It is also circulated to members of the Emergency Council and to the Cabinet. The circulation, I should say, is around 45 or 50 copies, in addition to those which go to the State Department. There is nothing to take its place at the present time. The other reviews are too long and are not up to date.

Mr. Copeland can speak much more authoritatively about the various steps that are being taken to relieve the Board of this responsibility for the preparation of a statistical report.

Mr. WOODRUM. To that extent, you have had to step out of character?

Mr. JONES. We have; yes.

Mr. COPELAND. It is simply an attempt to put together the findings of the various Government departments, and it is handled by an interdepartmental committee. One of the great advantages it has is that it enables us to make a check of the findings of one department with those of another. We review them every week and those findings are checked with this interdepartmental committee, which has representatives on it of the different departments.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. There was some discussion last year to the effect that if that publication was to be containued it might be desirable to extend the circulation to include Members of Congress. Has any further thought been given to that?

Mr. FITZPATRICK. As I recall, they did start that last year, but it was discontinued.

Mr. RICE. We have considered such a step, but we want to divest ourselves of it as soon as some other agency will take up the work and proceed with it on a satisfactory and permanent basis. In the meantime we feel obligated to keep all costs connected with the weekly review at a minimum. Weekly circulation to all Members of Congress would be costly.

MR. FITZPATRICK. Do you anticipate that that result will be accomplished?

Mr. RICE. It was practically worked out at one time, when certain personnel changes stopped it.

Mr. JONES. Certain current information is prepared in the various departments and consolidated by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. On the basis of this work a special report is prepared for the Secretary of Commerce. We had hoped to effect a consolidation of our report with that of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce so as to have one central report which would be of wide use throughout the Government, and which would be timely and up to date. But the negotiations to bring about that transfer have run into a number of serious administrative difficulties. I think they will be cleared up; at the moment, however, we have no option but to continue this work.

Mr. COPELAND. In any case, there are some functions that we should have to retain, such as clearance with the various agencies. We would still have to be partly responsible for the consolidated review. Also, the review contains from time to time special articles on timely subjects. For instance, during the past week there was a special article on the situation in cotton, considering the prospects of cotton consumption. These special articles have been prepared in various places, and presumably we would still have the responsibility of instigating such articles in the various departments.

ALLOTMENTS OF PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION FUNDS, FISCAL YEAR

1936

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You had a transfer of funds from the Public Works Administration during the fiscal year 1936 to take care of a personnel of 48, did you not?

Mr. JONES. That was for the first half of the year. We were one of the agencies caught in the failure of the third deficiency bill of 1935, and as a result the Board was left entirely without funds.

The reorganization of the Board was therefore delayed, and the Federal Administrator of Public Works made available to us further allotments, one of $25,000 and one of $40,000, which, with a past balance which was carried over amounting to $5,372, gave us for expenses from July 1, 1935, to January 15, 1936, the sum of $70,372. In the First Deficiency Act for 1936 funds were made available for the balance of the fiscal year 1936.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. That personnel of 48 is now a part of the personnel of 60?

Mr. JONES. That is right. We reduced the personnel somewhat when we were working on the allotments. The 48 did not include the staff of the Division of Current Business Statistics, which was independently financed to January 1, 1936 by a working fund from the N. R. A.

LACK OF FUNDS FOR PAYMENT OF RENTAL FOR QUARTERS

Mr. WOODRUM. Is there anything else you desire to present to the committee?

Mr. RICE. There is one problem, Mr. Chairman, that I think you ought to know about, and which I would like to refer to here. The Board is limited to $180,000 per annum as a statutory maximum. It was originally, as the bill was first introduced, $200,000.

On the assumption that the Board would be able to obtain Government space without having to pay rental, that statutory maximum was reduced by $20,000. We were then located, as a temporary agency, in the Department of Commerce Building.

There was included in the wording of the act an authorization to pay rent.

We are now being pressed by the Department of Commerce to get out of our present quarters. But we have no place to which to go and we have no money with which to pay rent. The Division of Space Control is unable to carry the rental item because of the retention in our act of the provision authorizing us to pay rent. I do not know what we are going to do about it. I do not want to worry you with it now, but I thought you ought to know about it.

Mr. JONES. Although there is a provision in the act creating the Board which authorizes us to pay rent, our appropriation item has never authorized us to pay rent. The Director of the Budget so far has been unwilling to put any authorization for that in our appropriation, feeling that it would cut off a substantial part of our budget for rent purposes and thereby reduce the personnel in our organization. The Comptroller General feels that we should try to retain space in a Government building.

