STATEMENT OF FINIS E. DAVIS, SUPERINTENDENT, AMERICAN PRINTING HOUSE FOR THE BLIND

The purpose of the appropriation under the act to promote the education of the blind is to provide out of Federal funds the free braille textbooks and other educational materials and apparatus needed for the education of the Nation's blind children in the schools and classes for the blind throughout the country. The appropriation for the 1956 fiscal year will be the 77th uninterrupted provision of such funds for this purpose.

The printing house functions as the channel or agent through which the Federal Government provides the individual States with the educational materials for their blind school populations. The printing house itself is an educational institution operating on a nonprofit basis. It is governed by a board of trustees (serving without pay) which includes in its membership all of the superintendents of the 98 educational institutions for the blind in the United States and its Territories.

The requested total increase for 1956 is based on the projected increase in enrollment maintaining the present per capita of $30. No additional funds are being requested to serve the blind children we are now serving, but an additional amount is requested to give the same service to the increased numbers of children we will be asked to serve next year under the terms of the present authorization of the act to promote the education of the blind. The increase in enrollment is based on three factors:

1. The general increase in the school population throughout the United States at the primary level.

2. A decrease in the proportionate number of high-school graduates because of the low birthrate during the depression years of the thirties.

3. An unprecedented additional increase of congenital blindness caused by retrolental fibroplasia, a relatively recently ascertained cause of blindness found in a substantial number of prematurely born infants, particularly in the last few years. Up to the present time, no preventative or cure for this condition has as yet been found, and the number of children affected by this new disease have been entering our schools and classes for the blind in increasing numbers for the past 3 years (192 additional 1953, 506 in 1954, an estimated 750 in 1955). Since each child remains in school at least 13 years (from kindergarten through high school), the problem enlarges with each successive year.

In administering the appropriation, the actual money is paid over to the printing house by the Treasury Department. Credit for the full amount of the appropriation is given to the individual schools and classes for the blind on the first day of each fiscal year, being apportioned on a per capita basis in accordance with the registration taken on the first Monday in January of that year. It is against this credit that books and materials are shipped to the schools and classes for the blind on order from their superintendents.

In utilizing the money appropriated, the printing house expends it only in payment of the production costs of books and apparatus for the education of the blind. This includes only the material and labor and the publishing of necessary catalogs and reports. The money is not used for such items as heat, power, electricity, maintenance, and the like, or the purchase of equipment used in manufacturing the materials supplied out of the appropriation. No part of the funds has ever nor can be by law, used for the erection or leasing of buildings. Records of receipts and disbursements from the appropriation account are submitted to the United States General Accounting Office.

In the light of the above facts, it is respectfully requested that the annual appropriation to the American Printing House for the Blind, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1956, under the act to promote the education of the blind (Department of Health, Education, and Welfare), be granted in the amount of $224,000, plus the $10,000 permanent grant.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. KELLY. The purpose of the appropriation under the act to promote the education of the blind is to provide out of Federal funds the free braille textbooks and other educational materials and apparatus needed for the education of the Nation's blind children in the schools and classes for the blind throughout the country.

The printing house functions as the channel or agent through which the Federal Government provides the individual States with

the education materials for their blind school populations. The printing house itself is an educational institution operating on a nonprofit basis. It is governed by a board of trustees serving without pay, which includes in its membership all of the superintendents of the 98 educational institutions for the blind in the United States and its Territories.

AMOUNT REQUESTED

It is respectfully requested that the appropriation to the American Printing House for the Blind, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1956, be granted in the amount of $224,000, plus the $10,000 permanent grant, which represents an increase of $19,000 over 1955, based on an estimated increase in the number of blind children to be enrolled in schools in fiscal year 1956, retaining the same per capita allowance, which was provided for this year.

Senator HILL. The House gave you just what you asked for and what the budget recommended and what you had asked of the budget, is that right?

Mr. KELLY. Yes, sir.

Senator HILL. I think every Member of the Senate appreciates the fine work that is being done. I want to thank you for your appearance. I cannot prejudge the case, but if I were a betting man I would bet on it. Thank you very much, Mr. Kelly.

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

STATEMENTS OF GEORGE P. LARRICK, COMMISSIONER OF FOOD AND DRUGS; FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION; AND JAMES F. KELLY, BUDGET OFFICER, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCACATION, AND WELFARE

APPROPRIATION ESTIMATE

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

Salaries and expenses: For necessary expenses for carrying out the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended (21 U. S. C. 301-392); the Tea Importation Act, as amended (21 U. S. C. 41-50); the Import Milk Act (21 U. S. C. 141-149); the Federal Caustic Poison Act (15 U. S. C. 401-411); and the Filled Milk Act, as amended (21 U. S. C. 61-64); including purchase of not to exceed forty-seven passenger motor vehicles for replacement only; reporting and illustrating the results of investigations; purchase of chemicals, apparatus, and scientific equipment; not to exceed $2,000 for payment in advance for special tests and analyses by contract; and payment of fees, travel, and per diem in connection with studies of new developments pertinent to food and drug enforcement operations; [$5,100,000] $5,484,000.

