higher class or grade he shall receive at least one step increase above his existing rate of compensation.

The scope of the bill is not limited geographically. It applies equally to positions in the departmental and field service in the 48 States, Territories, and possessions and in foreign countries.

The annual increased cost of the legislation based upon the 885,000 positions covered will be $100,500,000 for the adjustment to the new schedules. In addition, the provisions of the bill granting longevity increases will cost an additional $800,000 the first year and increase annually during the first 9 years of operation and level off at an increased cost of approximately $12,000,000 in the tenth and subsequent years.

The average annual increase in compensation for the employees covered by the bill will be $113.60. However, in the lowest grades the average increase will be approximately $120 annually.

Hearings were conducted with respect to this legislation, at which time representatives of the Federal employees' organizations appeared and endorsed the provisions of the bill. Representatives of the Civil Service Commission and the Bureau of the Budget testified in favor of the enactment of this legislation, and there is no known objection to the enactment of the bill.

Among those laws which are repealed by this bill is the Classification Act of 1923, as amended. However, with certain clarifying language, section 9 of the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, relating to the efficiency rating system and efficiency rating boards of review, is reenacted. Statements by the Bureau of the Budget and the Civil Service Commission indicate that shortly recommendations will be made to the Congress with respect to a complete revision of the efficiency rating system. Because these recommendations have not yet been made, the committee believed that the present efficiency rating system should be retained tatil such recommendations have been considered by the Congress.

EXPLANATION OF H. R. 5931 BY TITLES AND SECTIONS

TITLE I-DECLARATION OF POLICY

Section 101: This section states the general policy of the bill; namely, to provide a plan for classifying positions and fixing salaries, under which (1) there shall be equal pay for equal work and proportionate pay for unequal work, and (2) positions are to be placed in classes and grades according to their duties, responsibilities, and qualification requirements, and the resulting position-classification system made useful in all phases of personnel administration.

TITLE II-COVERAGE AND EXEMPTIONS

The general plan of title II is to express a comprehensive general coverage in section 201, subject to specific exemptions in section 202. Section 201: This section provides that the bill shall apply to all civilian positions, officers and employees "in or under the departments," except those expressly set forth as exemptions in section 202. The term "department" conveniently refers to the executive departments and independent establishments and agencies, including wholly owned Government corporations, as well as to certain other agencies

to which (except as to some groups of positions) the Classification Act now applies. These are the Administrative Offices of the United States Courts, the Library of Congress, the Botanic Garden, the Government Printing Office, the General Accounting Office, the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, and the municipal government of the District of Columbia.

The scope of the bill is not limited geographically. It applies to the departmental service in the District of Columbia and to the field service in the 48 States, Territories, and possessions, and foreign coun

tries.

Broadly speaking, positions whose salaries are now fixed on an annual basis under the pay schedules of the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, will continue to be subject to the bill.

Under title II, the following wholly owned corporations, not now subject to the Classification Act, would fall within the coverage of the bill: Federal Intermediate Credit Banks, Production Credit Corporation, Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, and Regional Agricultural Credit Corporations under the Department of Agriculture; Federal Prison Industries, Inc., under the Department of Justice; Institute of Inter-American Affairs, State Department; Export-Import Bank of Washington; Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation and Home Owners' Loan Corporation under Housing and Home Finance Agency; and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

In addition, the following agencies, now exempted, would be covered: Atomic Energy Commission, Displaced Persons Commission, Philippine War Damage Commission, and United States Soldiers Home.

Customs clerks, whose pay is now fixed by the Bacharach Act of May 29, 1928, as amended, and immigration inspectors, whose pay is now fixed by the Reed-Jenkins Act of May 29, 1928, as amended, would come under the bill. The latter inclusion would make unnecessary the separate consideration of pending bill H. R. 3513.

In addition, a large number of individual exemptions in organic or appropriation acts, such as exemptions for attorneys, engineers, experts, etc., in certain agencies would be repealed by implication and the positions brought within the bill.

Section 202: In general, existing exemptions of the larger and more significant groups of positions from the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, are continued by this section.