Mr. WOODRUM. They cannot put you out of the Department of Commerce Building unless they have somewhere else to which you can go.

Mr. RICE. I do not think they can.

INCREASE IN NUMBER OF STATISTICAL FORMS FOR REVIEW

Mr. JONES. One further item-the past year has shown a marked increase in the number of statistical plans which have come to the Board for review. We expect that in the present fiscal year the number will be increased again. We have reorganized under the act, and we have power to issue regulations, which are mandatory, for the submission of such materials for review.

In 1936 we reviewed 997 statistical forms of various kinds, and during the first 5 months of this fiscal year we have reviewed 528. Mr. COPELAND. The number of forms reviewed has doubled each year.

Mr. JONES. We have been able to do that partly by simplifying our procedures and partly by training persons so that they can do the job expeditiously. I think the review work is one of the most important of the Board's functions. It results in economies which cannot be measured definitely for two reasons; first, because many of these plans come to us before they are in final form, and we have a chance to recommend changes before costs are estimated. Second, even when plans are definite, some sections of the proposed inquiry are eliminated before they have been finally budgeted.

Similarly, in the review of press releases, the practice has been to increase the number reviewed, and while there has been no economy connected with this part of the Board's work, we have been fairly successful in avoiding the release of directly conflicting statements by various Government organizations. Such inadvertent conflicts, in the past, have been the subject of a great deal of criticism, both here in Congress and at the other end of the Avenue. The Board's review of releases is purely advisory and is not a matter of censorship; it is simply a matter of making sure that the material in the releases is so presented that it may be possible to show what its limitations are. In this way faulty inferences are prevented.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1936.

CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

STATEMENTS OF HARRY B. MITCHELL, PRESIDENT; MRS. LUCILLE FOSTER MCMILLIN, COMMISSIONER; LEONARD D. WHITE, COMMISSIONER; LAWSON A. MOYER, CHIEF EXAMINER; K. C. VIPOND, ASSISTANT CHIEF EXAMINER AND BUDGET OFFICER; CECIL E. CUSTER, COST ACCOUNTANT AND ASSISTANT BUDGET OFFICER; AND J. G. YADEN, CHIEF OF THE EXAMINING DIVISION

SALARIES AND EXPENSES

Mr. WOODRUM. We have before us the items for the United States. Civil Service Commission. The first item is for personal services, and so forth, for which the estimate for 1938 is $2,350,000. The appropriation for 1937 was $2,244,000.

The item referred to is as follows:

For three Commissioners and other personal services in the District of Columbia, including personal services required for examination of Presidential postmasters, and including not to exceed $2,500 for employment of expert examiners not in the Federal service on special subjects for which examiners within the service are not available, and for personal services in the field; for medical examinations; for necessary traveling expenses, including those of examiners acting under the direction of the Commission, and for expenses of examinations and investigations held elsewhere than at Washington, including not to exceed $1,000 for expenses incident to attendance at meetings concerned with problems of public officials, educational groups, Government employees as such, and other similar organizations, which are peculiar to the interests and business of the Commission, when specifically directed by the Commission; for furniture and other equipment and repairs thereto; rental of equipment; supplies; advertising; telegraph, telephone, and laundry service; freight and express charges; street-car fares not to exceed $300; stationery; purchase and exchange of law books, books of reference, directories, subscriptions to newspapers and periodicals, not to exceed $1,000; charts; purchase, exchange, maintenance, and repair of motor trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles; garage rent; postage stamps to prepay postage on matter addressed to Postal Union countries; special-delivery stamps; and other like miscellaneous necessary expenses not hereinbefore provided for, $2,350,000: Provided, That notwithstanding any provisions of law to the contrary, the Civil Service Commission is authorized to expend not to exceed $3,000 of this amount for actuarial services pertaining to the civil service, Canal Zone, and Alaska Railroad retirement and disability funds, to be obtained by contract, without obtaining competition, at such rates of compensation as the Commission may determine to be reasonable: Provided further, That no details from any executive department or independent establishment in the District of Columbia or elsewhere to the Commission's central office in Washington or to any of its district offices shall be made during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938, but this shall not affect the making of details for service as members of the boards of examiners outside the immediate offices of the district managers: Provided further, That the Civil Service Commission shall have power in case of emergency to transfer or detail any of its employees to or from its office or field force.

