EDUCATION OF SENATE AND HOUSE PAGES

As set forth in the paragraph, $38,400 is requested for the fiscal year 1954, as compared with $35,790 appropriated for 1953, for the education of congressional pages and pages for the United States Supreme Court, as provided by section 243 of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. This estimate reflects an increase of $2,610, and was based upon estimates submitted to the Clerk of the House by the Superintendent of Public Schools for the District of Columbia.

For the information of your committee, I submit for the record a copy of the itemized estimate in question.

(The statement referred follows:)

Estimated amount required for the education of congressional pages and pages of the Supreme Court for the 1953-54 school year, to be credited to the appropriation for general administration, supervision and instruction, public schools, District of Columbia

Classified employees: General schedule:

Grade 3. Range $2,950 to $3,430: 1 clerk-stenographer___

Temporary employment:

Temporary (per diem) teacher for athletic pro

3,030

07

and repair of office machines__.

Textbooks, library books, and periodicals.

34, 635 250

Communication services: Postage

Other contractual services: Cleaning and repair of athletic uniforms

08 Supplies and materials:

Office and instructional supplies, including science
laboratory supplies and athletic supplies.

40

75

$1,000

700

This paragraph is self-explanatory, and the sum of $4,000, requested for the fiscal year 1954, is the usual amount appropriated for this work.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Under the heading of "General provisions" of the committee print (in the back of the estimates), we have inserted the numbers of the nine resolutions which I placed in the record, at the beginning of my general statement, so that the provisions of these resolutions shall become permanent law. To repeat, these resolutions are House Resolutions Nos. 725, 732, and 739 of the 2d session of the 82d Congress, and House Resolutions Nos. 78, 87, 136, 147, 149, and 206 of the 1st session of the 83d Congress.

This, Mr. Chairman, concludes our statement covering the various items in the budget estimates for the operation of the House of Representatives for the fiscal year 1954.

GRATUITIES TO FAMILIES OF DECEASED EMPLOYEES

Mr. Bow. Mr. Chairman, I refer to item No. 6 on page 33 of the justifications. There is some difference between what we do in the House for the families of our deceased employees as compared to the Senate, is there not?

Mr. SNADER. Yes, sir. The Senate has set up a more or less sliding scale which governs the payment of gratuities to next of kin of deceased employees.

Mr. Bow. What is their minimum?

Mr. SHANKS. It is usually 6 months' salary. Each case is decided by the Senate Rules and Administration Committee on a sliding scale. If a person has had six years' salary or more, 6 months' salary is provided. When it gets up to the 17th year of service, they provide 1 year's gratuity.

Mr. Bow. It is a little more liberal than ours?

Mr. SHANKS. Yes. On our side it is 6 months' salary if the person has had 25, 30, or 50 years' service. The Senate did have a 25-year requirement for a year's salary up until 2 years ago, then they adopted the sliding scale which provides a year's salary to the next of kin of an employee of the Senate with 17 years' service.

DESIGNATION OF HOUSE EMPLOYEES

Mr. BUSBEY. Mr. Chairman, may I be so bold as to bring up my annual complaint in regard to employees being designated by the work they are supposed to do? I do not intend to mention any names, but I have conversed with various people around the House from time to time during the past few months, and I was given to understand that this matter was going to be taken care of this year, but I see on page 6 of this chart that we are still carrying 14 positions classified as "Messengers on soldier's roll." There are other classifications besides that that do not properly indicate the work that the individual is doing. I appreciate this is no problem of yours, Mr. Snader. It is a matter for the House Administration Committee. But we have procrastinated on this for a long time, and, frankly, I think it is time some action be taken to go over these jobs and have them properly classified, instead of going on year after year and classifying them in this way just because they have been so classified in the past.

Mr. SNADER. I have before me a joint resolution-and I might say that this does concern the Clerk of the House, even though you used as an example "Messengers on soldier's roll."

Mr. BUSBEY. I know it concerns the Clerk of the House, but it is something that has to be handled through the House Administration Committee. You do not have authority to make the change.

Mr. SNADER. No, sir. At the beginning of my term I got together, at the request of the House Administration Committee, with Mr. Shanks, and we took the entire payroll of the Clerk's Office and went through it, position by position and it was a considerable job, I might say, because of the very thing that you brought out-and we came up with a suggested reorganization plan of the Clerk's Office. Likewise, suggestions were asked for from the Doorkeeper of the House and the Postmaster and the Sergeant at Arms.

The recommendations were handed in to the House Administration Committee and were then consolidated into a joint resolution. That joint resolution is currently before the House Administration Committee, and I believe, while they have not had an official hearing on it, representations have been made to the Speaker and the minority leader as to clearance on that matter.

This chart which I have in my hand was a functional organizational chart which I, as Clerk, drew up, to show each department under the Clerk, the number of people involved in the appropriation of each department, and where they were located. That chart will become a reality if and when the House Administration Committee will take action on the joint resolution.

