Mr. SLACK. The request is for an additional $2,450,000, including $300,000 more for expert witnesses. GENERAL STATEMENT Do you have a statement with regard to this request, Mr. Pellerzi? Mr. PELLERZI. Yes; I do, Mr. Chairman. Specifically, Mr. Chairman, $2,150,000 is for fact witnesses and $300,000 of the supplemental request is for expert witnesses. This brings the total additional request for the current fiscal year to $2,450,000 and increases the limitation on experts from $600,000 to $900,000. As the committee knows, a $1,400,000 supplemental appropriation was approved in fiscal year 1971. However, that supplemental was requested following submission of the 1972 budget, and that budget was not amended to reflect the increased base requirements. Hence we have this problem with the supplemental. The additional $2,150,000 is needed to meet the escalation in costs for fact witnesses, the increase in number of witnesses called, resulting in the rise of number of cases being tried, and the greatly increased costs for protection of witnesses. I will hand to the chairman and the members a chart showing the total obligations in this appropriation to date compared with the obligations by month for the fiscal years 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1972, and the percentage of increases that the obligations represent over the preceding years. As you can note, Mr. Chairman, by January of 1972, the close of the last month, we had obligations in this account of $4,567,000. Since the first half of the year is generally lighter than the second half, it indicates, based on our current 7 months of experience, that the full amount of the supplemental request will be required. Mr. SLACK. Without objection we shall insert this chart entitled "Fees and Expenses of Witnesses," obligations per month, at this point in the record. (The chart referred to follows:) |