We have with us this morning the members of the Civil Service Commission and some of their assistants.

Mr. Mitchell, before we take up the items in detail, do you desire to make a general statement to the committee in reference to the work of the Commission?

JUSTIFICATION OF ESTIMATE FOR 1938

Mr. MITCHELL. Yes. But I would like first to offer the following justification:

Appropriation: Salaries and expenses, Civil Service Commission, 1938

The estimated appropriation requirements of the Civil Service Commission for the fiscal year 1938, for salaries and expenses, total $2,350,000, a decrease of $180,000 from the total funds available for the current fiscal year, and an increase of $100,000 over the funds contained in the regular annual appropriation act for the current fiscal year.

With respect to the total funds available for obligation during the fiscal years 1936 and 1937, attention is invited to the fact that the Supplemental Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1936, approved February 11, 1936, contained $530,000 under this head for the Civil Service Commission, of which $250,000 was appor

tioned to the fiscal year 1936 and $280,000 apportioned to the fiscal year 1937. These funds were appropriated for the purpose of enabling the Commission to perform work occasioned by the enactment of the law providing for a 40-hour work week in the Postal Service. It is anticipated that this work will be approximately completed by June 30, 1937.

The regular annual appropriation for the fiscal year 1937 contains but one item of $10,000 which may be considered as being appropriated for a nonrecurring need. This was for the 5-year valuation of the Canal Zone retirement and disability fund. On this basis the estimates for the fiscal year 1938 are $110,000 in excess of the basic appropriation for the current fiscal year. This increase of $110,000 is proposed for the purpose of enabling the Civil Service Commission to bring its work of auditing service record changes to a somewhat more current status, and is apportioned $100,000 to personnel and $10,000 to the rental of tabulating-machine equipment.

During the fiscal year 1936 a total of 858,009 items of personnel charges were audited, which was more than double the total number audited during the fiscal year 1935. However, there is at present an actual accumulation of more than 700,000 items to be audited, and in all probability, the accumulation at the beginning of the fiscal year 1938 will total approximately 1,500,000 items. These figures are based upon reports of personnel changes actually received and to be received from agencies of the Government which are now making such reports. Since some of the agencies which are not now reporting appointments and changes in personnel will shortly begin to make such reports, and since certain of the agencies where expected classification of positions will cause the reporting of large numbers of additional personnel changes, the above mentioned estimated accumulation of 1,500,000 items will be materially augmented thereby. This is an extremely grave situation, and one which must be successfully met without further delay if the Civil Service Commission is to properly perform, as required by existing law, its regulatory functions in connection with the civil service and retirement status of civilian personnel of the Government. After studying the matter the Commission believes that such a large volume of work of this character can be done most expeditiously, and at the same time more economically by posting the audited changes in status to the accumulated-service history card from alphabetical punch cards. In addition, the complete alphabetical index of all the service history cards can be maintained far more economically and accurately by the use of a duplicate alphabetical punch card.

With respect to the general condition of the Commission's work, which amply warrants an appropriation for the fiscal year 1938 equal to that for the current fiscal year, the following information is presented for consideration.

Reinstatement, transfer, and promotion work, as well as retirement work, is increasing along with other regulatory functions. The former will continue to increase with the classification of additional agencies and positions even more than the following comparison of items of work during the fiscal year 1935 with those of 1936 would indicate:

The increase in retirement work is largely occasioned by the necessity for checking paid refunds with designations of beneficiaries, and by the anticipated conclusion of arrangements for the Civil Service Commission to receive redeposits and service credit payments.

While it is anticipated that most of clerk-carrier and other postal-examination work incident to the inauguration of the 40-hour work week in the Postal Service will be completed during the current fiscal year, it is to be observed that other essential examination work which must be postponed for the present will have to be done immediately upon the completion of this postal-examination program. Aside from examinations for specialized types of positions, the number of which it is not practicable to determine, it is estimated that examinations for positions in the departmental service, which will be held during the fiscal year 1938 as a result of the expiration of eligible registers, will be responsible for the receipt of a minimum of 192,000 applications. This volume of work will be augmented by (a) examinations for specialized types of positions, (b) a large amount of rating work incident to issuance of announcements by field offices for examinations, the papers from which must be rated in the central office, (c) Presidential postmaster