We urge that the entire amount recommended by the President be appropriated for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We feel that in particular the following programs merit support of all groups-workers, employers, and the general public.

Wage statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics requested $100,000 in order to permit a modest expansion of community and industry wage statistics programs. This amount would have permitted obtaining statistics in six additional areas on a biennial basis (Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Providence, Houston, Indianapolis, and Richmond) and would have also permitted a slight expansion of the Bureau's very limited program of industry wage studies.

The wage data provided in the community and industry wage studies are the only source of wage rates in specific occupations, industries and communities. They are vitally necessary to provide a factual foundation for collective bargaining negotiations.

Under the current program, the number of industries and communities for which wage data is obtained is so limited that in most collective bargaining sessions, current wage data simply are not available. The modest expansion of its wage statistics program, contemplated in the Bureau's request, would provide for at least some expansion of the detailed wage information needed for collective bargaining.

Housing and public construction statistics

We recommend that funds for the following two programs in this field be appropriated: Labor requirements, $70,000; and survey of housing characteristics, $25,000.

Labor requirements.-Current information on labor requirements for public construction projects is sadly out of date. Most available data are now more than 20 years old. With the prospect of large-scale highway, school, and other public construction programs it is important that accurate estimates be made of the manpower that will be required for such projects. The A. F. of L. has a particular interest in obtaining this information in order to gage prospective employment opportunities for our members in the building and construction industry.

Survey of housing characteristics. In order to determine whether new housing which is built meets the needs of American families, it is essential that we know the characteristics of new dwelling units-size, number of bedrooms, type of construction, selling price, etc. Such information is now sorely lacking. At a very limited cost, the BLS could obtain such information in selected areas thus providing data which would be extremely useful for intelligent formulation of housing policies.

Workmen's compensation statistics

The increasing concern with the inadequacy of the State workmen's compensation programs highlights the need for accurate up-to-date information in this field. Without such data, it is most difficult to determine whether or not the workmen's compensation programs are meeting the most pressing needs.

With an appropriation of $54,000, the BLS could make studies and analyze data on the operation of the workmen's compensation programs in the various States and develop adequate and uniform operating statistics in this field. Manpower and employment statistics

While some increase was granted for this work by the House, the amount is less than half that proposed by the President.

In our opinion, the need is particularly acute for more complete statistics on labor turnover (hiring and separation rates), for additional information on employment in nonmanufacturing industries, for which present data are woefully inadequate, and for more detailed information on the number and type of workers who become unemployed.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

Assistance to States, general

PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE

The House bill reduces by $1,660,000 the amount which the President's budget recommends for grants to the States for health activities. This grant fund, which amounted to $14,200,000 in 1950, would, under the terms of the House bill, be only $8,065,000 in 1956, this during a period when there has been a

marked increase in the Nation's population and a consequent increase in the need for health services.

These grant funds help maintain basic public health activities both at State and local levels. Among the services involved in these jointly supported StateFederal programs are State, county, and other health services including public health nursing, sanitation, communicable disease services, laboratories, and training programs for health workers. All of these activities are important to the people of the individual States and, in view of the extensive travel and commerce between the States, are also of concern to the Nation as a whole. Not only do outbreaks of contagious diseases pose threats which transcend State boundaries, but the maintenance of the country's industrial, agricultural, purchasing, and military potentials is obviously important to all. This Federal grant fund supports in important degree the services which help protect the Nation's health, and should be appropriated in the amount provided in the President's budget.

Practically all of the reductions totaling $2,318,000 for the above appropriations affect research and control activities of the Public Health Service in the field of water-pollution control. In view of the importance of adequate resources of safe water and the tremendous increase in domestic and industrial waste which threatens this supply, the reduction in the amount of the estimate is difficult to understand.

In addition to the health hazards created by excessive pollution, this country has experienced serious damage to fish and aquatic life, ruin of recreational areas, and limitations on the use of water for agricultural and industrial purposes. Over the past 50 years the population has changed in character from one residing principally in rural areas to one that is preponderantly urban. This fact coupled with a sevenfold increase in industrial production has contributed greatly to the excessive pollution of natural bodies of water. Current estimates of trends in population and industrial output indicate that these factors will continue to operate in a manner that will increase the demand for suitable water and at the same time decrease the supply. Under these circumstances it is believed that the Congress should support proposals to do something about the problem of water pollution by restoring the above reduction.

Hospitals and medical care, Public Health Service

1955 appropriation.___ 1956 budget estimate.. 1956 House bill....

$33, 000, 000

34, 378, 000

34, 026, 000

The House bill provides an increase of $1,026,000 over the 1955 appropriation. This allowance provides no increase in hospital care or in medical services. The House report earmarks $160,000 of this amount for expanded nursing resources studies. The balance of the increase must be used to pay for mandatory costs of benefits granted employees by the act of September 1, 1954, the principal item being increased pay for employees who will be changed to wage board classification rates during 1956.

