ernmental use shall also be treated as public domain and not as property under the Act when the Administrator, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Interior, determines that they are suitable for return to the public domain for disposition under the general public land laws because such lands are not substantially changed in character by improvements. Lands so withdrawn or reserved would be treated as property subject to the Act in the absence of such a determination. Excess lands, originally withdrawn or reserved from the public domain, which are unimproved or contain only minor improvements, can more effectively be disposed of under the public land laws which operate with respect to the balance of public domain lands. Lands which have been so extensively improved as substantially to change their character can be better disposed of under the Act.

"Contractor inventory" (section 3 (k)): the words "or has the option" in clause (2) immediately following the word "obligated" were inserted by subsection (b) of section 1 of Public Law 522. This insertion made a technical improvement in the definition of "contractor inventory". The usual contractual provision covering termination for the convenience of the Government permits the Government to acquire any property produced, delivered, or ordered in connection with the contract. Contractor inventory, as used in contracts, therefore includes property which the Government has an option to acquire. As previously defined in section 3 (k), the term included only property title to which was vested in the Government and property which the Government was obligated to take. The amended definition includes the "option" property and thus makes it subject to the provisions of section 203 (f) governing the disposal of contractor inventory. The redefinition also makes the "option" property more clearly subject to regulation by the Administrator whereby it can be brought within the Federal utilization program. For example, strategic and critical materials available to the Government under the contract provision can be forbidden to be retained by the contractor so that these materials may be acquired by the Government and used in its defense supply procurement program.

TITLE I-ORGANIZATION

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

SEC. 101. (a) There is hereby established an agency in the executive branch of the Government which shall be known as the General Services Administration.

(b) There shall be at the head of the General Services Administration an Administrator of General Services who shall be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and perform his functions subject to the direction and control of the President.

(c) There shall be in the General Services Administration a Deputy Administrator of General Services who shall be appointed by the Administrator of General Services. The Deputy Administrator shall perform such functions as the Administrator shall designate and shall be Acting Administrator of General Services during the absence or disability of the Administrator and, unless the President shall designate another officer of the Government, in the event of a vacancy in the office of Administrator.

(d) Pending the first appointment of the Administrator under the provisions of this section, his functions shall be performed temporarily by such officer of the Government in office upon or immediately prior to the taking of effect of the provisions of this Act as the President shall designate, and such officer while so serving shall receive the salary fixed for the Administrator.

(e) Pending the effective date of other provisions of law fixing the rates of compensation of the Administrator, the Deputy Administrator and of the heads and assistant heads of the principal organizational units of the General Services Administration, and taking into consideration provisions of law governing the compensation of officers having comparable responsibilities and duties, the President shall fix for each of them a rate of compensation which he shall deem to be commensurate with the responsibilities and duties of the respective offices involved.

ANALYSIS

DESIGNATION OF NAME

The agency shall be known as the "General Services Administration". It is desired that the term "Administration" come to be applied only to independent agencies that do not have Cabinet status as in the case of the departments, and that are not primarily regulatory bodies as is the case with commissions. This change is effected in harmony with the recognition of the long over-due realignment of elements within the generic governmental term "agency". It is the beginning of proper and more fittingly descriptive nomenclature in governmental fields.

Section 101. General Services Administration (Sec. 101, 63 Stat. 379; 5 U. S. C. 630)

(a) Establishment of General Services Administration.-This subsection provides for the establishment in the executive branch of the Government of a new agency to be known as the General Services Administration.

(b) Administrator of General Services.-This subsection provides that the new agency shall be headed by a new officer of the Government, entitled "Administrator of General Services", to be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

(c) Deputy Administrator.-This subsection provides for a Deputy Administrator who shall be appointed by the Administrator. The Deputy Administrator will perform such functions as the Administrator may designate and be Acting Administrator during the absence or disability of the Administrator (and unless the President designates another officer to serve as Administrator) in the event of a vacancy in that office.

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(d) Performance of functions pending first appointment. This subsection includes provision that, pending the first appointment of an Administrator, his functions shall be performed, temporarily, by such incumbent Government officer as the President shall designate.

(e) Compensation of Administrator, Deputy Administrator, heads and assistant heads of the principal organizational units. This section authorizes the President to establish the rate of compensation for the Administrator, Deputy Administrator, and the heads and assistant heads of the principal organizational units at such rates as he should deem to be commensurate with their duties and responsibilities, pending the effective date of other provisions of law fixing their rates of compensation. Rates of basic compensation per annum were fixed by Public Law 359 of the 81st Congress, "An Act To increase rates of compensation of the heads and assistant heads of executive departments and independent agencies", approved October 15, 1949, 63 Stat. 880, as follows: for the Administrator, $17,500; for the Deputy Administrator, $15,000; and for the Archivist of the United States, $15,000.

TRANSFER OF AFFAIRS OF BUREAU OF FEDERAL SUPPLY

SEC. 102. (a) The functions of (1) the Bureau of Federal Supply in the Department of the Treasury, (2) the Director of the Bureau of Federal Supply, (3) the personnel of such Bureau, and (4) the Secretary of the Treasury, relating to the Bureau of Federal Supply, are hereby transferred to the Administrator. The records, property, personnel, obligations, and commitments of the Bureau of Federal Supply, together with such additional records, property, and personnel of the Department of the Treasury as the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall determine to relate primarily to functions transferred by this section or vested in the Administrator by titles II, III, and VI, of this Act, are hereby transferred to the General Services Administration. The Bureau of Federal Supply and the office of Director of the Bureau of Federal Supply are hereby abolished.

