posed negotiated sales of surplus property. The law requires that prior to the consummation of such a sale the committee be furnished an explanatory statement justifying the use of negotiation rather than competitive bidding. These statements are referred to the General Government Activities Subcommittee for consideration. It is our opinion that the fact that this committee examines the propriety and advisability of these proposed sales motivates the disposal agencies to secure a higher return for the Government. Savings resulting from such motivation cannot be estimated with any degree of

accuracy.

(a) Rohr Aircraft plant, Chula Vista, Calif.-GSA proposed to sell this property to the Rohr Aircraft Corp. for $925,000 with the rentals after April 1, 1957, to be applied on the purchase price. After the committee rejected this sale, Rohr agreed to pay $1,075,000 for the facility, effective October 1, 1957. By this action the taxpayers were saved $276,660 ($150,000 increase in purchase price and $126,660 in rent from April 1 to October 1).

(b) Haster property, Garden Grove, Calif.-The committee twice opposed negotiated sales of this 112 acres of unimproved realty because it was felt that the fair market value greatly exceeded the proposed sales price of $1,800 an acre. As a result of this action, the property was sold by bid at $317,774.45 more than the price proposed in the negotiated sales by GSA.

(c) Outlying flying training field No. 36, Nueces County, Tex.GSA proposed to sell this tract for $42,500. After a physical inspection of the property and a study of comparable land values, the committee concluded that the property was underappraised. A new appraisal was for $65,050, an increase of $22,550 over the original appraisal. It is anticipated that a sale of this property at the higher figure will be made in the very near future.

(d) Outlying flying training field No. 22, Nueces County, Tex.GSA proposed to sell this property for $59,416. An investigation and study by the committee indicated that the fair market value exceeded that amount. It is anticipated that in the very near future GSA will sell this same property for $75,000, an increase of $15,584 over the original proposed sales price.

(e) Shipyard, Newport News, Va.-The committee blocked the sale of the Government's shipyard at Newport News, Va., because the proposed sales price of $3,510,000 appeared to be grossly out of proportion to the true fair market value. A new appraisal of the shipyard has been ordered, and it is expected to exceed the proposed sales price by more than $1 million.

(f) Airport, Burke, Va.-As a result of committee action it is expected that an additional $250,000 will be received by the Government from the sale to former owners of about one-half of the Burke Airport property. Approximately one-half of the Burke Airport property will likely be transferred for educational, park, and recreational purposes.

(g) Harris County, Tex.-It is expected that an additional $34,189 or more will be received by the Government for certain surplus property in Harris County, Tex., the sale of which was recently blocked by the committee because the price was based on an appraisal almost 2 years old. The new appraisal requested set the value at 52.7 percent more than had the rejected appraisal.

5. Cheese purchase-resale transactions

As a direct result of committee investigations, the Justice Department has brought suit and obtained judgments for $1,454,087 against recipients of Federal moneys in the illegal cheese purchase-resale transactions approved by the Department of Agriculture.

6. Transportation of household effects

A study made by the Bureau of the Budget, Defense Department, and the General Accounting Office, as a result of the committee's interest has indicated that the Government may make substantial savings by contracting for the transportation of household effects on a mass basis rather than by individual contracts. In a pilot effort savings of about 50 percent were effected. A full report is expected in the near future.

7. Polio vaccine

As a result of a committee investigation which indicated that the Government was paying twice as much for polio vaccine as was the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, five vaccine manufacturers have been indicted for price fixing and suits for the recovery of several million dollars are being considered by the Justice Department. 8. Storage and handling of documents

On September 27, 1958, the Defense Department issued DOD Directive 5200.9, providing for the declassification of nearly all Defense Department documents originated prior to January 1946. Top-secret documents exempted from declassification, such as war plans and counterintelligence reports, are to be automatically downgraded to

secret.

The Department estimates there are 325,000 cubic feet of classified documents in storage which originated prior to 1946, and the average, nationwide cost of storing the classified documents is estimated by the Department at $2 per cubic foot per annum. The comparable cost of storing nonclassified documents is 80 cents per cubic foot.

