of Plant Industry, which used to occupy some space at Arlington, to Beltsville, and when this move is effectuated that will mean the decentralization of 481 more people who now occupy 107,717 square feet. In all of these categories there are a total of 2,100 employees occupying some 295,000 square feet. The CHAIRMAN. When will that likely be accomplished? Mr. EISENHOWER. The building for the Bureau of Plant Industry, will not be completed until about a year from now. The CHAIRMAN. There is no present prospect of decreasing the personnel here in the immediate future? Mr. EISENHOWER. Except in the first category I mentioned; 688 employees, involving 77,550 square feet, can be transferred to the field. The CHAIRMAN. The Department of Agriculture seems to have been really making effort to decentralize its activities; Forest Service, Soil Conservation Service, and things of that kind. Would it not be a great saving in cost to the people who have to contact the Department of Agriculture about these matters if a great many of these agencies were set up in the field? Mr. EISENHOWER. It is partly for that very reason that we have over as period of many years decentralized activities as much as we have. For example, the Forest Service has about 11 regional headquarters located in cities like Milwaukee, San Francisco, and others. So have the Soil Conservation Service and other agencies. In effect the regional office is simply a decentralization of the Washington organization. There are also State, district, and county offices. So, we think we have already done that to a great extent, as indicated by the Secretary's letter to you we do not favor the complete removal of any agency from Washington. The Department of Agriculture is an integrated organization. You might think of it as a single bureau. For example, all activities administered by the Secretary are tied into a single cooperative planning effort; all are served by the Secretary's staff offices for personnel, budget and finance, program coordination, information, and legal service. All are tied into a single system for extension education. In the various reorganization plans we lost from the Department of Agriculture activities such as the Bureau of Public Roads and the Weather Bureau, but we received into the Department other activities, such as the Farm Credit Administration and the Rural Electrification Administration. So, every agency in the Department today is closely related to all the others and they function as an integrated whole. Now keep in mind that we are in practically every agency carrying on work with individual farmers. Each constituent agency handles its full share of the total program. Consequently, we must decentralize uniformly throughout, without completely removing any single agency from the coordinated system. And in that way we are accomplishing the real purposes of decentralization. The CHAIRMAN. We appreciate the force of that statement, and of the necessity, from the standpoint of legislation with reference to the various activities, that there should be available for access to the Congress representatives of the different units. Mr. EISENHOWER. Mr. Chairman, I have brought with me some statistics which you may wish to insert in the record, concerning the various activities of the Department. Starting with 1935 and coming down to and including 1941, these statistics show the constant efforts of the Department to decentralize they show for each year how many were in Washington and how many in the field. I also have the data you asked about a moment ago covering Government-owned buildings and rented buildings in Washington; also information on space we occupy in the field. For example, in 1941, we occupied in the field 6,386,211 square feet of either Government-owned or rented space. In addition, we also occupied quite a bit of free, non-Federal space which does not show up in these figures. For example, some space is furnished by the land-grant colleges. Mr. ELLIOTT. Can you place in the record a break-down showing how much free space is furnished the Government? Mr. EISENHOWER. I have the amount exclusive of that figure. Mr. EISENHOWER. We have the amount of Government owned and rented space. Mr. ELLIOTT. And in addition to that could you also furnish the figures showing the amount of space furnished free. Mr. EISENHOWER. Rehabilitation agents are often provided with free space in the counties. Occasionally, various local officials are located in courthouses or other public, though of course non-Federal buildings. At the State level, the colleges sometimes provide free space. It is only the roughest sort of estimate, but I would say that about 3,000,000 square feet of space is provided free. The CHAIRMAN. I think the tables you have referred to it would be well to have in the record. (The tables referred to follow:) |