In the exemptions are enumerated five groups for which there exist other statutory pay schedules. These are: (1) The postal field service, (2) the Foreign Service of the United States, (3) professional and other employees of the Department of Medicine and Surgery in the Veterans' Administration, (4) teachers, school officers, and other employees of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia, and (5) officers and members of the Metropolitan Police and Fire Department of the District of Columbia, United States Park Police, and the White House Police.

Paragraph (2), which exempts the Foreign Service of the United States, also continues the exemption of certain representatives of the United States to international organizations (such as the United Nations Organization and its agencies, the International Refugee Organization or the World Health Organization) and their alternates

H. Repts., 81-1, vol. 6

or deputies, whose salaries are fixed or limited under existing law, other than the Classification Act of 1923, as amended.

None of these groups is now subject to the Classification Act.

Another group excluded from the bill is the group of lighthouse keepers and civilian employees on lightships and other vessels of the Coast Guard whose compensation is fixed under authority of Public No. 383, Seventy-fifth Congress, August 26, 1937, or Public Law 143, Eighty-first Congress, June 29, 1949.

The major prevailing-rate groups excluded from the bill are those mentioned in paragraphs (7), (8), and (9) of section 202. These are trades, crafts, and labor employees, and officers and members of crews

of vessels.

Crafts, trades, and labor employees engaged in the operation and maintenance of public buildings and associated equipment or working in scientific or engineering laboratories as aides to scientists or engineers are not exempted. They are now subject to the Classification Act and will remain so under the bill, their basic rates to be set by the crafts, protective, and custodial schedule established in title VI.

The clerical-mechanical employees of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 3,864 in number (as of July 1, 1948), now under the "clerical-mechanical service" of the Classification Act (which service applies only to that one group), would be excluded from the bill and their wages would be fixed and adjusted from time to time by reference to prevailing rates. This is a long-standing policy of the Government with respect to workers on manufacturing or mechanical processing operations.

The clerical-mechanical service consists of four grades, each grade having two hourly rates-a minimum and a maximum.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is essentially a manufacturing or industrial establishment. It employs highly skilled craftsmen whose wages are fixed on a prevailing-rate basis, usually in conformity with changes in Government Printing Office rates for similar occupations. The clerical-mechanical employees correspond to the skilled helpers in an industrial shop. They include, among others, plate printers' assistants, counters, and examiners of the product of printing processes, such as currency and bonds, press feeders, operators of various machines, press helpers, and truckers. The bill proposes to take this group out of the present statutory schedule plan and place it under wage-schedule procedure.

The purpose is to bring about a close relation between the pay rates for this group on the one hand and pay rates for skilled craftsmen in the same Bureau or pay rates generally in the Government Printing Office, on the other. This relation is sought to be secured by bringing the wage policy and method for the group concerned into line with existing wage policy and method for the related groups.

Paragraph (10) excludes from the bill civilian professors, lecturers, and instructors at the Naval War College, the Naval Academy, and the Naval Postgraduate School. The Navy Department, which is now authorized by other law to prescribe the rates for such positions, has established a uniform schedule of pay for these positions on the basis of salaries for smilar positions in colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Paragraph (11) excludes from the bill aliens or persons not citizens of the United States who occupy positions outside the several States

and the District of Columbia. These employees will continue to have their rates of compensation determined in accordance with local pay scales.

Paragraphs (12), (13), (14), and (15) exclude the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Inland Waterways Corporation, the Alaska Railroad, and the Virgin Islands Corporation. None of these organizations is now under the Classification Act. The Inland Waterways Corporation is limited, however, by its appropriation act to rates not in excess of those prescribed for similar services by the Classification Act. Paragraph (16) exempts the Central Intelligence Agency.

Paragraphs (17) to (25), both inclusive, cover peculiar or unusual types of employment for which the type of pay schedule and pay plan provided by the bill is not appropriate or applicable.

Paragraph (17) exempts employees serving without compensation or at nominal rates of compensation, when such employment is permitted by other law.

