customs examination. This is not now done. A 6-months' trial run of this procedure conducted at the port of Philadelphia during the first half of this calendar year showed that this is feasible and supports the cost estimate incorporated in the supplemental budget request. It would be unfortunate, indeed, if the serious problems created by the rising level of imports into the United States were further complicated by a large element of inaccuracy in the data with which business and government must work. It is for these reasons that we urge the Senate committee seriously to consider a full restitution of the Customs request. Sincerely yours, LUTHER H. HODGES, STATEMENT BY H. B. McCOY, PRESIDENT, TRADE RELATIONS COUNCIL OF THE UNITED STATES I appreciate the opportunity to present a statement to this committee in support of part of a supplemental appropriation to the Bureau of Customs in the amount of $600,000 which is set forth on page 22, lines 4 and 5 of H.R. 9169. It is my understanding that the amount of $600,000 proposed in this bill is composed of the following: $450,000 for additional operations by reason of reduction of tourists' exemptions on duty-free imports from $500 to $100; and $150,000 to provide for additional expenses involved in the proposal to correct entries on import declarations. I am directing my remarks to the latter item. The Trade Relations Council, which I represent, has as its members corporations and trade associations interested in foreign trade policy and international trade. Thus, we have a concern about the completeness and accuracy of our foreign trade statistics. Since I served many years in the Department of Commerce, I have had extensive experience in and familiarity with our foreign trade statistics. Our total foreign trade has grown enormously during the past few years. The growth in the volume of our imports and exports has resulted in a spectacular increase in the number of documents (import and export declarations) which must be handled by the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of the Census. In my opinion, neither of these Bureaus has been provided with adequate funds by the Congress to cope with the increasing flood of documents. As a result, the completeness and accuracy of our foreign trade statistics have deteriorated, particularly the import statistics. I am sure that the Bureau of Customs has provided the committee with detailed justification for the additional amount requested. I will not endeavor to go into the detailed mechanics of recording of import statistics. However, I can recite some of the deficiencies in the import statistics, which are hopefully to be eliminated by the additional appropriation of $150,000. Importers, or their agents or transportation agencies, must file declarations for all imports giving a description of the commodities, quantities, values, and countries of origin. Import declarations, when initially prepared, may contain inaccurate descriptions and commodity classification numbers, and perhaps erroneous quantities or values. These inaccuracies may be due to carelessness, lack of adequate information by the individuals actually making out the declarations, and in some cases, inaccuracies and deficiencies are deliberate for selfserving purposes. So far as I am aware, there are no penalities imposed by the Bureau of Customs on importers for inaccurate declarations. A copy of the import declaration, after filing by the importer, is provided to the Bureau of the Census for statistical tabulation. The import shipment must be examined by the appraiser of the Bureau of Customs to determine the duties, if any, to be paid in accordance with tariff schedules. During the examination and the assessment and collection of duties, or the free entry, the appraiser makes notations on a copy of the import declaration correcting any deficiencies or omissions in the commodity description, import commodity classification, or quantity and value. Unfortunately, due to the system of document handling, the changes that are made in the import declaration by the Bureau of Customs are not automatically transferred to the copy of the declaration which is used by the Bureau of the Census for statistical tabulation of the import entry. I am not implying that an import declaration describing an automobile, for example, would remain uncorrected, for statistical purposes, if the importation actually was bicycles. The more obvious inaccurate import declarations are corrected but sometimes this occurs many months after the import entry. I have observed that monthly import statistics are substantially changed months after the importation, and that publication of final calendar year imports have been held up pending the investigation and correction of import entries. Two or three years ago, my organization in the Department of Commerce investigated a sampling of imports entries for certain machinery items. About one-third of the entries examined we judged to be correctly described as to type of machine, with appropriate quantity and values. Another one-third of the entries we could not decide the accurateness of these entries without extensive investigation of either all of the import documents or making direct inquiries to the importers. The remaining one-third we determined that the import entries were incorrect in that the description of the commodity was not accurate, or the import classification indicated was erroneous, or that the quantities or values would not correspond to the import description. I do not know precisely how the Bureau of Customs, in cooperation with the Bureau of the Census, will utilize the funds requested. It is my presumption that a procedure will be worked out whereby the statistical record of import transactions will be correct before tabulation by the Bureau of the Census. The additional funds will be needed to provide for the extra manpower for this purpose. There are a substantial number of import classifications for statistical purposes which are known as basket items. Imports of a wide variety of commodities, in the same category, are included in these basket classes. It is practically impossible to determine the exact type of imports in these groups unless the import declarations for statistical purposes are correct with respect to the description of the commodity, the import classification, and the quantity and value. Whenever it becomes necessary for any agency of the Government to ascertain the composition of these general classes of imports, usually questionnaires must be sent to the importers to obtain the proper information. This is a difficult undertaking, particularly if such an inquiry is made several years after the importation. If the import declarations on file for these classes were in every respect accurate and complete, the precise information about any of the commodities imported, and included in the basket statistical classification, could be obtained directly from these documents. This would be of great assistance to private firms which cannot now obtain