laboratory analyses, expanded prevention programs, and the increasing volume of scientific reports and papers. It will form a major component of a planned department wide drug information system, which will also embrace the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine. When this broader program is fully operative, published and unpublished information about drugs and other chemicals related to health will be made more readily available to researchers, practitioners, and administrators of health programs. The National Library of Medicine has placed in operation the first computer-driven, high-speed phototypesetter, called Graphic Arts Composing Equipment (GRACE). It is a component of the Library's Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS) which stores and retrieves bibliographic citations from the world's biomedical literature. GRACE is employed by MEDLARS to print Index Medicus-the Library's monthly listing of the world's medical literature-and recurring bibliographies in special biomedical fields. As a result, it has reduced the publication time for Index Medicus from 20 to 5 days and will easily handle the projected growth in input from 178,000 new citations per year in 1965 to 250,000 by 1969. These are just some of the major steps we have taken in automating our operations. Many other examples could be cited. MANAGEMENT OF POSITIONS Mr. FARNUM. Would you describe your system for managing positions? Secretary GARDNER. On a departmentwide basis, we have a number of methods for managing positions. For instance, the budget process through appropriations, allocations, and allotments provides an initial position framework, with actual position limitations being imposed at most levels. Later in the budget cycle, review for availability of funds enables management to insure equitable and effective distribution of manpower. We also require a formal review--at the operating level-once a year for the necessity of all positions, and, as vacancies occur, for the necessity for filling such vacancies. The Department is also developing a computer-based system which will identify and account for all positions during the lifetime of such potsitions. This will permit an integrated approach involving budget controls, manpower planning, career development, and payroll. Mr. FARNUM. In this connection, what system does the Department have for promoting better manpower utilization? Secretary GARDNER. The Department recently formulated a systematic manpower utilization program which includes as elements both the cost reduction effort and all the actions designed to achieve management improvements. The Under Secretary, as chairman of the Department Management Committee, coordinates and gives leadership to the manpower utilization program. We recognize that many factors are at work in determining the effectiveness and efficiency of our work forces. Budget controls play a role. But as important are the capabilities of our employees. We are currently strengthening our career development program department wide, starting with inital emphasis on developing administrative career ladders. As part of career development, we are trying to insure that employees secure the right kind of training at the right time, and that employees use the training. We are exploring the many other avenues toward efficiency reviews to determine program priorities, efforts to improve employee motivation, improvements in work environments, and use of modern management techniques. Some of the most outstanding results in conserving manpower through increased productivity have been achieved by the Social Security Administration. While managing the largest insurance and bookkeeping operation in the world, it has been able to improve its performance by increasing its work output per employee and by shortening the timespan of its individual operations. An analysis was made earlier this past year which showed that the 1965 social security employees were producing over 44 percent more per man-hour than in 1950. While workloads increased by 356 percent between 1950 and 1965, manpower increased by only 216 percent. If the Social Security Administration had processed its 1965 workload at the level of productivity which existed in 1950, it would have required a total of 15,600 additional full-time employees. While the Social Security Administration was conserving manpower in this fashion, it was also significantly improving services to the public. On the average, disability claims are being processed 1 month sooner than in 1959. Today, 20 percent more checks are reaching beneficiaries in the first possible month of entitlement than in 1962. Similar progress has been made in processing old-age and survivors insurance claims. In July 1961, 43 days were needed for handling these claims. Three years later, in July 1965, this time has been cut by about 30 percent to 30 days. Mr. FARNUM. Thank you. Mr. FOGARTY. Mr. Secretary, earlier this morning I talked to you about a letter I received from Marion Folsom, one of the great Secretaries of HEW. Secretary