EXPLANATION OF STAFFING INCREASE

Mr. BENJAMIN. Do these figures relate to the fiscal year 1979 budget after the 5-percent withholding was applied by section 311 or do they relate to the total fiscal year 1979 appropriation of $185,756,000 which was only $2 million less than your request of $187,843,000?

Mr. PIN. Could I get clarification?

Mr. BENJAMIN. Yes. I am trying to figure out when you ask for the additional staff, are you predicating it on the law after the application of section 311, or are you basing it on the fiscal year 1979 appropriation in total amount? There is a $9 million difference there.

Mr. PIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. BENJAMIN. What I am trying to figure out is from what base you start.

Mr. PIN. Let me try to explain how we drew together the 400 staff years. The workload that Mr. Staats enumerated came about during the second session of the 95th Congress. We didn't make any reference to what our original budget plan was, but in starting to figure out what our level would be for 1979-80, we did deal with that net bottom line number, the number we have to work with, which is $176.5 million. That is our current financial plan for 1979, so if your point is, did we build from there, yes, sir, we did build from that number.

Mr. BENJAMIN. From the $176 million.

Mr. PIN. Yes, we would have to as a practical matter.

Mr. BENJAMIN. What you are doing is you are talking about the workload increase less the absorption?

Mr. PIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Less the deferrals, less the efficiency achieved? Mr. PIN. That is right.

Mr. BENJAMIN. For that which was added to you since you worked on your budget January 1, 1978, which means really the whole 1979 year.

Mr. PIN. That is right.

Mr. BENJAMIN. And the 1978 year, I guess.

Mr. PIN. No, that relates only to fiscal year 1979. We took what occurred during the 95th Congress second session. That is the workload we are planning to handle.

Mr. BENJAMIN. OK.

Mr. PIN. It has never been counted on and never developed in conjunction with-

Mr. BENJAMIN. In other words, when you draw up your 1979 budget in January 1978, you had already calculated what workload had been added by the first session of the 95th Congress.

Mr. PIN. Exactly.

Mr. BENJAMIN. And I assume if section 311 is modified in any manner, that this is going to change the picture, but we can look at that after you show us the way you went about calculating this. Mr. PIN. Yes, sir. We are not aware of any such efforts. Mr. STAATS. We can't put that money in the bank.