detailed information on imports of a specific product included in these import classifications. The volume and variety of U.S. imports have been and are expected to increase from year to year. It is necessary for both Government and private business to be able to have a timely and accurate statistical picture of imports. For many reaons, which I will not detail, statistics on our foreign trade will become of increasing importance as one of the major items in our national economic accounts. It is important that import statistics may be related directly to other major statistical series for our national economy. The comparability of statistical series is entirely dependent upon completeness and accuracy. The import declarations are filed and serve as a reservoir of such information for many years. Unless these documents are correct in all respects, they are of limited value for reference purposes. COMMITTEE RECESS Senator MAGNUSON. All right. We will recess until tomorrow morning at 10, in room F-39. (Whereupon, at 5:15 p.m., Wednesday, September 20, 1961, the committee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.in., Thursday, September 21, 1961.) SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1962 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1961 U.S. SENATE. COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room F-39, the Capitol, Hon. Robert C. Byrd, presiding. Present: Senators McClellan, Russell, Ellender, Magnuson, Holland, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COMMISSIONER'S YOUTH COUNCIL STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS J. DODD, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT EFFECT OF REDUCTION IN FUNDS Senator BYRD. The committee will be in order. The first witness this morning will be the distinguished Senator from Connecticut, with whom I used to serve in the House of Representatives. Senator Dodd, the committee is very pleased to have you appear before it this morning. You may proceed. Senator DODD. Thank you very much, Senator Byrd. I will be brief. I appreciate the opportunity to appear. As you know, I talked to you 2 days ago about this item and you were gracious enough to afford me this opportunity. I want to talk about the cut of the $37,500 item from the budget for the District of Columbia. Commissioner's Youth Council. I fear that there will be grave consequences as a result of the elimination of this item here in the District with respect to the work among the young people. As you very well know better than I do, the situation in the District is indeed a very grave and serious one and it gets worse every year with respect to delinquency and crime. This item involves the youth council. Also the entire value of the youth council lies in seven area board workers, of which the present budgetary cut eliminates five, plus one clerical position. I think it is important to point out that these workers do not only represent five people. Instead, they are the organizers of more than a thousand volunteer workers, and additional thousands of their affiliates in the 22 area boards in which the city is divided. WORK OF COUNCIL What they do is this. They determine the needs in the particular neighborhoods. They talk to the youngsters, the families, the school counsellors, the teachers, and then pull together the resources that must be brought to bear on the problem at hand. Many of the volunteer board members are professional persons with a limited amount of time available for service on the board. The staff members know whom to call, when to call, and what to do in an emergency, and they have done a good job. One of the most important projects conducted by the staff is the organization and direction of the block organizations, and these people go into the areas block by block, and try to find out who the troublemakers are, who the people are that have problems, the youngsters as well as the older people. They work with them to try to get at the core and root of the difficulty. There are 60 of these block organizations presently with 7,000 members working on this problem. This is a great body of people, dedicated and hard working, giving of their own time, and they do need these few professional workers to help them organize and direct their work. RESTORATION REQUESTED I say that this item ought to be restored, Mr. Chairman. I hope you will do it. It is a small item, but it is an important one in this struggle to try to solve this great problem of growing crime, among young people in particular. I came to ask that you consider restoring the item and I hope that your committee will see fit to do so. Senator BYRD. Senator Dodd, your statement will be included in the record. (The statement referred to follows:) Mr. Chairman, on Tuesday this week I spoke on the floor of the Senate about what I considered an unnecessary and a detrimental $37,500 cut in the proposed 1962 annual budget for the District of Columbia Commissioner's Youth Council. My statement outlined some of the grave consequences that this congressional action might produce on the already scarce delinquency preventive and youth-aid services in the Nation's Capital. I am happy today to appear before this committee to repeat and emphasize my former allegations in defense of the amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill H.R. 9169 which I offer for the purpose of restoring the $37,500 to the youth council. Mr. Chairman, unless my amendment is considered favorably, Washington will lose the major portion of a most effective delinquency control measure. Almost the entire value of the youth council lies in seven area board workers of which the present budgetary cut eliminates five plus one clerical position. As I said on the floor of the Senate, these workers do not only represent five people. Instead they are the organizers of more than a thousand volunteer workers and additional thousands of their affiliates in the 22 area boards in which the city is divided. They determine the needs in the particular neighborhoods, they talk to the youngsters, the families, the school counselors, the teachers, and then pull together the resources that must be brought to bear on the problem at hand. Many of the volunteer board members are professional persons with a limited amount of time available for service on the board. The staff members know whom to call, when to call, and what to do in an emergency. These staff members of the youth council organize the operation of odd job centers throughout the city for work placement of youth; collection and distribution of clothing to needy youngsters; supervision and direction of carrier boys clubs, as part of which boys receive work training, counseling to improve attitudes, and the opportunity for educational and leisure time activities. The youth council staff also works with youth groups to control gang activities. In cooperation with the roving leaders of the recreation department and the police aid division, they spot gang-like groups and direct them into constructive channels. |