The Interior Department advised the committee that it had achieved its very low percentage of identical bids received because of (1) determined acceptance within the Department to carry the policy forward and (2) the ability to get across to bidders that the Department intended to apply a "no nonsense" enforcement program.

Action was initiated concerning identical bidding problems which exist in connection with procurements by prime contractors with Government agencies as well as to the feasibility of broadening the use of certificates of noncollusion to include advertised disposals and procurements not covered by the Federal Procurement Regulations and the Armed Services Procurement Regulations.

The TVA, which is not governed by the FPR or ASPR, used an abbreviated form of noncollusion statement in its procurements. However, it informed the committee in March 1966 that it was changing the form of its noncollusion certificate. The new form follows the language used in the FPR and ASPR.

The committee has been advised that the GSA plans to add to its Federal property management regulations a provision requiring certification of independent price determination in disposals subject to its supervision, in addition to the existing procedure used in sale of strategic and critical materials.

The Department of Agriculture has notified the committee that with respect to sale of structures and equipment owned by the Commodity Credit Corporation agency regulations are being amended to require certification of noncollusion.

The Department of the Interior has written to the committee that it favors the requirement of certificates or other written representations of noncollusion in connection with property disposals within the Department and that instructions would be issued directing the several bureaus concerned to develop and apply suitable and effective procedures to carry out this policy at the earliest practicable date.

The committee has also reviewed both the Fourth and the Fifth Reports of the Attorney General on identical bidding in public procurement and disposal. The Fifth Report, transmitted to the committee on November 10, 1966, shows a reversal of the prior downward trend in the volume of procurement affected by identical bidding. Further analysis of that report is being made.

(b) Estimated monetary and other benefits.-TVA reported that by regarding identical bids as evidencing no real competition and then readvertising or negotiating, it had, in two instances, achieved savings for the Government of approximately $770,850, or a higher figure of $1,002,000 if additional options to purchase at the contract price are exercised. In addition, benefit accrues to the public by agency reemphasis of the significance of alert reporting of identical bidding to increase business awareness and discourage the practice. Such bidding may constitute evidence of conspiracies to monopolize or restrain trade; and further, it necessitates subordination of price to less economically significant factors in making contract awards.

3. Office of Emergency Planning-Comptroller General's Report Questioning Need for Stockpiling Cordage Fibers.

(a) Summary. The Comptroller General's report, "Questionable Need for Stockpiling Cordage Fibers" (Oct. 26, 1964, B-125067), con

cluded that technological change had eliminated U.S. dependence on foreign sources for the cordage fibers abaca and sisal. Hence the costly stockpiling of such fibers was unnecessary. The report met strong disagreement from the Office of Emergency Planning. The committee then requested the Comptroller General to review OEP's comments. In March 1965, the Comptroller General replied in detail. In view of this reply and information that the OEP was in the process of revising stockpile objectives, the committee wrote to OEP for information on the status of the revision. In June 1965, the Director replied that an interagency review of mobilization cordage requirements had been completed and that stockpile objectives had been reduced for abaca fiber from 100 to 50 million pounds and for sisal fiber from 300 to 200 million pounds. The Director stated that the OEP would maintain continuous surveillance of the cordage markets and prepare a new review of the supply-requirements situation in about 6 months.

(b) Estimated monetary and other benefits.-The Comptroller General estimated the annual cost of stockpiling abaca and sisal fibers at $6 million. The current revision represents a 372-percent decrease. Disposition of the amount representing the decrease cannot, of course, be made immediately; nevertheless, even this reduction represents a potential saving of $214 million annually.

4. Establishment of Concession Policies in Areas Administered by the National Park Service.

(a) Summary.-During 1965, the committee was actively interested in a measure pending before the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee (H.R. 2091) intended to enact into statutory law, and in some respects to broaden considerably, various policies and practices followed by the Park Service in the making and administering of concession contracts. The Government Operations Committee for some time has had a particular interest in almost all aspects of the proposed bill. (See, for example, H. Rept. No. 306, 88th Cong.) Considerable work was done, some of it in cooperation with the Government Activities Subcommittee and the Natural Resources and Power Subcommittee, in preparing analyses and correspondence sent to interested Members and committess of the House concerning questionable aspects of H.R. 2091 which did not appear to protect the public interest.

Among other things, it was urged to the interested Members and committees that any such legislation should specifically require that all Park Service concession contracts negotiated without advertising be subject to a right of the Comptroller General of the United States to examine pertinent records of the contractor. (Most other negotiated Government contracts are covered by such a requirement; e.g., 43 U.S.C. 254 (c) and 10 U.S.C. 2313 (b).)

In June, the chairman of the full committee wrote to the President outlining the reasons for his concern over H.R. 2091 and stating that steps should be considered for formulating a sound and fair policy covering all Federal agencies with comparable recreation concession operations. Replying for the President, the Bureau of the Budget stated the Bureau was considering the matter and that it was likely a special study would be undertaken within the next year.

Materials were prepared for use in the House debates on H.R. 2091.. The bill was passed by the House. A floor amendment was added, however, giving the Comptroller General the right to examine contractor's records relating to negotiated concession contracts of the Park Service as previously urged by the Government Operations Committee. The Senate passed the measure without debate.

In approving H.R. 2091 as Public Law 89-249, the President stated it was not enough simply to establish concession policies for one agency. So far as practicable, he declared, there should be one common Federal policy governing concessions on Federal lands. He adverted to the extensive recreational opportunities provided by the Forest Service and the Corps of Engineers. The President announced he had ordered a 6-month Budget Bureau study of various existing concession policies, to be followed by a recommendation for a common approach for all Federal agencies. In addition, he stated he had asked the Secretary of the Interior to limit new concession contracts to 1 year wherever practicable so that the administration and the Congress might have an opportunity to examine the desirability of new legislation affecting all Federal lands.