The immediate savings in storage costs, through declassification of the Defense Department documents older than 1946, will be at least $390,000 annually.

Other savings will be realized by a reduction in shipping costs, particularly between Washington, D. C., and the Government's main record storage depot in St. Louis, Mo. The Defense Department reported it costs $20 per cubic foot to ship top-secret documents between the two cities, $15.50 per cubic foot to ship secret documents, and only $3.10 per cubic foot to ship unclassified documents.

The Defense Department directive resulted from recommendations adopted by the House Government Operations Committee in House Report 2947 (84th Cong., 2d sess.). Following the committee's adoption of the report, the Defense Department in August 1956, appointed the Committee on Classified Information under the chairmanship of Charles A. Coolidge. Members of the Coolidge committee discussed the declassification problem at public hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Government Information and the Coolidge committee supported the recommendations in House Report 2947 for declassification of the huge backlog of classified material. As a result, the Defense Department established the Office of Declassification Policy un

der Vice Adm. John M. Hoskins (retired). Recommendations for action on the declassification problem were repeated and reinforced in reports adopted by the House Committee on Government Operations in June and August 1958 (H. Rept. 1884 and H. R. 2578, 85th Cong., 2d sess.) and the declassification action finally was taken on September 27, 1958.

B. NON MONETARY BENEFITS

A look at the results of the committee's actions reveals many benefits accruing to the taxpayers which are not measurable in terms of monetary benefits. Still, these fall clearly within the scope of the committee's jurisdiction over the efficiency and economy of Government operations, over the relationships between the Federal Government and State and local governments, and over budgetary, accounting, and property matters. Some of the more important of such benefits accruing during the 85th Congress, not heretofore discussed, are described below:

1. Revision of foreign excess property procedures

The Secretary of Commerce forwarded to Chairman Dawson a letter stating that as a result of the subcommittee hearings on the importation of foreign excess property, the Department recognized the "possibility of a need for a thorough revision of the procedures and statutes governing this area of our operations." The Secretary further stated that a study had been instituted with a view toward making, as promptly as possible, any improvements that may be made under current law. On December 3, 1958, the Secretary published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed new regulations on the subject (23 F. R. 9332) along the lines recommended by the committee. 2. Military clothing procurement

As a result of the committee's action in this field, the Department of Defense, cooperatively with the Small Business Administration and the Department of Labor, are taking steps to insure that irresponsible contractors will be weeded out from Government procurements. Also, a clarification of bidder responsibility under the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act was made by the Department of Labor and published in the Code of Federal Regulations.

3. Audit of Military Air Transport Service

The Comptroller General has decided to institute a long-range audit program for the Military Air Transport Service after reviewing the committee's hearings on military air transportation.

The Comptroller General has advised the committee that this audit program will:

* * * cover a review and evaluation of the organization and activities at both management and operating levels, including determination of (1) management responsibilities, (2) effectiveness of policies, procedures and management controls relating to programing, budgeting, operating performance, accounting and reporting at all levels (3) efficiency of airlift operations under the industrialfund concept, which is scheduled to go into effect in fiscal year 1959, and (4) coordination by the MATS and the military departments in utilizing airlift facilities in logistical operations.

4. Foreign operations

(a) As a result of the committee's defense support funds report, the General Accounting Office took fiscal exception to the expenditure of defense support funds in the amount of about $5 million, covering 20 projects, in the fiscal year 1958 program. The General Accounting Office supported the proposed exceptions by a statement that in the opinion of GAO, the expenditures had not been within the meaning of the mutual security legislation language defining defense support. The matter is still pending in the GAO files.

(b) Within ICA there is evidence that more weight and substance are being given to GAO audits of foreign aid operations as a result of this subcommittee's follow-through activities on ICA operating deficiencies disclosed by GAO.

(c) As a result of the committee's efforts, substantial improvements have been made in the presentation of the ICA budget. Recent presentations have been responsive to this subcommittee's recommendations and are designed to provide Congress with a clearer picture of the mutual security program.

