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IX. PERSONNEL BENEFITS AND OTHER OBLIGATIONS

This section covers the estimated requirements of the Federal Communications Commission for personnel benefits and other obligations. It covers all non-salary expenses of the Commission.

Personnel benefits

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Funds requested under this category are to cover all Commission costs for travel of employees in the performance of their official duties, travel of employees' families in the case of a change of duty station, travel to first duty station for new recruits in selected occupational groups, home vacation leave for employees stationed outside the contiguous 48 states, and similar travel authorized of required by statute.

In keeping with the various directives of the President, the Appropriations Committees of the Congress, and the Bureau of the Budget we are continually making every effort to hold down costs by using cheaper means of transportation, reducing duration of trips, eliminating trips, and reducing the number of participants in inspections, investigations, meetings, international conferences, etc.

In spite of our efforts to curtail travel expenses there are some areas in which we feel we must make additional expenditures for travel in FY-1967. The purpose of the additional funds for those organizational units where increases are considered necessary are described in the following paragraphs:

Chief engineer. The major portion of the travel performed by the staff of the Chief Engineer is for participation in domestic technical conferences, committee meetings, technical demonstrations, visits to factories, laboratories, and attendance at international conferences.

The increase of $1,000 is required to meet the extra heavy schedule of international conferences to be held in FY-1967. International conferences already scheduled include International Radio Consultative Committee Plenary in Oslo, Norway; International Scientific Radio Union, Munich, Germany; International Special Committee on Radio Perturbations Interference, in Italy; International Telecommunications Union Administrative Conference; Extra Ordinary Administrative Radio Conference in Geneva; and others as may be required.

Common carrier.-The staff of the Common Carrier Bureau is required to travel for the purpose of verifying the adequacy and propriety of accounting records in connection with rate studies and proceedings, and depreciation studies; the review of service applications and conditions; to keep abreast of technological developments in the industry; investigate conditions in the public message telegraph service; participation in many domestic and international conferences in connection with international communications services.

In FY-1967 an additional $1,500 is requested since it is readily apparent that increased travel, domestic and foreign, will be necessary as the global satellite system evolves. As new United States earth terminals (Washington State and Hawaii) and additional foreign entities become active participants in the system we must be in a position to obtain first hand information concerning the technical and operational aspects of such participation. Our responsibilities in the field of procurement, peculiar within the Commission to the Office of Satellite Communications, requires continuing contact with all prime and principal sub-contractors providing apparatus, equipment and services to Comsat to insure compliance with FCC rules. It is considered essential that a technical representative of this bureau be in a position to participate in the preparatory activities leading up to and during the forthcoming Oslo, Norway International Conference on space communications.

Objectively reviewing our responsibilities in the International, technical, operational and procurement areas of satellite communications it is realistically expected that 5 man trips to Western Europe plus possibly one man trip to another area such as South America or the Far East, will be required during Fiscal 1967.

It is further estimated that 4 man trips to the West Coast will be required plus an aggregate of 12 shorter trips to New York and other East Coast points in connection with satellite or other international communications matters.

Field engineering.-An increase of $1,000 in travel funds is proposed for this bureau. The nature of the work of the Field Engineering Bureau requires that employees spend a considerable amount of time in travel status. The staff must travel to inspect ship, land, and aircraft stations; to investigate illegal, clandestine, and unauthorized radio transmissions; to locate sources of interference; to conduct radio operator examinations; and to perform engineering measurements. Transfers of personnel and payment of the travel of families is a source of travel expense as well as home vacation leave and travel to first duty station for new engineers. Expansion of the mobile monitoring and technical enforcement programs together with increased travel in connection with investigations in implementing our plan for FY-1967 will require that employees spend additional time in travel status. Travel funds in this bureau are as essential as manpower and equipment; without any one of the three the program can fail.

