THE AMERICAN WORKERS' FACT BOOK

For example, during the past year there was developed The American Workers' Fact Book. The Superintendent of Documents rode our requisition for 10,000 copies for sale to the public. Within 36 days after delivery these publications for sale were completely exhausted and a reprint of 7,500 copies was authorized. To date there has been a total of 16,800 of these publications sold at a unit cost of $1.50 per copy. Further evidence of the value of this publication has been forthcoming from various sources. The steel workers union purchased 1,000 copies and the United States Information Agency has ordered 15,000 copies; 10,000 copies of a revised and translated version are being prepared for Pakistan. The press notices were most complimentary. For example, the New York Times in an editorial, said: "tells a story of economic progress more exciting than a shelf full of Horatio Alger novels."

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Other publications which because of their very nature, must be developed at the departmental level but at the same time have great value to all of the bureaus, are "The United States Department of Labor * * * Today:" "The United States Department of Labor * * * and what it does;" "A Subject Listing of Publications of the United States Department of Labor." There are also programs directed toward special projects such as our most recent ones-the older worker project, the skills of the work force-which have resulted in a departmental approach to the issuance of material to the public to bring into focus the extent of the problem and efforts being made to provide a solution to it. Very often the development of material for radio and television use should be at the departmental level and here again staff is required to work with the bureaus and with the companies involved in order that the presentation may be most effective to the public and most comprehensive of the Department's functions.

DIVISION OF BUDGET AND FISCAL CONTROL

One new position in the Division of Budget and Fiscal Control is included to handle the additional budget and fiscal work caused by the creation of the fund,

DIVISION OF ACCOUNTS AND AUDITS

Two new positions are requested for the Division of Accounts and Audits to perform the accounting and cost distribution for the revolving fund. We have requested that the Division of Accounts and Audits of the Office of the Secretary be included in the revolving fund because it renders a truly centralized service in the fields for which it is responsible. It performs all accounting and audit and payroll functions for five bureaus and offices of the Department: The Office of the Secretray, Office of the Solicitor, Bureau of Veterans Reemployment Rights, Bureau of Labor Standards, and the Bureau of Apprenticeship. It also handles, on a departmentwide basis, all necessary relationships with the Treasury Department and the General Accounting Office in the field of accounting. Two new positions in this Division are requested to perform the accounting and cost distribution for the revolving fund. The remaining $18,000 increase is for first year depreciation on the equipment involved.

Page REV-7 shows distribution of the costs to bureaus. Percentages used for each activity are based on prior years' experience of services furnished to the Bureaus.

LANGUAGE CHANGE FOR STENOGRAPHIC REPORTING

Finally, I would like to refer to the new language requested in the general provisions.

We are requesting that the words "stenographic reporting" be deleted from the current authorization to use section 15 of the act of August 2, 1946. Heretofore, several bureaus had separate authorization to employ experts and consultants under that act and the Department had general authority to contract for senographic reporting services. Other bureaus have occasional need for the employment of experts and consultants so we are seeking, by the elimination of the two words, to extend the authority to the Department generally and, at the same time, simplify our appropriation language by elimination of the specific provisions in other appropriations. I think I should point out here that, if this request is denied, the specific authorizations previously enjoyed by the several bureaus should be reinstated.

LANGUAGE CHANGE FOR PER DIEM DUE TO DECENTRALIZATION

The request for authority to pay special per diem allowances to employees and their dependents is needed to compensate for the economic disruption of families in the event of moves of personnel contemplated in connection with the decentralization of the functions of the Bureau of Employees' Compensation and the transfer of some regular functions of the Department to its permanent relocation point outside of Washington.

We feel that ample precedent exists for granting this request in similar provisions which were made in the cases of organizational relocation during and after World War II. Without this provision, the loss of personnel inherent to these moves will be greatly aggravated, with attendant loss of efficiency by reason of the necessity to restaff on such a large scale.

