(b) In extending for another year the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 the Congress made the bank responsible for lending certain foreign currencies to private enterprise. Under the so-called Cooley amendment (Public Law 85-128) the bank may receive up to 25 percent of the proceeds in foreign currencies of sales of agricultural commodities negotiated under the new legislation and lend these funds to (1) United States firms or their branches, subsidiaries, or affiliates for business development and trade expansion in the foreign country, or to (2) either United States firms or firms of the foreign country for expanding markets for and consumption of United States agricultural products abroad. (c) The increase in personnel of 17 above the figure on January 1, 1957, is attributable primarily to expansion of the regular bank business and partly to the impact of Public Law 85-128. FEDERAL CIVIL DEFENSE ADMINISTRATION During the period January-October 1957, the following organizational changes were effected: 1. The Radiological Defense Operations Office was created for the purpose of planning and implementing radiological defense phases of emergency operations plans and systems. 2. The Office of Foreign Representation was established to centralize integration and coordination of FCDA international activities with the Department of State and other interested Federal agencies, and to provide representation on various international committees and groups. 3. The Capital Area Branch Office was created to provide Federal supervision of the civil-defense planning for the seat of National Government. On November 1, 1957, a major reorganization of the agency was accomplished. This action was undertaken to eliminate overlap of functions and responsibilities and to bring about a more homogeneous alinement of functions which in turn will result in improved performance. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION The Chairman reported organizational changes in the Commission during 1957 as follows: 1. The Network Study Staff organized in 1955 to assist the Network Study Committee, an ad hoc committee of four Commissioners, was abolished. At the same time an Office of Network Study was established as a part of the Office of the Chief of the Broadcast Bureau to conduct studies and compile data relating to radio and television network operations. 2. The Messenger Division was merged with the Mail and Files Division of the office of the secretary. 3. Through consolidations the number of field units in the Field Engineering and Monitoring Division was reduced to 48. FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK BOARD The Chairman of the Board reported that, during the calendar year 1957, total employees of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (including the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation) rose from 698 to 784, an increase of 86. The increase was principally in the Division of Examinations. The Board's program for the examination of insured savings and loan associations provides intervals of examinations at approximately 12 months. Although the Division of Examinations has increased its staff, the workload has increased proportionately, and the present interval remains at approximately 12% months During 1957 the general supervision of the Division of Personnel, Budget, and Office of Information were taken from the offices of the Board and placed under the supervision of the Assistant to the Board for the purpose of coordinating all actions and procedures relating to these functions. At the same time the Assistant to the Board was authorized to make continuing studies of operating practices and procedures of the Board and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation; to obtain reports and to recommend changes in operating practices and procedures designed to increase efficiency. FEDERAL MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION SERVICE Two organizational changes were reported by the Director: One, a small staff segment in the national office, known as the Office of Special Activities, was established. No additional personnel was required to man the new office, inasmuch as the unit assumed duties which for the most part had for several years been spread among a number of other offices. The primary functions of this office are the conduct, coordination, documentation, and analysis of such activities as training, preventive mediation, audiovisual discussion, internal operations analysis and audit, meetings with foreign representatives, Service-university-sponsored conferences and forums, and public information. The second change involved the consolidation of our two western regions, which resulted in a slight decrease in administrative and clerical personnel. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION The Chairman of the Commission reported that a branch office was established in Atlanta, Ga., on February 1, 1958, for economy in handling the substantially increased workload in this part of the country. The office has been staffed principally by transfer of personnel from other divisions of the Commission. FOREIGN CLAIMS SETTLEMENT COMMISSION The only pending change that may occur in the near future is a redesignation of the General Claims Division to be known in the future as the Italian Claims Division, due to the fact that the religious claims program authorized under Public Law 997, 70th United States Statutes at Large, will be completed in February 1958. The claims program under Public Law 997, approved August 6, 1956, authorizing the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission to review and settle claims of religious organizations and personnel arising in the Philippine Islands, is completed except for remaining claims in which claimants requested hearings before the Commission. As a result of the completion of this program some employees have been separated from the rolls and others have been reassigned to current programs resulting in a downward trend in employment level to 94 employees. Current claims programs of the Commission authorized by Public Law 285, 84th Congress, wherein claims of United States nationals. against the Soviet Union, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Rumania involving settlement for property and other losses suffered as a result of war damages, nationalization, and default on government debts received emphasis during the year and will continue throughout the 1958 calendar year. Increased utilization of personnel and more effective organization of the functions of the Italian Claims Division and the General Claims Division, except liquidation functions, were merged in a new General Claims Division. The liquidation function, being a residual claims program function, was, for purposes of administration, transferred to the Office of the General Counsel. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION The following organizational changes reported by the Administrator were effected during the calendar year 1957: 1. The Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Administrator was established, consolidating the principal activities of the Assistant Administrators for Administration and Planning. The new office consists of seven divisions reporting directly to the Administrative Assistant to the Administrator. 2. The Tokyo field office, Federal Supply Service, was discontinued as of September 30, 1957. 3. The direction and control of the Federal Facilities Corporation was assigned to the Administrator of General Services by Executive Order 10720, dated July 11, 1957. The Corporation operates as a separate organizational unit under the Administrator. 4. The Harry S. Truman Library was established in the National Archives and Records Service. 