Thus the reduction of $352,000 from the budget estimate has a very real effect on medical services. It will prevent the filling of a number of vacant positions where staff is needed to provide safe care to hospital patients. It will prevent the replacement of deteriorated hospital equipment necessary for the care of patients. It will force continued understaffing of the medical services to the merchant seamen and the Coast Guard.

We urge the restoration of the cut. This valuable medical service which the United States Government has given to the men who sail our seas since 1798 should not be curtailed in any respect.

Grants for hospital construction

The House bill reduces by $29 million the amount which the President's budget recommends for hospital construction grants. This cut is uncalled for; in fact the President's recommendation is too low, particularly in regard to the original hospital construction program.

Much remains to be done toward the goal of providing adequate hospital facilities for the people of the Nation. It is reliably estimated that to meet these needs we should construct enough hospitals to provide 700,000 to 800,000 beds. State and local governments and nonprofit organizations within the States have shown themselves both able and willing to meet a portion of the cost of building these hospitals. Also included in an increased appropriation would be the provision of adequate financing for the construction of diagnostic centers, nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities. The provision of these hospital and other medical facilities cannot help but result in lives saved and disabilities prevented. In addition to the humanitarian considerations involved, these factors will increase our national capacity for production and for defense.

We should like to see the committee appropriate the full amount authorized by the Hill-Burton Act; $150 million for the general program and $60 million for the categorical grants authorized last year. There is no Federal statute that has met with more widespread favorable reception and none which has made a more valuable social impact on our economy. The need for hospital beds is acute; this is the

time to appropriate the maximum amount.

National Institutes of Health

We note with pleasure that the bill before your committee makes appropriations to the various institutes higher than those of the current budget. The A. F. of L. has recognized the great value of the research done by these institutes and has always urged adequate appropriations. We trust this committee will not reduce

the amounts voted by the House.

VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION

The passage by Congress of the vocational rehabilitation amendments of 1954 (Public Law 565, 83d Cong.) represents a significant advance in the extent and type of rehabilitation services which the Federal Government can help finance. The law is designed to achieve a progressive expansion of vocational rehabilitation services over a period of 5 years so that the number of disabled men and women rehabilitated each year will increase from less than 60,000 to 200,000 a year by 1959.

The 83d Congress appropriated $27.9 million for the States use in rehabilitation during this fiscal year. The authorization for the next few years increases rapidly: $45 million for the next year; $55 million for 1957; $65 million for 1958 and needed amounts after that.

It is a matter of vital necessity to the advancement of the Federal-State program of vocational rehabilitation of disabled people that adequate sums be made available to the States to encourage and make possible the progressive expansion of the program to the point where the rehabilitation needs of all disabled persons can be met.

There is clear indication that at least $39 million should be provided in grants to the States for this purpose.

It is of equal, and possibly even greater importance, that the grants be made available on terms that will enable each State which has the will and capacity to expand its program to do so to the fullest extent of its ability. Some 18 States have already taken steps to match their share of the full Federal amount authorized in Public Law 565, $45 million. Most of the other States will be able to match much larger sums than heretofore and many of them will be close to the maximum in their matching ability.

The allotment formula, however, is so worded that no single State, however willing and able to improve and expand its program, could obtain Federal matching for its total funds unless that formula is modified or the total authorization is appropriated. It is imperative that this situation be corrected. And one method would be to insert a provision in the Appropriation Act for fiscal 1956 to the effect that Federal allotments may be made on the basis of the full amount authorized in Public Law 565 even though the appropriation may be somewhat less than the authorization.

OFFICE OF EDUCATION

We strongly urge that in the funds of the Office of Education the following items be earmarked:

1. An appropriation of not less than $50,000 for research as the basis for gathering, compiling and keeping current, data reporting the status of the teacher; tenure, salaries, pensions, working hours, classroom conditions including teacherpupil load, and related items.

2. An appropriation of $50,000 to establish a nationwide system of current reporting on State and city educational legislation and board of education rulings. (There is at present no effective reporting on this subject. The Office of Fducation makes a biennial survey which reports data 2 years out of date.) Obviously, the need for objective reporting on educational legislation is apparent.

3. A provision in the appropriation bill that "not more than $10,000 of the funds herein appropriated for vocational education shall be used to finance meetings and programs of advisory committees in vocational education as authorized under the George-Barden Act, Public Law 586, of the 79th Congress." These authorized committees have not been functioning for some time rast. We understand the Office of Education is now considering reconstituting them. We believe that a provision such as we recommend would make certain that such committee would again be established and render valuable service to the cause of Vocational education.

4. We urge that the full amount for vocational educational grants to the States authorized by the George-Barden Act, $29,300,000, he made. The constant increase in population and the ever increasing need for skilled and semiskilled workers more than justify the full appropriation.

SUPPLEMENTAL STATEMENT of George P. DELANEY, INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, ON APPROPRIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL LABOR AFFAIRS OPERATIONS

The American Federation of Labor is acutely aware of the importance of the labor aspects of United States foreign policy and our Government's activities abroad. Independent of the United States Government, the American Federation of Labor is deeply involved in the global struggle with communist influences in the labor movements abroad. Our organization is investing large amounts of its own funds in this struggle. We think it essential that the funds expended by the Government in this field be spent wisely.