TRANSFERS INTO AND OUT OF SECRETARY'S OFFICE

Mr. FOGARTY. Mr. Dodson, in summarizing your statement, I wish you would break out for us all transfers of any kind, in or out of the Secretary's Office. You have several this year, I understand?

Mr. DODSON. Yes, sir, we will have to submit that report for the record. We have quite a few because of our proposed revolving fund. (The information requested follows:)

OLDER WORKER AND SKILLS FOR THE WORK-FORCE PROJECTS

Mr. DODSON. I would like to again call the committee's attention to the fact that we have not repeated our request for $176,000 for the older worker project and the skills for the work-force project.

Mr. FOGARTY. You asked for additional funds to carry out the program?

Mr. DODSON. In operation, yes; but so far as the research and planning is concerned, we felt the committee indicated to us we should complete our research and planning stage of this program in this fiscal year.

Mr. FOGARTY. We thought you had been at it long enough. We thought you should have something by now, or at least if you didn't by the end of the year, you probably never would; that is why we said that.

Mr. DODSON. We have completed the planning and the developmental stages and are not requesting the $176,000 we have this year.

INTERNATIONAL LABOR PROGRAM

In connection with the international labor program, Mr. Wilkins, in the course of the Secretary's testimony, talked about the five jobs he wants for his activity.

OFFICE OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT SECRETARY

For my own office I am requesting 1 additional position, a GS-12, at $7,570. It is mainly due to the fact that the law passed at the last session of Congress requires us to estimate the cost of new legislation for each of the first 5 years of its operation and also to estimate the manpower required to administer that legislation, and the manpower, by types of employment.

Now, that has caused a great deal of extra work. The only way we have been meeting that is by overtime work. One of the reasons we haven't many estimates on the legislation that the Secretary talked about here today is that there just hasn't been enough hours in the day.

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION

In connection with the Office of Personnel Administration, we are requesting $16,915, and that is for 4 new positions in that office. It is in keeping with the increase that is requested with regard to the number of employees in the various programs.

One of the big problems we are confronted with is recruitment. We are constantly finding it more difficult to recruit economists, statisticians, stenographers, and wage and hour inspectors.

DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARY

For the departmental library we are requesting $21,125 for staff, $5,000 for equipment.

Mr. FOGARTY. Tell us something about that staff for the library. Mr. DODSON. The library was surveyed some time ago by an outside librarian. We also had a departmental staff person work along with the outside librarian, and he recommended at that time that the library have a staff of 29 people. We have never been able to build the staff of the library up to the 29. We have only 19 people. Now, what is happening there in the library is that cataloging is falling behind and we are having to shift employees from reference work to cataloging, and more or less operate on a fire-alarm system in order to give some kind of service.

Mr. FOGARTY. How many employees do you have now?

Mr. DODSON. Nineteen.

Mr. FOGARTY. And you ask for how many?

Mr. DODSON. Six additional. Two GS-7's, 1 GS-5 and 3 clerktypists.

Mr. FOGARTY. Retirement contributions are manditory; isn't that right?

Mr. DODSON. They are required by law.

Mr. FOGARTY. The executive pay raise is also manditory?

Mr. DODSON. Yes, sir, and that includes the $5,000 Mr. Wilkins referred to.

REVOLVING FUND COVERAGE

Mr. FOGARTY. What is this revolving fund contribution?

Mr. DODSON. We have a justification here for the establishment of a revolving fund and this happens to be the amount of money that is necessary for the Secretary's Office to contribute to the revolving fund to pay for the increased activities of the Secretary's Office.

Mr. FOGARTY. Now you couldn't have written this in much broader language, could you? You can do almost anything under that language, can you not, in the Secretary's Office.

Mr. DODSON. We can only add to our functions, other than what we have described in our estimates, upon approval from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget.

Mr. FOGARTY. Without the consent and approval of the committee or Congress?

Mr. DODSON. Well, we certainly would take that into very serious consideration.

Mr. FOGARTY. You couldn't do it without the consent of Congress? Mr. DODSON. Yes, sir; we could. You can rest assured that we would not.

