information relative to the quality of products and price fluctuations of major subsistence items.

On October 10, 1966, the special inquiry held a day of hearings concerning the problems of the poor as consumers. Officials of the Office of Economic Opportunity testified on that agency's programs designed to inform the poor of their rights and responsibilities as consumers. Members of the full committee staff have been performing staff work for the special inquiry.

17. FHA and Veterans' Administration-Housing Program in Areas of Potential Geologic Instability.

In January 1966, pursuant to the direction of the chairman, the staff of the full committee launched a preliminary inquiry into the operation of Federal programs offering direct and indirect financial assistance to eligible parties for the construction and purchase of family dwellings and other structures, in areas of potential geologic instability where there is special risk of personal injury and property damage from earthquakes, floods, earth faultings, and mud sliding. In some instances the U.S. Geological Survey has issued strong warnings against building in such areas.

The Federal Housing Administration, in its mortgage insurance programs, and the Veterans' Administration, in its loan and loan guaranty programs, are prominently involved in offering such assistance. (The Public Housing Administration, Urban Renewal Administration, and Community Facilities Administration are also involved in financing or asisting in financing structures.)

It is not solely the matter of possible economic loss to the Government, due to such operations, which is to be considered. Even in instances where the Government is not liable, Federal participation of itself may indirectly encourage private parties to build or invest in special risk areas.

To study the degree of risk in areas of potential geologic instability and the extent of Federal participation there, the committee requested that the U.S. Geological Survey identify certain of these zones in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. The FHA and VA were then requested to furnish the committee with data on their operations in these areas. The General Accounting Office has also been asked to lend assistance in certain aspects of the inquiry.

Information was requested concerning the following:

(a) The extent to which the programs of the above-named agencies operated within zones of instability identified by the U.S. Geological Survey:

(b) The approximate number of applications together with the type of structure concerned, now outstanding in the zones of instability and whether the agencies planned future activities in these zones;

(c) The extent of liability of these agencies resulting from damage to structures caused by geologic factors; and

(d) The degree to which the above named agencies have access to geologic information whether from public or private sources and the manner in which this information is utilized.

Replies from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Veterans' Administration are being carefully evaluated with

a view to possible future action by the committee. A preliminary report has been received from the GAO. In addition, the staff of the committee has prepared a detailed report of findings to date.

18. Department of the Interior-New Form of Annual Report. In fiscal year 1963, the Department of the Interior supplemented its regular annual report with a 76-page magazine-type publication entitled "The Race for Inner Space," which dealt with conservation and outdoor-recreation aspects of the Department's activities. Public reception of this new publication induced the Department to discontinue altogether the old-type annual report, which had been a book of 400plus pages with detailed text and statistics covering the activities of the Department and its individual constituent organizations.

The new annual reports, beginning with fiscal year 1964 represent a marked change in format, content, and length. The fiscal year 1964 and 1965 reports have been between 80 and 100 pages, and contain considerable pictorial material, much of it in color. They contain no tabular and few statistical data. They are broken down by functional rather than organizational divisions. They are without an index or a full table of contents.

Particularly since the committee had expressed its concern over the adequacy of annual reports of departments and agencies in House Report No. 456, 88th Congress, letters to the Comptroller General and the Secretary of the Interior, dated July 20, 1966, were sent requesting that material be furnished for a cost versus content analysis and comparison between the old and new styles of annual reports.

On November 10, 1966, the Comptroller General furnished the committee his report. Among his findings are these:

(a) The new form of annual report is being printed in many times the numbers of prior reports (176,104 copies of the fiscal year 1964 report and 64,043 copies of the fiscal year 1965 report);

(b) Free distribution as well as public sales of the new reports have multiplied;

(c) The unit cost for composition and printing were sharply down for the new reports;

(d) As of September 22, 1966, receipts from sales of the fiscal year 1964 report exceeded total identifiable costs by $13,500, with 50,468 copies remaining available for sale;

(e) For the fiscal year 1965 report, sales receipts fell below total identifiable costs by $22,305, with 15,700 copies remaining available: (f) Sales of the pre-1964 annual reports were quite low leaving a net cost on the order of $10,000 for the issuance of from 5,000 to 8,000 copies.

Each of the new reports is largely a narrative around a central theme, weaving in, where pertinent, the activities and interests of the various departmental agencies.

The Department is preparing a report for fiscal year 1966 along the same lines as the two prior reports mentioned above.

The Comptroller General's report also noted that the various bureaus, offices, and territories within the Department's organization are continuing to prepare fairly comprehensive annual reports, actually in greater detail than what was formerly summarized under each agency's

name in the old series of annual reports. Though not widely distributed, these individual agency reports are available to the public. The Comptroller General also furnished to the committee a listing of executive branch agencies and component units which publish annual reports of their operations.

The committee is continuing its consideration of both of the Comptroller General's reports in order to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the Interior Department's new form of annual report from the standpoint of economy and efficiency of Government op

erations.

19. Department of State-Lack of Seat Belts in U.S. Vehicles Over

seas.

On receipt of reports that a large number of U.S. mission vehicles overseas were not equipped with seat belts despite a longstanding Government policy that they be installed and used to reduce the loss to the Government from motor vehicle injuries, the chairman of the committee wrote to the Secretary of State on February 16, 1966, calling the situation to the Secretary's attention and asking that the matter be looked into. On February 25, 1966, the Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations replied that in June 1964 all diplomatic and consular posts had been instructed to procure seat belts for all vehicles. Their installation and use on personally owned vehicles were also encouraged. The Assistant Secretary advised that in view of the lack of compliance with the 1964 instructions, further instructions would be issued to all posts.