Paragraph (18) exempts employees none or only part of whose compensation is paid from appropriated funds, such as employees of Army post exchanges. The purpose of the proviso in this paragraph is to continue provisions of existing law that only those employees of the Veterans Canteen Service working in canteens, warehouses, and storage depots are to be excluded from the Classification Act.

Paragraph (19) exempts employees whose pay is fixed under cooperative agreements to which the United States is a party.

Paragraph (20) exempts student employees receiving professional training in Government hospitals, clinics, or laboratories, whose compensation is governed by recent special law.

Paragraph (21) exempts inmates, patients, or beneficiaries receiving care or treatment or living in Government agencies or institutions.

Paragraph (22) exempts experts or consultants, when employed temporarily or intermittently in accordance with section 15 of the act of August 2, 1946.

Paragraph (23) exempts emergency or seasonal employments of uncertain or purely temporary duration, or limited to brief periods at intervals.

Paragraph (24) exempts employments made on a fee, contract, or piecework basis when authorized by other law.

Paragraph (25) exempts certain part-time or intermittent employments, not measurable as to time, in cases where persons do part-time or intermittent work for the Government concurrently with their private profession, business, or other employment.

Paragraph (26) provides that in the event Congress should by any other law fix a rate for a particular position at or in excess of the regular maximum rate of the highest grade established by the bill, $15,000, such position shall be regarded as being exempted from the bill. This avoids the confusion inherent in existing law with respect to two grades-known as grade 9 in the professional and scientific service, and grade 16 in the clerical, administrative, and fiscal servicefor which Congress expressly authorizes rates in excess of the ceiling rate of the act. The combination of specifying these grades in existing law and at the same time fixing rates by other law in excess. of the ceiling rate now causes considerable confusion as to whether or not the positions concerned are under the Classification Act.

Section 203: This section authorizes and directs the Civil Service Commission to determine finally questions of coverage and exemption, as they may be raised in connection with sections 201 and 202. Under existing law the Commission has no authority to determine whether or not a position in the field service is subject to the Classification Act, except in veterans' appeals under section 14 of the Veterans' Preference Act of 1944. In the departmental service the Commission is authorized to make initial decision on that point. The effect of section 203 is to make the authority of the Civil Service Commission uniform with respect to both departmental and field positions.

Section 204: The effect of this section is to continue, without change, the exemptions of certain positions under the Office of the Architect of the Capitol; namely, professional and technical services on construction projects, employees whose tenure of employment is temporary or of uncertain duration, and the Assistant Architect of the Capitol.

TITLE III-BASIS FOR CLASSIFYING POSITIONS

Title III provides the fundamentals for placing positions in classes and grades—a process commonly called allocation-without burdening statutory language with provisions that more properly are subjects for regulation or less formal instruction.

Section 301: This section defines the terms "position," "class," and "grade," with the same meaning as in existing law. The language of the definitions is clarified so as to show more clearly the relationships between the three concepts.

Section 302: This section requires that each position be placed in the appropriate class, and that each class be placed in its appropriate grade, on the basis of duties, responsibilities, and qualification requirements of the work involved in the position or in the class of positions concerned. This policy continues existing law, with improvements in language.

Section 303: This section is an extension of a provision in recent Independent Offices Appropriation Acts limiting the availability of appropriations of the Civil Service Commission, in case any of its employees places a supervisory position in a class or grade solely on the basis of size of unit or number of persons supervised. The extension consists in making the prohibition applicable to any appropriated funds of any department or agency.

TITLE IV-PREPARATION AND PUBLICATION OF STANDARDS

Section 401: This section authorizes and directs the Civil Service Commission to prepare, publish, and keep up to date allocation standards; i. e., written standards for placing individual positions in their proper classes and grades. Such standards will (1) define the various classes of positions that exist in the service in terms of duties, responsibilities, and qualification requirements; (2) establish the official class titles; and (3) set forth the grades in which such classes have been placed by the Commission. They will apply in both the departmental and field services.

Subsection (c) of this section provides flexibility in the use of class titles. They are to be used for personnel, budget, and fiscal purposes; but if they are not appropriate for internal administration, public