Rental of GSA passenger vehicles

No increase is proposed for FY-1967. Passenger type motor vehicles are required by our field engineers to provide transportation for themselves and for the electronic and associated instruments used in connection with station inspections, investigations, engineering measurements, and operator examinations. Two vehicles are rented from GSA on a full-time basis for use by Commissioners and other executive staff in the departmental service.

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Shipment of household goods.-Funds are required to cover the shipment of household goods of new engineers and employees transferred from one duty station to another.

Shipment of things.—Requirements are for shipping of precision instruments to FCC Laboratory or to the manufacturer for repair or calibration and return (such repairs are increasing in number as more and more complex equipment which field personnel cannot service are placed in use); and shipping charges in connection with acquisition of surplus property through GSA.

Rental of trucks-GSA.-Small trucks (sedan, deliveries, vans, pickups and carry alls) are rented from GSA pools for use by field installations for hauling equipment, personnel, and supplies. Increasing use is being made of sedandelivery and enclosed-van vehicles for investigative, mobile monitoring and engineering measurements because of the large amounts of usable space available for carrying and operating electronic equipment.

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These charges remain relatively constant from year to year. have a major reduction in teletypewriter costs because of reduced rates.

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Although printing costs are increasing each year as are most other costs, no additional funds are being requested for any of these items in FY-1967.

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The above detailed listing explains the variety of costs covered by this category. Significant changes are discussed in the following paragraphs:

Health services.-The increase of $7,000 is required in order for the Commission to bring its Occupational Health Program up to the standards prescribed in Bureau of the Budget Circular A-72. The funds will provide for approximately 200 in-service examinations for employees over age 40 and such other employees as determined to be necessary.

TV Study-Census Bureau.-The interest in UHF broadcasting which, manifested since the all-channel TV law has been in effect, has resulted in a closer scrutiny by the Commission of the financial qualifications of station applicants, populations to be serviced and potential audiences. It is necessary to obtain information on a recurring basis on all-channel receivers until such time, in perhaps three or five years, as saturation is nearly complete. The Bureau of Census asked a few questions in its August 1965 Current l'opulation Survey to ascertain whether the households interviewed could receive UHF signals and whether there were color receivers on the premises. The results of this and future more detailed surveys, which are not available from any other source, will provide the Commission with highly useful information. In order to expand the coverage of the survey and to have the necessary statistical tabulations and some analysis per

formed by the Bureau of the Census will require that this Commission transfer an estimated $30,000 to the Bureau.

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Requirements for supplies and materials in FY-1967 are being estimated at about the same level as the two prior years.

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Technical equipment.-Field Engineering Bureau-It is imperative that the field engineers be provided with the necessary tools to achieve efficient and effective enforcement of the Commission's Rules, the Communications Act and International Treaties. The ever-growing numbers of radio stations in operation, together with more stringent operating tolerances and the increasing use of complex types of emissions, plus the proliferation of non-communication types of interference sources, necessitate the use of modern measuring, monitoring and investigative techniques and more sophisticated equipment to maintain order in the radio spectrum and to insure effective utilization of the available channels.

In the preliminary planning for technical equipment procurement proposals for F. Y. 1967 a five-year modernization and upgrading program was developed which would bring the technical facilities in the field to a level consistent with the stateof-the-art. In keeping with recent economy directives, our request for F. Y. 1967 has been reduced significantly below the planned level. Therefore, our five year goal can only be achieved through substantially greater appropriations for technical equipment during the succeeding four years. The procurement proposals listed below are minimum requirements which will provide only for those items which are most urgently needed in carrying out the Commission's spectrum surveillance and rule enforcement responsibilities. Priority will be given to 1) replacing obsolete facilities, 2) providing limited amounts of equipment to meet new and expanding requirements, and 3) launching a program of upgrading mobile monitoring facilities for monitoring stations which are now forced to borrow equipment from their fixed installations for mobile operations. More detailed information concerning our equipment procurement proposals is given below:

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