GARDNER. Yes, sir. DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION Mr. FOGARTY. He and I have talked about the Department, about splitting it up. I had an idea that it would be a good thing to create a department of education and one for health and one for social security but he talked me out of this one day last summer. I wish you would, for the record, take your time and give us your views on what you think might be good for the Department in the long run. Secretary GARDNER. Yes, sir. (The statement requested follows:) DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION Thank you for giving me this opportunity to set forth for your subcommittee some of my present thinking regarding the Department's overall structure. I have given this matter a great deal of thought since my appointment last August. I can honestly say that it is a problem that is never completely out of my mind. I have weighed extensively the considerations both for and against retaining a single Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as compared with dividing it into two or more separate Departments. I have concluded on balance that it is in the public interest to stay with the functionally integrated, single Department concept that gave rise in 1939 to the creation of the Federal Security Agency, succeeded in 1953 by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. All of my deliberations on this subject lead me to this same conclusion. Considerations such as these are paramount: The real purpose of every one of the Department's programs is the same-to improve, to maintain, to foster in different ways the well-being of the individual and the family. No single program or category of programs can alone accomplish this kind of purpose. The Department's programs are interdependent, each contributing a share to achievement of the common goal. The Department achieves only a part of its objectives through providing services directly to the public, as in the social security program. To a much greater extent, its programs register their minimum impact through the thousands of State and local governments and public and private institutions and agencies that seek, in common with the Federal Government, to improve the well-being of our Nation's population. The Department has a continuing responsibility to give leadership to, and to help to strengthen, these agencies of the American society so as to bring to bear in the most effective manner possible the talents and resources-national and local, public and private-that are committed to improving the well-being of the individual and his family. This requires a substantial degree of coordination in both the planning and the carrying out of programs, the more so because so many of the programs funnel through common institutions and agencies at the local levels. This Nation dedicates itself more and more to the ideal of a Great Society that permits its citizens to compete on even grounds by providing opportunity to overcome the vagaries of birth, economic origin, and state of physical and mental wellbeing. As the variety and magnitude of programs devised for these purposes increase, there is an ever greater requirement for close and careful scrutiny of the needs of the population so as to permit sound decisions to be made as to the priorities among these needs and the resources that should be allocated to meet competing needs. This can be done much more meaningfully under a single Department than under several. While I have no reservations as to the desirability of keeping the Department whole, I am not unmindful of the criticisms to which it has so frequently been subject. I see these, however, as opportunities, as challenges that we can and must meet through improved planning and management and through better interrelating the Nation's health, education, and welfare programs. To do these things effectively as the Department and its programs grow in size and complexity requires that we carefully identify and appraise our organizational needs. The internal restructuring suggested by Mr. Folsom is prominent among the alternatives that I have been weighing. Please be assured that I shall continue to watch most closely the manner in which the Department operates and to weigh carefully and objectively alternatives that may become necessary or desirable to meet changing situations. Mr. FOGARTY. We will, as we have for each of the last several years, insert the statements and tables you have had prepared at our request which cover programs and information that applies to all or several parts of the Department. We thank you very much for your testimony. (The material referred to follows:) LEGISLATION PASSED BY THE 89TH CONG. ADDING TO PROGRAM COSTS Appalachian Regional Development Act. Title : Financial Assistance to Local Educational Title II: School Library Resources, Textbooks, and Title III Supplementary Educational Centers and Title IV: Educational Research and Training. Title V: Grants to Strengthen State Departments of School Facilities Construction and Teacher Employment Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental National Vocational Student Loan Insurance Act: Loan insurance fund. Advances for reserve funds. Direct loans. Interest payments. Disaster Act.. Higher Education Act: See footnotes p. 884. 