Mr. FOGARTY. It is pretty broad language for a revolving fund. Mr. DODSON. In the course of this justification, Mr. Chairman, we try to build up our reasoning as to why we have asked for the items in the revolving fund. There isn't a standard for the establishment of these revolving funds, in the various departments that have them. They have various things that they charge, but our endeavor was to try to have the Bureau's budget for the cost of things that pertain to the Bureau's activities, even though the activity itself was rendered as a service function of the Office of the Secretary, and thereby delete from the Secretary's office, expenses which had the appearance of increasing the Secretary's overhead to a great degree, and putting the cost back in the bureaus where it rightfully belonged.

Now, we have two items in here which some departments do not have. One is helping to finance the Office of Information and Reports. The other one is the visual information service.

Mr. FOGARTY. For your information, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare asked for this for 2 years in succession, and Congress has not been sold on it yet for that Department.

Mr. DODSON. I know it is getting late, but I would like to call the committee's attention to the fact that the Office of Information, Publications, and Reports could not have performed certain duties that it did this year if we had not detailed, on a very limited basis, certain staff to it. The constant detailing of staff is not a good practice to enter into. What we have done here is put a proposal to you to enable us to charge the bureaus for their proportionate share of information work.

Mr. FOGARTY. But this is a pretty broad proposal:

For financing all expenses necessary for the procurement of supplies, equipment and service, and maintenance and operation of such common services as the Secretary, with the approval of the Bureau of the Budget, deems may be performed more advantageously as central services for the Department.

Mr. DODSON. The Office of Information is one, I believe, which is not included in the HEW revolving fund.

Mr. FOGARTY. What is it?

Mr. DODSON. The Office of Information, Publications, and Reports is not included.

Mr. FOGARTY. A central reproduction service and tabulating service and supplies and equipment-they are confined to those three in HEW. Mr. DODSON. We are not advocating a central tabulating service, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics is really the primary Bureau in the Department involving tabulating so whatever other tabulating is necessary in the Department we have done through that tabulating service, and it is also a specialized type of operation. We feel it can be performed there, better than to bring it into this picture.

But I want to go back to the Office of Information. I don't know whether you gentlemen are aware of The American Workers Fact Book which was a book done on a departmental basis, using people from the bureaus to help develop the material; and the results that have come out of the printing of that book-the Superintendent of Documents rode our requisition for 10,000 copies for sale to the public. Within 36 days after delivery these publications for sale were completely exhausted, and a reprint of 7,500 copies was authorized. To date there has been a total of 16,800 of these publications sold at a unit cost of $1.50 per copy.

I have several other illustrations in my statement with regard to the work of the Office of Information, Publications, and Reports.

Mr. FOGARTY. You know something like that could be handled on a straight appropriation. That wasn't a very good example you gave

me.

Mr. DODSON. If it is handled on a straight-appropriation basis, then we msut request staff for the Office of Information and Reports within the Secretary's appropriation. These plans, at times, call for the contribution by the bureaus in order to do the work that is involved, more so than if we were restricted to an increase of 3, 4, or 5 people. Maybe it will take 7 over a given period of time, or maybe it will take overtime on the part of the 5 in order to get them out.

When the money is appropriated to the Secretary's Office you lose that flexibility of sharing the cost. Now, I can give you a very good illustration on sharing the cost, in connection with duplicating work. These employees are paid according to wage-board rates. The wageboard findings occurred during the course of a fiscal year when all of those employees were budgeted in the Office of the Secretary. The cost of an increase ordered by the wage board must then be defrayed by the Office of the Secretary appropriation. The amount will be from $6,000 to $10,000. It is too small to justify a supplemental, so we have to resort to various stringent ways to find the means to finance. Whereas, if that activity is being operated on a revolving-fund basis, each of the bureaus would pay their proportionate share of that wage increase.

LAPSES

Mr. FOGARTY. How many lapses have you had this year?

Mr. DODSON. We have had some lapse from the Under Secretary's position, and we have had lapse from the Assistant Secretary's position.