(b) The functions of the Director of Contract Settlement and of the Office of Contract Settlement, transferred to the Secretary of the Treasury by Reorganization Plan Numbered 1 of 1947, are transferred to the Administrator and shall be performed by him or, subject to his direction and control, by such officers and agencies of the General Services Administration as he may designate. The Contract Settlement Act Advisory Board created by section 5 of the Contract Settlement Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 649) and the Appeal Board established under section 13 (d) of that Act are transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the General Services Administration, but the functions of these Boards shall be performed by them, respectively, under conditions and limitations prescribed by law. There shall also be transferred to the General Services Administration such records, property, personnel, obligations, commitments, and unexpended balances (available or to be made available) of appropriations, allocations, and other funds of the Treasury Department as the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall determine to relate primarily to the functions transferred by the provisions of this subsection.

(c) Any other provision of this section notwithstanding, there may be retained in the Department of the Treasury any function referred to in subsection (a) of this section which the Director of the Bureau of the Budget shall, within ten days after the effective date of this Act, determine to be essential to the orderly administration of the affairs of the agencies of such Department, other than the Bureau of Federal Supply, together with such records, property, personnel, obligations, commitments, and unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, and other funds, available or to be made available, of said Department, as said Director shall determine.

ANALYSIS

Section 102. Transfer of the Bureau of Federal Supply and contract-settlement functions to the General Service Administration (Sec. 102, 63 Stat. 380, as amended by sec. 6 (a), 64 Stat. 583; 5 U. S. C. 630a)

(a) Transfer of the Bureau of Federal Supply.—This subsection provides for transferring to the General Services Administration the functions, records, and personnel of the Bureau of Federal Supply, in the Department of the Treasury, and for vesting in the Administrator of General Services the functions of Treasury personnel relating to the Bureau of Federal Supply. It also provides for abolishing the Bureau of Federal Supply, thereby permitting the Administrator of General Services to establish such organization as he deems necessary, which he has done by establishing the Federal Supply Service. The Bureau of Federal Supply had been in the Department of the Treasury since 1933 and exercised central procurement functions for the executive branch of the Government. Its functions were not essentially related to the primary fiscal and tax functions of the Department of the Treasury, so that the Bureau could readily be severed from that Department without impairment of the Department's efficiency. In the General Services Administration the Federal Supply Service supplements the property-service functions of that agency and facilitates more economical property management in the Government. The functions of the Bureau of Federal Supply are transferred to the Administrator, and records, property, personnel, obligations, and commitments are transferred to the Administration. This framework is in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government. Functions of the Secretary of the Treasury, referred to in clause (4), include all functions vested in him by law but performed by the Bureau for him under appropriate delegation: for example, stock-piling under the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act (60 Stat. 596) and functions of over-all supervision and review of the performance of Bureau functions incidental to his position as head of the Department. Functions under the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act have been assigned to the Emergency Procurement Service established by the Administrator of General Services as an organizational element of the General Services Administration. (The reference in sec. 102 (a) to title VI of the Act was to title V in the Act as originally enacted; sec. 6 (a) of Public Law 754 redesignated title V as title VI, and provided that "title V" wherever it appeared in the Act as originally enacted, was amended to read "title VI".) Sec. 201 for transportation and public utility responsibilities assigned to the Transportation and Public Utilities Service.)

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(b) Transfer of contract-settlement functions.-This subsection provides for transfer to the Administrator of General Services of the functions, transferred to the Secretary of the Treasury by Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1947, of the Director of Contract Settlement and the Office of Contracts Settlement created by the Contract Settlement Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 649; 41 U. S. C. 101-125). These functions relate to the establishment of uniform policies and procedures for the settlement of terminated war contracts by Government contracting agencies and, because of the almost complete liquidation of the contract-termination program, are now routine and insignificant. Such little work as had been recently required in connection with this program was carried on in the Treasury primarily by the Bureau of Federal Supply. This subsection likewise transfers from the Treasury to the General Services Administration the Appeal Board and the Contract Settlement Advisory Board also created by the Contract Settlement Act of 1944. This transfer is for housekeeping purposes only. The Secretary of the Treasury did not, nor does the Administrator of General Services, review decisions of the Appeal Board which performs its functions under conditions and limitations prescribed by law. It should be noted that, by Public Law 537 of the 82d Congress, approved July 14, 1952, 66 Stat. 627, "An Act To amend the Contract Settlement Act of 1944 and to abolish the Appeal Board of the Office of Contract Settlement", the Appeal Board established under section 13 (d) of the Contract Settlement Act of 1944 was abolished. Public Law 537 provided, however, that such abolition was not to become effective until six months after enactment of the Act or such later date, nor more than nine months after the enactment of the Act, as might be fixed, subject to certain limitations as specified in the Act, by written order of the Director of Contract Settlement published in the Federal Register.

(c) Functions retained in the Treasury.-This subsection permits the Bureau of the Budget to retain in the Treasury Department certain minor functions of the Bureau of Federal Supply, for example, as to printing, which properly pertain to the Treasury Department.