SPECIAL AND SELECT COMMITTEES

Mr. BENJAMIN. Special and Select Committees.

Mr. COLLEY. Shall I read that?

Mr. BENJAMIN. We will insert that for the record and open it for questions.

[The information follows:]

SPECIAL AND SELECT COMMITTEES

The funding the Special and Select Committees' expenditures in fiscal year 1980 has been estimated to be $55,551,200. These are supplemental funds for standing committees to hire additional staff. In addition to personnel, they are used for nonpersonnel expenditures of the special and select committees that are established by the House. The following summary of past years' authorizations gives an illustration of the funds available to the special and select committees.

The Committee on House Administration conducts hearings on the funds requested by each standing committee, and the House approves resolutions authorizing their expenditures. The funds are authorized on a Session basis while appropriated on a fiscal year basis. Funding resolutions are now being considered and we anticipate House action in the near future. I shall advise the Subcommittee of the results of the funding resolutions as soon as possible.

I will submit for the record a statement showing the various Committee investigative funds authorized by the House during the Second Session, Ninety-Fifth Congress, as of December 31, 1978. In addition this statement shows the total amount authorized, the amounts expended and the unexpended balances.

I would like to submit for the record a tabulation in aggregate of the calendar year 1978 funding authorizations and expenditures by major cost centers.

FUNDING UNDER CONSIDERATION

Mr. COLLEY. As you know, the funding resolutions for the special and select committees for investigations in this calendar year of the Congress are now being considered by the Committee on House Administration.

The first resolutions were brought to the House floor last week and voted upon Monday. So we do not have a final figure as to

what they will be when we get all the authorizations for this calendar year.

We will be happy to provide you with that complete list.

Mr. BENJAMIN. You have estimated a figure of $55,551,200. Is that calculated on what the committees requested?

Mr. COLLEY. That is calculated on past years' experience. When this budget was made up last October, there was no way we would know what the various committees would request in their funding resolutions this session.

As I indicated, the first 10 resolutions have been reported and acted upon. There was a reduction effected from what was requested. We will know within the next month what the final resolutions will be for the remainder of the committees because our continuing resolution expires on March 31.

Perhaps by the time you have markup we will have a better idea what the final figure will be.

Mr. MICHEL. Are not those funding resolutions by calendar year? Mr. COLLEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. MICHEL. Then you are testifying here to justification on a fiscal year basis?

Mr. COLLEY. Yes, we have to budget over 2 fiscal years to cover the calendar year, so we are spending our 1979 funds now. We will need additional funds for fiscal year 1980. That is another reason why it is very difficult to have an accurate estimate for the fiscal year.

Mr. MICHEL. What would be the effect if we took a slice at this doggone item? It is $55 million; no small item.

Mr. COLLEY. I think it depends on what the funding resolutions eventually provide. It seems to me that you would then know what the House, itself, has authorized in the way of expenditures for the committees.

Mr. MICHEL. In other words, the determination is made in those funding resolutions, and the figure arrived at there is the one that you have to testify to here?

Mr. COLLEY. We, in effect, have to have in our budget for fiscal 1979, adequate funds for the remainder of this fiscal year, and on October 1st, this funding becomes available for the rest of the calendar year. The funding resolution covers both parts for the entire calendar year. We hope this estimate is reasonably correct. It is based on what we have seen happening in the past few years. The effect of you taking a slice at this item, as you put it, would simply mean that the funds might not be there to pay for those things that the House has authorized for the committees. Mr. MICHEL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION

Mr. BENJAMIN. Office of the Joint Committee on Taxation, we will insert that in the record.

[The information follows:]

Joint Committee on TaxatiON

For salaries and expenses of the Joint Committee on Taxation, to be disbursed by the Clerk of the House, $2,607,200.

Mr. Chairman, since the time the Budget was submitted to OMB last fall, the Joint Committee has submitted an updated estimate which reflects a reduction of $45,200 in their personnel funding request. The revised estimate ($2,562,000) is an increase of $186,800 over the amount appropriated in fiscal year 1979. The increase is attributed to additional personnel costs of $176,800 of which $64,000 is for additional employees and $10,000 for non-personnel services.

We ask the Subcommittee during its mark up session to make this adjustment.

Mr. BENJAMIN. We have heard from the Joint Committee on Taxation. Is there any comment you want to make on that particular item?

OFFICE OF THE ATTENDING PHYSICIAN

Mr. COLLEY. No, sir. Office of the Attending Physician.

For the Office of the Attending Physician, $459,000, to be disbursed by the Clerk of the House. Of this amount, $259,000 is reimbursable to the Department of the Navy for the military personnel assigned to the Attending Physician's Office.