Mr. BUSBEY. Has the chairman of the House Administration Committee indicated that they will hold hearings and take action on this. in the near future?

Mr. SNADER. That has been my understanding, that the chairman of the House Administration Committee is most anxious to cooperate on this matter.

CLERK TO PATRONAGE COMMITTEE

Mr. BUSBEY. Mr. Shanks, last year on the floor of the House I brought up the question of transferring a position out of the disbursing office to the office of the chairman of the Patronage Committee. I

contended then, and I contend now, that the chairman of the Patronage Committee cannot operate without a clerk. I think he is entitled to a clerk, and in the justifications the position should be classified as clerk to the Personnel Committee or Patronage Committee. Are you still transferring a position out of your office to the Patronage Committee?

Mr. SHANKS. At the present time; yes. The Clerk of the House has that covered in his reorganization.

Mr. BUSBEY. I sincerely hope the House Administration Committee will take action on this, because I am frank to admit it is an obsession with me, probably, and I would like to stop thinking about it and talking about it. The way to get me to stop is to correct it.

Mr. SNADER. I might say further, gentlemen, that in this reorganization that the Clerk submitted and which is a part of the joint resolution, I found it necessary to create some positions. I dispensed with some positions that, after thorough study and consideration, I found were not justified to exist, but I also found it was necessary to create some positions because of growing responsibilities that are placed under the Clerk's Office.

I refer particularly to electrical and mechanical equipment. Undoubtedly we will reach an inventory of three-quarters of a million dollars in electrical and mechanical equipment before the end of this Congress, or possibly before the end of the first session. These pieces. of electrical equipment are now being taken care of, in effect, by 1 person under the Clerk, whereas the Senate, I am given to understand, has 6 people doing perhaps one-quarter of the amount of work. The Clerk is charged, of course, for the proper care and proper accounting of this electrical and mechanical equipment scattered through 435 offices.

Mr. HORAN. More than that.

Mr. SNADER. Yes, more than that. So there was an attempt to try to visualize the functions of the Clerk in their proper perspective, not only this Clerk but future Clerks. I do not foresee that electrical and mechanical equipment will be done away with. I think as new equipment comes out the House will take cognizance of it and authorize its use in Members' offices.

Mr. HORAN. Any additional question, gentlemen? If not, thank you gentlemen very much for your informative statement.

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 1953.

JOINT SENATE AND HOUSE RECORDING FACILITY

WITNESSES

ROBERT J. COAR, COORDINATOR

LYLE O. SNADER, CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES J. C. SHANKS, DISBURSING CLERK

Mr. HORAN. We have before us Mr. Robert Coar, who operates the Joint Senate and House Facility for radio and television recording.

Bob, I have before me the copies of letters that you gave me. How is your work progressing?

Mr. COAR. Well, we spent a lot of money from our earned funds, and, very briefly, at the start of the year, after salaries had been considered, the report of the General Accounting Office showed us with a balance of $23,882 over and above salaries for the staff of the organization.

REVENUES

Last year, when the television facility was set up, I explained that we would probably run in the red, at least for the first year of its operation, and the indications as a result of a survey that I made at the request of Mr. Snader and Mr. Trice are that may be the case if Congress gets out by the end of July. If it runs another several months, we may break even. That is just a projection. We do not know how long Congress will be in session. In the past we have maintained a 30 percent normal business while Congress was in adjournment, because Members who were in and out of town used the facilities.

The general usage of the facilities has increased considerably over what it used to be. Over 50 percent of the House Members have used the facilities since the first of the year, and about 82 percent of the Senate. However, our dollar volume is not as great because of our increased cost of materials and reduced prices. The latter is not a large factor, but it is one of the factors involved.

There is another item of loss of revenue on our public address system which we had been renting in the Caucus Room and for which we were charging a $15 a day rental charge, similar rentals from outside suppliers made from time to time varying from $45 to $65 a day. That $15 took care of new tubes, maintenance, and so forth. So far this year we have lost over $900 in normal revenue we would have gotten had we been able to bill committees for this service. We have outstanding on our books $255 that we had billed, but there was a discussion to the effect it was just a transfer of funds from one branch to another, so the billing was discontinued. We have kept records of its usage, and there is over $630 which we have not billed to anyone.

PAY SCALE

Then there is one other item which has been mentioned from time to time, and that is adjustment of the pay scale of our engineers. The adjustment does not amount to much dollarwise, but it is important from a morale standpoint. All four engineers have been there about the same length of time. The highest paid man receives less than the lowest paid State Department engineer doing similar work in the State Department, and all we ask for is a small adjustment-I think it amounts to $1,800, to make those salaries equal, because they all do the same work, they are all equally fit to handle the job, and we have had little or no absenteeism. I do not think there has been more than 3 days' absence this session by the engineers. They are very willing boys, as any Member who uses the facilities will tell you. They do not hesitate to stay until 6 or 7 o'clock at night or later, because Members get there late, after the sessions adjourn, and they work a considerable period of time over normal working hours.