24 APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1943 7615 HEARINGS BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE U.S. Congress. Senate. 1 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H. R. 7319 A BILL MAKING SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR FOR OTHER PURPOSES 74384 Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1942 I say that I failed, because I do not believe that any committee that would have time to devote themselves to understanding the tremendous task assigned to O. P. A. could fail to see that the funds in the house bill are insufficient. HOUSE REDUCTION REDUCES FORCE BELOW PRESENT AUTHORIZATION In the shortest terms, to state what the cut does to us, I can say that it cuts us below what our operating authorization is now. Roughly, the Budget authorized up to 38,000 persons for us for our current work, and $75,000,000 would leave us with approximately 32,500. The big item in our personnel requirements is for the local rationing boards. I would like to tell you what was the course, beginning with our first application, of our request as it was considered by the various authorities. RESPONSIBILITY OF ADMINISTRATOR WITH RESPECT TO RENTS AND PRICES We have the responsibility under the Price Control Act for rents and prices. I take the position that that responsibility is not merely an authorization, that the Price Control Act is so written that when the Administrator determines by the standards of the act and all the legislative history, that prices are out of line, or that rents are getting into an inflationary status, he has no other course but to move. ADMINISTRATION OF RATIONING PROGRAM In addition to our authorizations and directives as they flow from the statute, the President and the War Production Board has assigned to me the job of doing the actual rationing administration once a determination is made that we should go into a rationing program. In respect to rationing we are not exercising the type of policy and judgments that we make in the Price Control Act; that is, if the War Production Board decides tomorrow that article X is to be rationed, under the President's directive I am compelled to go ahead and see that an equitable rationing plan is installed and administered. Senator MCCARRAN. That order, then, comes primarily from another authority, your primary order? Mr. HENDERSON. Rationing decisions flow from the War Production Board and the President. In the matter of taking action on rents and on prices the language of the price-control statute and the legislative history are clear that Congress, in effect, directed me to go forward when I determined that prices were reaching an inflationary situation. CREATION OF LOCAL RATIONING BOARDS In order to carry out the rationing authority and responsibilities we have caused to be set up local rationing boards in every county in the United States. Those offices are handling a few commodities at the present time. The decisions are being made by a local board composed of three citizens, and they are doing yeomen work. They have asked, however, for clerical help in order to perform the increasing burden or work that is being laid upon them. NEED FOR CLERICAL ASSISTANCE FOR BOARDS Senator MCCARRAN. The truth of the matter is these boards you have set up are working without compensation. Mr. HENDERSON. That is correct. Senator MCCARRAN. And as their work increases it is becoming burdensome because they cannot give any time to their own business, whatever it may have been. They must now devote practically all their time to the rationing boards. Mr. HENDERSON. That is correct. The Selective Service Act is administered on the same volunteer basis, so far as the decisions to be made, but their clerical help is paid, and I understand they have between twelve and thirteen thousand paid employees for doing the clerical work. I call attention to the difference between the obligation that rests on the local war price and rationing board as against that performed by the Selective Service draft boards. When a Selective Service draft board has made a determination it is pretty much finished business so far as further administration is concerned, but when a local rationing board has made a ruling or a determination in connection with any item to be rationed there is a continuing problem, there is a continuing adjustment problem, and there is no similitude between the two jobs after it has passed the initial exercise of judgment. NUMBER OF RATIONING BOARDS AT PRESENT We have something like 9,000 rationing boards at the present time. The reason there are 9,000 was not due Senator O'MAHONEY. You mean boards or employees? Mr. HENDERSON. Boards. There are 27,000 board members. The reason we have about 3 times as many boards as counties is because when we set up these boards we called upon the State councils of national defense and they chose a different criteria in each State as to the number of boards they would set up. In some cases they set up one in every ward in a city. ESTIMATES BASED ON 5,200 BOARDS We feel that we can set a uniform standard of work load for a board and can probably reduce the number of boards to about 5,200. The Budget agreed with that. AVERAGE NUMBER OF CLERKS PER BOARD The estimates of the work load-and we have made some detailed studies of what the work load was likely to be, particularly in the New England States-indicated that an avergae of six or seven clerical employees per board would be needed if the rationing and price work were as we anticipated it to be. BOARDS WILL RATION ALL ARTICLES IN RATIONING PROGRAMS Senator HAYDEN. Let me ask in that connection: You have a rationing board, to be specific, in Tucson, Ariz. Will the same board ration sugar and tires and everything else? |