Reimbursable costs to the Department of the Navy are based on "composite standard military rates" used for recovering costs from private parties and other governmental agencies.

The request for this appropriation was submitted by the Attending Physician, Dr. Freeman H. Cary, who has addressed the letter of request to you, Mr. Chairman, and Dr. Cary is here and maybe you would like to call on him.

EXPLANATION OF 1979 EXPENDITURES

Mr. BENJAMIN. Dr. Cary, your letter has already been inserted in the record.

In 1978, the Office of the Attending Physician spent $77,611 on supplies and equipment. The appropriation for fiscal 1979 was for $175,525. Please explain what money in this category have been spent to date in fiscal 1979 and explain specifically what items and equipment will be purchased in fiscal year 1980 for $164,000.

Dr. CARY. In this current fiscal year we bought a piece of laboratory equipment costing $51,000. The remaining costs are for laboratory supplies, drugs and equipment, X-ray supplies, and so forth. Mr. BENJAMIN. Would you give us a breakdown for the record on that? What was the item that cost $50,000?

Dr. CARY. A duPont autoanalyzer that can do 30 blood tests by automation, so that we can get accurate blood testing in a matter of minutes to do the type of test that civilian institutions do and called an SMA-12 procedure.

PHARMACIST

Mr. BENJAMIN. You have expressed an intent to hire a pharmacist. Is the pharmacist aboard now?

Dr. CARY. No, sir; not yet. We have designated a person, though, and he is coming aboard shortly.

Mr. BENJAMIN. That is a Navy?

Dr. CARY. Yes, sir, Lieutenant, Junior Grade.

Mr. BENJAMIN. What would be the cost to the House?

Dr. CARY. Fifteen thousand three hundred sixty dollars is the base lieutenant junior grade pay, and if he receives the allowances, it would be another $2,400 a year.

Mr. BENJAMIN. At the present time, you have how many people in the pharmacy?

Dr. CARY. We have two pharmacy technicians. One is there at all times, and the other one is doing some other work. Both of these men are capable of doing multiple jobs, and only one is there at any given time, but there are two technicians.

Mr. BENJAMIN. The pharmacist you are going to bring aboard will be there full-time.

Dr. CARY. Yes, and assisted by one of the pharmacy technicians.

LIMITATION OF ADDITIONAL ALLOWANCES

Mr. BENJAMIN. In the course of the 1979 fiscal appropriation bill, the committee report included language regarding successor employees in your office, limiting the added compensation that we pay the medical officers and assistants for working on the Hill. That was not included in the Senate report. Since that time, you have had some new employees, and, as I would understand it, you have not yet been able to pay them the allowance that is allowed for every other employee. Thus, your employees are now in a dual pay status. For those who were there previous to the start of the fiscal year, they still receive the added allowance; those who were not there are just getting their regular Navy pay. Is that correct? Dr. CARY. That is correct.

Mr. BENJAMIN. The restrictive language is not a part of law, and, as I understand it, you would like to have the restriction removed in whatever manner that the committee would see fit.

Dr. CARY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Would you explain the reason for the allowance and how long it has been in existence?

Dr. CARY. It has been in existence since the office opened in 1928, and increased through the years to what it is now. But my understanding of why the allowance exists is these men work quite a bit of overtime, and they also have to wear civilian clothes. They have, in most instances, quite a distance to travel to get to work. They have to stay extra hours at night and have to have their evening meal here, even though it may have been already prepared at home, plus the fact it is quite an inconvenience of not being able to know when they are going to be home at night. They can't plan any family activities like the normal serviceman can.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Is that also in lieu of them holding any other job on the outside?

Dr. CARY. Well, I don't think it was originally intended that way, but they can't hold an outside job because their hours are not dependable enough for them to work.

Mr. BENJAMIN. If they were with a naval installation, is there a preclusion in the law?

Dr. CARY. No.

Mr. BENJAMIN. That amounts to about $200 per enlisted man per month?

Dr. CARY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BENJAMIN. How much for the officers?

Dr. CARY. The same except for myself, and I receive $1,000 a month.

Mr. BENJAMIN. How many are aboard now not receiving them? Dr. CARY. Two.

Mr. BENJAMIN. What is their job description?

Dr. CARY. One is the pharmacy technician, and the other is a laboratory technician, doing the CPR training and first aid training.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Both are enlisted men.

Dr. CARY. Yes.

Mr. MICHEL. So on that item, the total is $200 times two times 12, right, is all we are talking about?