The committee is continuing its surveillance and study of this matter. (b) Estimated monetary and other benefits.-It is not possible at this time to foresee whether as a result of the Budget Bureau's study and additional committee consideration of this matter permanent changes in Park Service concession operations will ensue and provide particular monetary and other benefits.

5. Bureau of the Budget-Unnecessary Reports to Federal Agencies-Federal Reports Act.

The Federal Reports Act, which falls within the legislative jurisdiction of the Committee on Government Operations, declares as the policy of Congress that unnecessarily duplicative and burdensome reports which private persons must submit to Government agencies should be eliminated. The Bureau of the Budget has the responsibility of carrying out this act. There is evidence that discharge of this responsibility has not been sufficiently aggressive. As a result, the committee is initiating a study of the administration of this aspect of the act. (The matter of elimination or curtailment of certain periodic reports required by law to be made to Congress by Federal agencies is treated below under the Executive and Legislative Reorganization Subcommittee's consideration of S. 2150, a bill to discontinue or modify certain reporting requirements of law (Public Law 89-348).)

6. Civil Aeronautics Board-Regulations Authorizing the Staff to Alter Time to Petition for Discretionary Board Review.

Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1961 authorizes the Board to make broad delegations of its functions. It provides for petitioning for discretionary review by the Board of an action by the delegate "within such time and in such manner as the Board shall by rule pre

scribe."

The Board's current rule provides that, for actions not involving a hearing, petitions for review shall be filed within 10 days, "but a different period may be fixed in such staff action consistent with effective preservation of the right to petition for discretionary Board review" (14 CFR 385.51 (a)).

The committee requested the Board to review this provision in the light of the question: Whether conferring on Board staff the discretion to set a period different from a period specifically fixed in a published rule of the Board gives a broader reading to the reorganization plan than is warranted.

The Board's Chairman replied that the basic 10-day period might not be workable where final action needs to be granted promptly and that therefore the period should not be completely rigid. It stated that the Board's staff was also aware it should not shorten the period except where Board review would not otherwise be obtained prior to the date on which relief is required. The Board expressed the view that its procedure was in accordance with the spirit and intent of the reorganization plan.

The Board's response contained several comments of questionable relevance. However, its basic argument seemed to be that, without the special authority given the staff to change the period for filing a petition for discretionary review, the staff would be unable to act except where finality of the action could always be preceded by at least 10 days.

7. Certain Investigative and Data-Gathering Practices of Federal Agencies.

Considerable assistance was given by the staff of the full committee to the Special Subcommittee on Invasion of Privacy inquiring into certain investigative and data-gathering practices and expenditures of Federal agencies which appear to involve the unnecessary or improper obtaining of personal and private information from individuals. This includes the potential impact on individual privacy of a computerized Federal data center. The assistance included holding agency meetings, drafting correspondence, and preparing and conducting subcommittee hearings.

8. Survey of Donable and Excess Property Programs.

A member of the full committee staff assisted the Special Subcommittee on Donable Property in connection with its study and hearings on the efficiency and economy of the donable and excess property programs. The assistance included preparation of draft reports, memorandums, and correspondence concerning the donable surplus property program and the utilization by the Agency for International Development of excess property in programs of the Alliance for Progress and elsewhere.

9. Discontinuance or Modification of Certain Reports Required by Law To Be Submitted to Congress.

The full committee staff assisted the Executive and Legislative Reorganization Subcommittee in the collection of information and the

preparation of materials for the subcommittee's consideration of S. 2150, a bill to discontinue or modify certain reporting requirements of law (Public Law 89-348). (See discussion of this measure under Executive and Legislative Reorganization Subcommittee below.)

10. Federal Power Commission-Study of Interior Department's Pacific Northwest-Pacific Southwest Electric Transmission Intertie.

This billion-dollar project, new in scope and technology, will comprise a huge alternating current and direct current transmission capability to interconnect the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific Southwest and join together the major Federal and non-Federal power systems there. In 1964, the chairman of the full committee requested the Federal Power Commission to assist the committee by making a study of economic, technical, and legal aspects of this precedentmaking facility.

The Commission initiated the study and in April of 1965 transmitted to the committee an interim report. It was a summary of the status of the project from the best available data and, of course, tentative and preliminary. It did, however, point to the number of potential problem areas. Copies of the interim report were transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior for information.

In August 1966, the FPC forwarded to the committee a second interim report on its review of the intertie. It summarized the current status of the Commission's review and covered the status of contract negotiations, estimated capacities of the transmission lines, estimated service charges, types of power available, estimated costs of the lines, interconnection stability, recent disturbances on the western interconnection, and direct-current transmission ground-return

currents.

In September and October the Department of the Interior transmitted copies of 10 proposed intertie contracts to the Congress and to the committee. The length and technicality of the proposed contracts indicated that considerable time would be required to study them. In response to a November 3, 1966, letter from the committee, the Department of the Interior stated on November 10 that it would be able to defer for a time the signing of the contracts in which the United States is a party until the 90th Congress had become organized so that its committees could make more meaningful examinations of them. The Department also agreed to provide economic and engineering analyses of the contracts.

The committee has requested the FPC to obtain copies of the proposed contracts and provide its comments.

11. National Park Service-Administration of Death Valley National Monument.

The committee's Fifth Report, "Death Valley National Monument (Furnace Creek Area-Water Rights and Related Matters)" (H. Rept. No. 193, 89th Cong.), dealt with water rights problems and Park Service operations in the Furnace Creek area. It pointed out that the Death Valley Hotel Co., the owner of resort properties in the area,