5. The Defense Materials Service was reorganized to provide for 7 divisions reporting to 2 new Assistant Commissioners, namely, one for Program Development and the other for Operations. 6. An Engineering Services Division was established within the Office of the Assistant Commissioner for Design and Construction, Public Buildings Service. HOUSING AND HOME FINANCE AGENCY The Acting Administrator of the Agency reported the personnel status and organizational changes during the year 1957 as follows: Status of Agency personnel This is the fifth successive annual report in which total HHFA employment is shown to be below the preceding year's total. The net reduction this year is nearly 200-accounted for by substantial reductions in staff for the Public Housing Administration and the Federal Housing Administration, with a slight reduction in staff for the voluntary home mortgage credit program. These reductions were partly offset by increases, principally in the field staff, for the other program operations of the Agency. Again, the continued liquidation of war and emergency housing and the disposition of low-rent housing projects reduced both project and administrative personnel in the Public Housing Administration; there are now no PHA employees left on war housing projects, and only 168 maintenance employees left on all other types of projects. In the Federal Housing Administration, a decline in the volume of unit applications for mortgage insurance during fiscal year 1957 caused sharp reductions in field staff, but an upturn in applications beginning with the current fiscal year reversed the staffing trend-although not enough by the end of the calendar year to offset the previous reductions. On the other hand, the consistently increasing workload in urban renewal, community disposition, college housing, community facilities and related programs, and the higher purchasing activity by the Federal National Mortgage Association, brought inevitable staff increases for those operations. These occurred principally in the field offices. Organizational changes The Federal Flood Indemnity Administration was abolished on July 1, 1957, when no funds were provided by the Congress for its continued operation. Since the flood indemnity program was still in the developmental stage and had only a skeleton staff, its abolition resulted in no significant staff reduction. All but about a dozen of the staff members were on temporary detail from other parts of the agency, and returned to their original units when the program was abolished. Liquidating operations were taken over by the staff of the Office of the Administrator. Organizational changes during the year in the Office of the Administrator, Community Facilities Administration, and Urban Renewal Administration were directed primarily at streamlining and improving the efficiency of operations to meet heavier program workloads with a minimum increase in staff. Most significant was the segregation of engineering and nonengineering functions in connection with the review and inspection of projects. This permits a better use of available engineering skills and the reassignment of nonengineering work to other personnel. Also of significance was the Administrator's order making the Deputy Administrator directly responsible for the staff supervision of all OA audit activities. In the voluntary home mortgage credit program, the field organization was further contracted this year by additional mergers, reducing the total number of regional committees and offices from 15 to 13. In the Federal Housing Administration, the responsibility for analyzing financial statements submitted by mortgagor corporations was transferred to the field, and the Financial Analysis Section of the Mortgage Insurance Division was abolished, reducing the staff of that Division by 19 employees. Also, supervision of field operations was strengthened by transfer of the underwriting supervisors and architects who provide on-site advice, guidance, and review for field offices from the Assistant Commissioner for Technical Standards to the offices of the Zone Operations Commissioners. In the Public Housing Administration, the Office of Assistant Commissioner was abolished and the financing function transferred to the Office of the Commissioner. The Economics and Statistics Division was also abolished; the Office of the Chief Economist was established as a staff office; and the statistics functions were transferred to the Administration Division. In the Development Division, the Project Planning Branch was abolished, and the Development Coordination Offices were reduced from 3 to 2. In the Legal Division and Administration Division, various branch operations were realined on a functional basis for more effective administration. INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION The Chairman of the Commission reported a number of organizational changes designed to strengthen and realine the operations of the Commission. In this connection the number of employees was increased by 140. Funds for these additional employees were appropriated primarily to obtain a more adequate level of safety of operations of both motor and rail carriers; to enforce compliance with car service regulations; to reduce the time required for the disposition of formal proceedings; to handle the additional defense mobilization functions delegated to the Commission by the Office of Defense Mobilization; to establish an inventory of motor carrier operating authorities; to handle the increased workload resulting from the expanded field force and to provide commensurate field supervisory and clerical assistance for the additional employees authorized in the field during 1956. On March 25, 1957, formal proceedings work was realined generally along functional lines. The former Section of Operating Rights was abolished and a new Bureau of Operating Rights was established in its place to process motor carrier operating authority cases formerly handled by the section, as well as water carrier and freight forwarder operating rights cases which formerly were handled in part by the Bureau of Water Carriers and Freight Forwarders and in part by the Bureau of Formal Cases. Concurrently, the latter Bureau was renamed the Bureau of Rates and Practices to identify its functions more correctly since all rates and practice proceedings, including motor carrier rate proceedings, are now processed in that Bureau. Responsibility for motor carrier finance cases was shifted to the Bureau of Finance from the former Section of Operating Rights. On October 21, 1957, the Motor Carrier Board was abolished and in its place there was established a Temporary Authorities Board in the Bureau of Operating Rights and a Transfer Board in the Bureau of Finance. This change was undertaken to improve channeling of cases in conformity with the aforementioned functional realinement of the Commission's formal proceedings work. The Bureau of Rates, Tariffs and Informal Cases was renamed the Bureau of Traffic, effective March 18, 1957, and the Bureau's internal operations were realined so as to reduce the number of sections from 5 to 4 and the number of branches from 14 to 8. Among other things, this reorganization was undertaken to achieve greater flexibility in assigning available staff employees to meet changes in the Bureau's workload. Concurrently, the grade structures for tariff examiners and rate analysts were realined and trainee positions established, so as to obtain trained and qualified employees for such positions. The processing of quarterly reports of class I and class II motor carriers of property and passengers, and certain portions of the work of processing the annual reports of these carriers, were transferred |