Statement of- CONTENTS Beckworth, Hon. Lindley, a Representative in Congress from the Broyhill, Hon. Joel T., a member of the subcommittee_. Stahl, O. Glenn, Director, Bureau of Programs and Standards, U.S. EXTENDING APPORTIONMENT REQUIREMENT TO TEMPORARY SUMMER EMPLOYMENT WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1961 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, POST OFFICE AND CIVIL SERVICE, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11 a.m., in room 215, House Office Building, Hon. Kathryn E. Granahan (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mrs. GRANAHAN. The committee will come to order. This subcommittee was appointed to consider H.R. 5698, a bill to extend the apportionment requirement in the Civil Service Act of January 16, 1883, to temporary summer employment, and for other purposes. The members of the subcommittee are Mr. Dulski, Mr. Addabbo, Mr. Broyhill, and Mr. Rousselot, and I was designated chairman. H.R. 5698 was introduced by our colleague and valued former member of this committee, Representative Lindley Beckworth, of Texas. The purpose, as indicated in the title, is to require that temporary summertime appointments to Government positions in the Washington area be subject to the apportionment requirements of the Civil Service Act of 1883, just as such apportionment requirements now are applicable to permanent appointments in the Washington area. This extension of the apportionment policy to summertime employment would be accomplished, under the language of the bill, by inserting appropriate language in the pertinent section of the Civil Service Act, as contained in section 633 of title 5 of the United States Code. (H.R. 5698 follows:) [H.R. 5698, 87th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To extend the apportionment requirement in the Civil Service Act of January 16, 1883, to temporary summer employment, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the sixth paragraph of section 2 of the Civil Service Act of January 16, 1883, as amended (5 U.S.C. 633), providing for the apportionment of appointments in the competitive civil service, is amended by inserting "(including appointments to temporary employment of more than thirty days in the period from May 1 through September 30 of each year, except appointments to the postal field service and appointments of an emergency nature)" immediately following "appointments to the public service aforesaid". Mrs. GRANAHAN. Our first witness is Representative Beckworth, the author of H.R. 5698. 1 Mr. Beckworth, it is a pleasure to have you before this subcommittee of the committee on which you rendered such valuable service, and I welcome you. STATEMENT OF HON. LINDLEY BECKWORTH, REPRESENTATIVE IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM THE THIRD DISTRICT OF THE STATE OF TEXAS Mr. BECKWORTH. Thank you, Chairman Granahan. I appreciate your very cordial welcome. It goes without saying that I enjoyed very much my service on this committee beginning first in 1939, and then I was privileged to return here about 4 years ago and served some 2 more years on this splendid committee. I miss it. I want to thank you for making possible this hearing, Chairman Granahan, and Mr. Johnson for helping me to bring it about, and certainly the distinguished chairman of the committee who cooperated with me to help me get a hearing. Never have I called on the members of this committee or the personnel for cooperation without receiving wonderful cooperation. You are indeed a splendid committee and you have a very wonderful staff. This is a very simple bill concerning which I appear. There is nothing complex about it. It simply provides that in the filling of temporary jobs in the summertime, for example, by students, that the apportionment which now prevails with reference to Federal employees in connection with full-time jobs will prevail. I have in mind two or three fundamental reasons why I think this bill should pass. A great deal of stress is placed today on younger people knowing something about our Government, our democracy, and we all know this is a good thing. It will be more necessary in the future, perhaps, than it has been in the past for our people to be able to judge accurately the functioning of the Government. It has been said that a person's judgment is no better than his information. If a youngster has little information about his Government, his ability to render a sound judgment about his Government is limited. The more information he has, the better judgment he will have, in my opinion. Furthermore, it's a very wonderful thing for a child or an adult to be privileged to be here in Washington, even for a short time. It has a value that one can't get in other sections of our Nation; we have only one National Capital. I know when I was a kid living out in the country I never did even dream of having the privilege of being in Washington. It was too remote. Washington still is remote to some of our citizens. And it has been a fulfillment, a very gratifying one for me, just to be here and see these wonderful historic sites that are available for people to see, and to observe the operations of our Government. I am sure every Member of Congress has, from time to time, a request to try to help get a person a job here in Washington in the summertime. Perhaps the efforts that each of us has made have had varying degrees of success; but I would believe that the average Member who undertakes to help one of his constituents get summer employment has a rather tough time doing it. The jobs seem always to be gone. This, in my opinion, is all too true whether a person works through his own efforts or through the efforts of a Member of Congress. And, pursuing this, I began to check a few years ago into where the jobs seem to go. I contacted over 20 agencies of the Government; incidentally, the information was difficult to obtain. It took a good deal of perseverance; it wasn't easily obtainable information. I obtained the names of people and their addresses in over 20 agencies and then began a study of the information. The Library of Congress gave me help too. I want to pay my respects to those in the Library who helped me so very much. They helped me analyze where the people came from who worked here in the District of Columbia in the summertime, based on the facts that I submitted to the Library. Incidentally, this is only a suggestion but perhaps you could help us to bring these figures up to date. The figures I have relate mainly to 1959. I would like to see them brought up to date. You need this information, I feel. The picture may have changed more to the liking of what I feel is a fair situation. I have a table which, I repeat, the Library of Congress helped me prepare. I would like to ask to place this table in the record along with other information that I have obtained in connection with the employment of the people in the Government. (The information follows:) |