1967 authorization 1 $8,000,000 (2) $ 80, 000, 000 (6) (7) 8 38,500,000 11 200, 000 12 1,025, 000 1,000,000 (13) (14) 50,000,000 37, 500,000 12, 500,000 15, 000, 000 6,315,000 (13) 16 70, 000, 000 (13) 17 10, 000, 000 (13) 18 500,000 19 165, 000, 000 64, 715,000 160, 000, 000 10, 000, 000 50, 000, 000 1, 000, 000 5,000,000 20 100, 000, 000 21 50, 000, 000 (883) 1 $8,000,000 represents the balance of the $16,000,000 authorization for fiscal years 1965 through 1967. 2 Law provides allotment formula for 1966 based on low-income factor of $2,000 and Federal percent of 50, but specifies no formula for 1967. 1966 authorization approximates $1,176,000,000. 1967 estimate of $1,070,000,000 assumes continuation of same low-income factor and Federal percent. 3 Law authorizes $100,000,000 for 1966 and such sums as Congress may authorize for 1967. 1967 estimate of $105,000,000 assumes inclusion of specific authorization in the law. 4 Law authorizes $100,000,000 for 1966 and such sums as Congress may authorize for 1967. 1967 estimate of $145,000,000 assumes inclusion of specific authorization in the law. 5 $80,000,000 represents the balance of the $100,000,000 authorization for construction for fiscal years 1966 through 1970. This title amended Public Law 83-531, continuing the indefinite authorizations of the other parts of the program. Law authorizes $25,000,000 for 1966 and such sums as Congress may authorize for 1967. 1967 estimate of $22,000,000 assumes inclusion of specific authorization in the law. 7 This act amended Public Law 81-815, which has an indefinite authorization, to provide for the education of children in outlying areas whose parents are employed by the U.S. Government but do not reside on Federal property. It is estimated that not more than $100,000 additional construction costs in 1967 would be attributable to this amendment. This act amended Public Law 88-164 and Public Law 85-926 (as amended by Public Law 88-164) to provide authorizations of $29,500,000 for training grants and $9,000,000 for research and demonstrations in the education of handicapped children. Authorizations under the former acts expired in 1966. Public Law 89-253 amended Public Law 88-452 to extend the period during which work-study programs may be financed with 90 percent Federal assistance through fiscal year 1968. No authorization was made for fiscal year 1967 either in the original act or the amended one, but further amendments were provided by title IV of the Higher Education Act (Public Law 89-329). 10 Public Law 89-258 amended Public Law 87-715, which authorized $1,500,000 annually. 11 $200,000 represents the balance of the total authorization of $250,000. A 1966 supplemental appropriation is requested to provide $50,000. In addition, an indefinite authorization is provided for this fund. 12 $1,025,000 represents the balance of the total authorization of $1,875,000 for fiscal years 1966 through 1968. A 1966 supplemental appropriation is requested to provide $850,000. 13 An indefinite amount is authorized. 14 This act amended Public Law 81-874 and Public Law 81-815, which have indefinite authorizations, to provide financial assistance for the construction and operation of public elementary and secondary schools in areas affected by a major disaster. In addition, the act amended Public Law 81-874 to make eligible for assistance a few large cities which previously did not qualify; and amended title I of Public Law 89-10 to provide assistance to State-operated public schools providing specialized education to handicapped children and to establish a $75,000 minimum per State for administration. 15 Law authorizes $55,000,000 for 1966, and nothing for 1967. 1967 estimate assumes straight extension of the program. 16 An indefinite authorization is also provided for other than initial year grants. 17 $10,000,000 represents the balance of the $17,500,000 authorization for fiscal years 1966 through 1968. 18 $500,000 represents the balance of the $1,000,000 definite authorization. In addition, an indefinite amount is authorized. 19 Title IV-C transferred the college work-study program from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Office of Education and provided the 1967 authorization of $165,000,000. 20 Title IV-D of the Higher Education Act raised the authorization from $90,000,000 to $100,000,000 and added economics to the subject list. 21 Title IV-D of the Higher Education Act raised the authorization from $32,750,000 to $50,000,000 and added economics, civics, and industrial arts to the subject list for institutes. 1 May not exceed 1 percent of the total of the benefits under sec. 202(d) for children who have attained age 18 and are under a disability and the benefits under sec. 223, which are certified for payment in the preceding year. Fiscal year 1967 costs are estimated at $14,000,000. |