(d) ICA has circulated the committee's report on foreign-aid construction projects to its overseas mission and its Washington operating units. The Director has requested a written response from all missions and Washington offices involved in the subcommittee's findings. The report also has been widely circulated in the engineering and construction fields and much interest has been evidenced in the high contractual standards Congress expects from contractors and ICA. Comments have been received from prospective contractors that the report has provided them, for the first time, with a basic understanding of ICA contracting policies and procedures.

5. False and misleading advertising

(a) As a result of the committee's action, the Federal Trade Commission completed a consumer survey to determine the reason that filter-tip cigarettes are being used by consumers. The FTC Chairman said that results of this survey will be of "material assistance" to the Commission's enforcement actions against deceptively advertised cigarettes.

(b) As a result of attention focused by the committee on the lack of testing standards, FTC has set up industry conferences seeking to provide such standards. Since early this year the FTC has required scientific proof of claims advertised for filter-tip cigarettes, undoubtedly as a result of the committee's hearings containing evidence as to the deception contained in such advertising.

(c) There can be little doubt but that the hearings of the committee were instrumental in the FTC action taken in the last 4 months against four companies on charges of deceptively advertised weight-reducing preparations. There had been no FTC activity in this field since 1946. (d) A recent promulgation of advertising guides for the promotion of ethical drugs published following the committee's hearings was attributed in the trade press to attention focused on this matter by the committee hearings.

6. "Snooping" on Government employees

The committee was able to contribute to the morale and courage of Government employees by exposing and publicly rebuking officials of

a private firm (Freeport Sulphur Co.) who directed an investigation into the personal life of a Government official with whom they were trying to negotiate a multi-million-dollar ore-royalty contract. The investigator was an ex-FBI agent whose report revealed a calculated effort to uncover past misconduct of an unsavory nature against the Government negotiator. Public exposure and reprimand for such ethically reprehensible conduct properly incurs public scorn toward the guilty party, thereby discouraging such conduct in the future; also deserving protection is given the Government employee investigated. The Government employee in this instance thanked the subcommittee for its support, saying he would have greater courage and a stronger will to do a good job for the taxpayers. An editorial on the subject appeared in the April 25, 1958, issue of the Washington Post. 7. Protection of probational employees

Early this year an investigation was made of alleged procedural irregularities surrounding the separation of a probationary civil-service worker at the Norfolk Naval Base. It was discovered that a probationary employee had no right of appeal in such instances. After the investigation, the committee was notified by the Civil Service Commission of a new regulation, effective February 16, 1958, which confers upon such employees a right of appeal to the Commission where procedural irregularities are alleged. Therefore, probationary employees now receive an additional benefit in the form of protection against the flouting of procedural regulations.

8. Improvement in saline water conversion program

The committee's inquiry into the saline water conversion program focused new emphasis by the Interior Department on what was until then a lagging program. At the direct request of the subcommittee the Interior Department recently completed a comprehensive survey of the procedures of the Office of Saline Water recommending adoption of many of the recommendations made by the committee in its report. Other committee recommendations, such as those dealing with revision of contract provisions, prompt publication of research results, increased coordination and stimulation of research by diverse. organizations, etc., have already been adopted by the Interior Department, and others are still under consideration in that and other agencies.

PART V.-COMMITTEE ACTION ON REPORTS OF THE COMPTROLLER

GENERAL

Rule XI, clause 8 (c) (1) of the Rules of the House, imposes the duty upon this committee to receive and examine reports of the Comptroller General referred to it and to make such recommendations to the House as it deems necessary or desirable in connection with the subject matter of the reports.

In discharging this responsibility all reports of the Comptroller General received by the committee are studied and analyzed by the staff and referred to the subcommittee of this committee having jurisdiction over the subject matter involved.

The subcommittees then review the reports and take whatever action is needed to follow up on them. This may involve correspondence or interviews with the agencies and in some cases will require hearings