APPROPRIATION ESTIMATE

(Indefinite appropriation, special account)

Salaries and expenses, [certification and inspection] certification, inspection, and other services: For expenses necessary for the certification or inspection of certain products, and for the establishment of tolerances for pesticides, in accordance with sections 406, 408, 504, 506, 507, 604, 702A, and 706 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended (21 U. S. C. 346, 348, 354, 356, 357, 364, 372a, and 376), the aggregate of the advance deposits during the current fiscal year to cover payments of fees [by applicants] for [certification or inspection of such products] services in connection with such certifications, inspections, or establishment of tolerances, to remain available until expended. The total amount herein appropriated shall be available for personal services; purchase of chemicals, apparatus, and scientific equipment; purchase of not to exceed four passenger motor vehicles for replacement only; expenses of advisory committees; and the refund of advance deposits for which no service has been rendered.

The present title and language of this appropriation was designed to cover the pretesting and issuance of certificates in connection with antibiotics, coal-tar colors, and insulin, as well as the continuous inspection of seafood plants. This is consistent with the activities under this appropriation at the time such language was designed for fiscal year 1949.

Public Law 518, 83d Congress, 2d session, approved July 22, 1954, amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by adding a new section, No. 408. This extends the self-supporting services provided by the act. It improves the law by requiring adequate scientific pretesting of and the establishment of safe residue tolerances for pesticide chemicals used in the production, storage, or transportation of raw agriculture commodities.

Inasmuch as the services under the new section 408 are rendered on a selfsupporting fee basis similar to the certification and inspection services, and to simplify appropriation and fiscal procedures, Congress was requested to amend the language for the "Certification and Inspection Services" appropriation for 1955 by the addition of section 408 thereto. This was accomplished by enactment of the Supplemental Appropriation Act, 1955, Public Law 663, 83d Congress, 2d session, approved, August 26, 1954.

The types of service and the end result of such services under the new section 408 are substantially different from the certification and inspection services provided for by the other sections of the act under the "Certification and Inspection Services" appropriation. To differentiate between such varying services as they now exist, and to accommodate under this appropriation any other services which may, by legislation, be placed on a self-supporting fee basis hereafter, certain changes are recommended in this appropriation and title for 1956 and subsequent fiscal years.

These changes consist of:

Insertion of "Other" in the title to read "Salaries and Expenses, Certification, Inspection, and Other Services."

Insert "Other", and reference to "the establishment of tolerances for pesticides," in the appropriation language.

PREPARED STATEMENT

Senator HILL. We will take next the Food and Drug Administration. It is nice to have you here, Mr. Larrick.

Your prepared statement may be made a part of the record at this point.

(The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT BY COMMISSIONER OF FOOD AND DRUGS FOR SALARIES AND EXPENSES, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

In the Food and Drug Administration, our principal responsibility is to enforce the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, although four related consumer protection laws are also enforced (Tea Importation Act, Import Milk Act, Federal Caustic Poison Act, and the Filled Milk Act).

To perform these tasks, we have a current appropriation of $5,100,000. In 1952 we had $5,626,000; in 1953, $5,600,000; and in 1954, $5,200,000. We are requesting $5,484,000 for 1956. If you approve, the cost will be less than 3% cents say a postage stamp-per capita per year for the protection afforded each citizen from harmful, filthy, adulterated, or misbranded articles to the end that his health and safety may be advanced. This small appropriation covers all costs of enforcing these five laws, except for the certification of certain antibiotics, coaltar colors and insulin, continuous inspection of certain seafood processing plants, and the establishment of safe tolerances for chemical pesticides. These latter activities are fully supported by fees.

Experience during 1952-53 showed that even the larger appropriations of those years fell far short of providing reasonably adequate public protection. Ensuing appropriation reductions have produced a serious backlog of unsolved technical problems and cutbacks in available manpower which has resulted in the consumer receiving less protection than is contemplated by the act. Our current appropriation of $5,100,000 provides for about the same amount of enforcement manpower as in 1940. Our population has increased over 22 percent between 1941 and 1954 and our urban population has increased from 77 percent in 1940 to 84 percent in 1952, with attendant problems of supply and distribution of essential foods and drugs. We believe that inadequate appropriations in recent years have contributed to more shipments of subpotent drugs. There are more purveyors of quack nostrums catering to sick people, more deaths caused by delayed treatment of cancer and other serious diseases when the patient tried a false cure instead of conventional treatment. There are more health food faddists catering to the ill, gullible, and misinformed, more cases of juvenile delinquency, broken homes, highway deaths, and other tragedies caused or aggravated by bootlegged sleeping pills and other potent drugs. More insect-infested, rodent-defiled, and decomposed foods have been consumed by our citizens. We too have been forced to pay less attention to the complaints of economic cheats received from Congressmen, consumers, honest businessmen, and cooperating State and local food and drug enforcement officials.

Efficient enforcement of these laws is in the interest of the legitimate producer by restricting illegal practices of unscrupulous and unfair competitors. Our current enforcement staff consists of less than 800 people. Slightly more than one-third of these are stationed in Washington and the remainder in 16 field districts, each with a laboratory, staffed by chemists and other technical personnel whose operations are coordinated with those of the technically trained inspection staff.

The Commissioner and his administrative and supervisory staffs, as well as 7 scientific divisions (Medicine, Food, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Cosmetics, Pharmacology, Microbiology, and Nutrition) and 3 operating divisions (Field Operations, Regulatory Management, and Program Research) are located in Washington. These divisions are staffed with scientists or other specialists skilled in their particular fields. They are engaged in the development of improved methods of analyses and examination, or new methods where none exist, which will withstand the ultimate test of acceptance and credibility in contested court cases. For example, the Division of Food is engaged in developing laboratory tests for some of the newer poisonous pesticides required in the production of our farm crops. The methods developed by the Washington divisions are used in the field laboratories. We also rely on these scientists to advise us as to the