On March 23, 1966, the Secretary of State sent an airgram to all American diplomatic and consular posts reiterating and reemphasizing the Department's policy and instructions requiring installation and use of safety seat belts in official vehicles. It also urged their use in personally owned vehicles. As future occasions may permit, note will be taken of the extent of compliance with this instruction.

20. General Services Administration Regulations-Ambiguity Concerning Negotiated Procurement for use Abroad.

In 31 F.R. 2689, an amendment was added to 41 CFR 5-3.201 (b), the regulations of the General Services Administration regarding negotiated procurements under the national emergency authority in section. 302 (c)(1) of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act. Specifically, the regulation deals with procurement for use abroad which is to be restricted to U.S. origin unless such procurement would be 50 percent greater in cost than procurement abroad. The drafting of this provision appears to leave the intent unclear. The connection apparently intended between a buy-American policy and negotiated procurements under the national emergency authority is inadequately expressed. The Office of the General Counsel, General Services Administration, conceded that the way the paragraph was drawn left its import and effect obscure, and stated that a change would be made.

21. Reemployment Leave Benefits for Civil Service Employees in Alaska and Hawaii Who Resided in Continental United States at Time of Employment.

On April 21, 1966, the Comptroller General submitted to the Congress his report entitled "Review of Reemployment Leave Benefits Granted Certain Civil Service Employees in States of Alaska and Hawaii" (B-122796). This report referred to the statutory entitlement to reemployment leave travel benefits enjoyed by employees in Hawaii and Alaska whose residences at the time of employment were in the continental United States. Often these employees receiving leave travel benefits to the U.S. mainland have lived in Hawaii or Alaska so long as to have become de facto residents of those States. The report contained the following suggestion:

Conditions affecting the recruitment and retention of civil service employees in Alaska and Hawaii have changed since enactment of the legislation providing for reemployment leave travel benefits. Because there is no provision for terminating such benefits in the light of changed conditions, the Congress may wish to consider legislation providing for discontinuing reemployment leave travel benefits when they are no longer appropriate.

On October 18, 1966, the Bureau of the Budget commented on the GAO report but did not discuss the suggestion contained in the above quotation. The committee, therefore, has requested the Bureau's specific comments concerning this suggestion.

22. Establishing a Department of Transportation.

After the introduction of H.R. 13200 in March 1966, the staff of the full committee, working closely with the staff of the Executive and Legislative Reorganization Subcommittee, provided extensive staff services in connection with committee and House consideration of this bill, and H.R. 15963, a clean bill introduced in July 1966 in lieu of the former bill. This was one of the most important and complex pieces of legislation to come before the committee in recent years. It was subjected to major amendment by the committee, by the House, and by the Senate, and also required extensive additional revision as a result of the House and Senate conference. Throughout the period from March until the bill's approval on October 15, as Public Law 89-670, work on the bills constituted a major continuing effort of the full committee staff, involving meetings, conferences, and research, as well as preparing analyses, memorandums, letters, speeches, prints, and proposed revisions of statutory language.

23. Establishing a Department of Housing and Urban Development. After introduction of H.R. 6927, to establish a Department of Housing and Urban Development in March 1965, the staff of the full committee worked closely with the staff of the Executive and Legislative Reorganization Subcommittee to provide the required services for committee and House consideration of the bill. This involved a sub

stantial amount of varied staff activity until approval of the bill on September 9, 1965, as Public Law 89-174.

24. Establishing a Department of Consumers.

A member of the full committee staff assisted the Executive and Legislative Reorganization Subcommittee in preparing for hearings on H.R. 7179, a bill to establish a new Federal Department of Consumers. Hearings were held on April 19, 1966, in Washington, D.C., and on April 29, 1966, in New York City. Prospective witnesses were interviewed and general research accomplished on the subject of consumer representation at the Federal and State level.

OTHER MATTERS

Action at the full committee level was taken with respect to a variety of other matters. These included:

1. Preparing, in response to an inquiry by a Member of Congress, a statement on surplus property law and procedures relating to purchase of a Government-owned facility by a company occupying that facility.

2. Examining noncompetitive procurement and nonconsideration of delivery costs. In a letter to the Comptroller General, committee chairman questioned the legality of noncompetitive or sole-source procurements and the awarding of contracts where transportation cost have not been considered. Officials of the General Accounting Office assured the committee that exceptions to the formal advertising provisions of 10 U.S.C. 2304 are interpreted strictly and that it has long been its policy in evaluating bids to consider the cost of delivery as a factor in determining which is the lowest bid.

3. Making a preliminary study of the extent to which Federal procurement from Federal Prison Industries, Inc. (a wholly owned Government corporation established to provide training and employment for prisoners in Federal institutions and whose products are sold only to the Government) competes with procurement from private sources. It was concluded that the corporation's gross sales to the Government were only a minute fraction of total Federal pro

curement.

4. Correspondence with the Civil Service Commission resulting in clarification of current regulations concerning when Commission approval must be obtained for assignment of hearing examiners for other duties.

5. Compilation of current materials, including some original research data, on federally financed non-Federal employment through "contracting out" of research and development as well as of policy studies.

6. Examining, for a member of the committee, the files of the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service and preparing memorandums and correspondence in connection with a complaint that certain homestead lands had been acquired unfairly by the Government in 1910 for addition to the newly created Mendocino National Forest.

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