; some of the charges, I think, were made by people who are no longer part of the Government service. They may have been made by people who have been out of the service for many years. What you can do there, I really do not know. Senator HILL. I shall without objection place in the record the letter to which I referred under date of March 1. (The material referred to follows:) THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE, Hon. LISTER HILL, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: In order that you may be currently informed of the Department's progress in dealing with the allegations of improper conduct in the Public Health Service, about which there has been some recent newspaper publicity, I want to give you an interim report. The matter first originated last September when a man in the Division of Administrative Services of the Office of the Surgeon General appealed to me to review what he regarded as an improper reprimand which he had received. His letter contained certain additional complaints. In the course of checking on these complaints, our Personnel Office interviewed a number of people and the result was that the original allegation was expanded to include other more serious allegations, including the mishandling of Government property, the possible misuse of prescription drugs and whisky, and other matters. Upon consultation with the Surgeon General, it was decided to establish a board of inquiry to look into this matter more fully. We also referred immediately to the Justice Department the allegations having to do with misuse of Government property. The board of inquiry was established on October 16, 1961. The FBI conducted an investigation of those allegations over which they had jurisdiction and submitted a report dated October 27, 1961, indicating nothing was found to warrant prosecution. The matter, therefore, was left to the Department for final action. The board of inquiry, consisting of Dr. Porterfield, Deputy Surgeon General, as chairman; Mr. Alanson Willcox, General Counsel; and Mr. Milton Hall, Deputy Director of Personnel, conducted its inquiry during October, November, and December. The board of inquiry obtained the services of two investigators who were detailed to the Department on a reimbursable basis from the Civil Service Commission to assist the board in its inquiry. The investigators served until December 22, 1961. On February 1, 1962, the civil service investigators submitted a written report directly to me which contained allegations which they had picked up in the course of their investigation which were of a more serious nature than any previous allegations. The most serious of these allegations were, however, 8 or 10 years old. I immediately transmitted this report to the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission for possible action, but was advised by him that it was a responsibility of this Department and the Justice Department to look into. Although the statute of limitations has probably run out on these alleged offenses, the matters were referred to the Justice Department for consideration of what action may be required, if any. They are currently considering the matter. The board of inquiry submitted a report on February 12, 1962. It made findings and recommendations in respect to most matters which they had been charged to look into. They also recommended certain additional followup on several outstanding items which they were unable to check out adequately. In order to deal both with the more serious allegations referred to above and the outstanding items in the report of the board of inquiry, I promptly obtained the services of a very competent investigator, Mr. Charles G. Haynes, director of inspections of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He has been detailed to my office with full authority to run down the additional allegations and separate fact from rumor and fiction. I have given him authority to add as much staff as he may need. He has today added a second investigator on a temporary basis to try as rapidly as possible to determine all of the facts essential to a final decision as to what action needs to be taken. The Surgeon General is as anxious as I to have this matter handled in a definitive manner as promptly as possible. I shall be in touch with you again promptly as soon as we have reached conclusions on what the real facts are. Sincerely yours, ABE RIBICOFF, Secretary. STATUS OF FUNDS FOR ORAL POLIO VACCINE Senator HILL. Mr. Secretary, we appropriated $1 million under the third supplemental appropriation act passed by the last session of Congress, in 1961, for oral polio vaccine, the funds to remain available until June 30 of 1962. Can you tell us the status of this program at the present time? Secretary RIBICOFF. I am unable to answer that at this time. The Surgeon General would be the official with that information. Senator HILL. Well, when the Public Health people come up, I will get it. You can advise them, Mr. Kelly, we want an answer on that question. Mr. KELLY. I will, sir. (The information referred to appears on p. 501.) FUNDS FOR TEACHERS OF THE DEAF IN RESERVE Senator HILL. Well, Mr. Secretary, there are a number of things I might go into. I am sorry to hear you reserved funds for teachers of the deaf. I understand you have more applications now than the funds and yet you reserved some $337,000 but as I say, your budget for 1963 confirms the need. We were very much interested to see that situation is also true with respect to cancer, heart, mental health, arthritis, general research, neurology, all of which are NIH activities and for which you requested an increase over the amount provided by the Congress of this present year. Senator Cotton, do you have any questions? BREAKDOWN OF FUNDS PLACED IN RESERVE Senator COTTON. Mr. Secretary, on page 6 of the statement which you mentioned on reserving $102 million of funds, would you be willing to just pinpoint three or four examples of the actual funds that you purposely held back? Secretary RIBICOFF. Let us say the Senator COTTON. If you would rather furnish that for the record, that would be all right. Secretary RIBICOFF. Yes. As a matter of fact, it covers four sheets and I would be pleased to submit the entire breakdown of each and every item of reduction for the purposes of the record. Senator COTTON. Thank you. (The information referred to follows:) |