In our mutual effort to strengthen anti-Communist influences in labor all over the world, there are things that free trade unions can best do by themselves, there are other things that only the United States Government can do. And there are still other things that can be done jointly by the United States Government and American labor. The United States Government has a number of programs which, if used well, can make a major contribution to the weakening of communist influences in the world labor movements. Some of these are the laborattaché program, the exchange-of-persons program, the technical assistance program, the foreign labor research program, the information and education program, the trade agreements program and the ILO.

The international activities of the Department of Labor are, in the view of the Federation, an important part of the Department's work. This has become increasingly the case during the postwar period and it is a natural reflection of the changed character of postwar foreign affairs. Successful foreign policy operations involve more than the usual old-style diplomacy. They can't be carried on adequately by one or two departments of Government. They involve people-topeople contacts and they have to be carried on by those who are intimately able to carry the knowledge of the labor situation in the United States to the laboring men of other countries, as well as the knowledge of the agricultural situation to the farmers of other countries and the knowledge of the business situation in the United States to the businessmen of other countries.

Within the Department of Labor the way in which this can best be done is by effective coordination of the Department's technical work, to be sure that it has its greatest impact at the least cost and in the most efficient manner. The Department has met this need by developing a very small Office of International Labor Affairs during the postwar period. This operation is probably too small to do the job which is needed even with the backing that the staff gets from the rest of the Department. It has been able to do its job only because of the efficiency and uncomplaining overtime work of its capable staff.

Basically the office handles five types of work: The work involved in United States participation in the International Labor Organization, the Department of

Labor's role in the administration of the unified Foreign Service (which includes Department of Labor cooperation with the Department of State in the management of the labor-attaché programs and Foreign Service labor reporting), the handling of labor matters which arise on the agenda of the United Nations organizations other than the ILO and the handling of the Secretary of Labor's responsibilities in the international trade field; in addition to these four areas there is the very important technical assistance activity which, I understand, is financed largely through separate appropriations made directly to the Foreign Operations Administration and the State Department. The Department of Labor's role in these activities is that of a contract performer for these agencies Frankly, there are many other things that the Department of Labor should. do and that the American Federation of Labor would like to have it do in the international field which it has not been able to do because of limited budget. We would like to have the Department take a greater interest in the labor relations policy of the United States Government where the United States acts as an employer. We would like to see the production of a great deal of additional material on the labor situation in the United States for distribution abroad. We would like to see a great expansion of the Labor Attaché Corps and considerably more attention paid to labor matters by the Foreign Service in general. We would like to see better liaison with both labor and management in ILO affairs, and we would like to see a great deal of additional work done on the relation between employment and foreign trade and tariffs, and we would like to see a much more effective labor emphasis in the United States foreign information and education programs.

The Department has stuck pretty closely to matters which are its specific responsibility under legislation or executive order. I would like to present our views on each of the fields in which they do operate, other than the technical assistance area, on which I would also be glad to speak should the committee wish. The work of the Department of Labor in carrying out the responsibilities of the United States Government vis-a-vis the International Labor Organization is clearly in the best interests of United States foreign policy. Frankly, it is our view that the Government has not done its best to put its best foot forward in the ILO. The attitude which has been taken on the budget for the organization, to which the United States now makes a smaller contribution than to any other major international organization, is a reflection upon the United States and an obstacle to the achievement of its aims throughout the world. This same approach has been carried on in the allocation of funds to the staff in the Department of Labor which handles ILO affairs. There have never been adequate funds for liaison with American labor and management on the complicated issues which are coming up before the ILO or for consultation with other groups in the United States, or even for adequate consultation with Members of Congress, for that matter. If United States participation in the ILO has been criticized in the past and the kind of criticism which has come from the employer's side is a completely unfounded kind of criticism-it is quite clear one important contributing factor is the fact that the staff handling this work is too small to undertake adequate consultations on the issues involved with either labor or management. Labor and management should be brought closer together on issues where there is no real gulf separating their common interests and objectives. This can only be done by adequate Government leadership and adequate and frequent consultation with both sides. This requires a great deal of work and additional staff.

When the unified Foreign Service was created in 1946, it was in recognition of the fact that we have to have a unified foreign service that brings into play the resources of several of the agencies of the Government and that the Foreign Service is an arm not only of the State Department but of the whole United States Government. In our view, the Labor Attaché Corps is an extremely important factor in a dynamic Foreign Service, but these men have got to be backstopped adequately. I don't think they are now completely and adequately backstopped. We know of requests for material on the United States trade union movement and on labor-management relations in the United States that have had to go either completely or partially unanswered either because of lack of staff in Washington to do an adequate job or because of lack of materials to send out and lack of funds to produce the kind of materials that would make an impact. The things that are sent overseas to the labor attachés have done a remarkable job. Films, visual aids, books, pamphlets, materials are needed and it is the Department of Labor that can help in getting this material out jointly with the USIA.

During the period in which the Department of Labor has participated in the Foreign Service and the labor attaché program has been in existence, the American