Hanna, Keith L., Assistant Administrator (Controller), Small Business Horne, John E., Administrator, Small Business Administration--- Lanman, C. R., Deputy Administrator for Financial Assistance, Small Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by- 116 129 97 Excerpt from the Small Business Administration self-evaluation Letter from N. E. Halaby, Administrator, Federal Aviation Hanna, Keith L., Assistant Administrator (Controller), Small Business Exhibit 2-The semiannual report... Note re deferred participation loans--- Provisions for losses during the period January 1 to June 30, 1961- Excerpt of a letter from a top official in the Department of De- 119 120 98 140 123 Memorandum re fee for loan application to Small Business Admin- 124 Set-aside actions and contracts awards for SBA joint set-asides 141 SURVEY OF SELECTED ACTIVITIES (Part 2—Efficiency and Economy in the Small Business Administration) MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1962 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., in room 100-B, George Washington Inn, Hon. Jack Brooks (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Jack Brooks, Robert E. Jones, John E. Moss, Lucien N. Nedzi, George M. Wallhauser, and Richard S. Schweiker. Also present: Edward C. Brooks, Jr., staff administrator; Phineas Indritz, counsel; Ernest C. Baynard, associate counsel; Daniel L. Power, investigator; Tanner Hunt, investigator; and Irma Reel, clerk. Mr. BROOKS. The Government Activities Subcommittee, having been duly organized under the House of Representatives, a quorum being present for the purpose of taking testimony and receiving evidence, the meeting is hereby called to order. We open this morning the second in a series of hearings to publicly examine the possibilities of effecting new economies in the operation of the 15 agencies under the jurisdiction of the Government Activities Subcommittee. Members of this subcommittee have been mutually dedicated to fostering efficiency and economy in the operation of these agencies. Although in the past we have concentrated upon single phases of operation, in this series we are taking a look at the whole operation of the agency and seeking fresh ways to immediately accomplish major economies. The subcommittee has invited the leaders of these agencies to join us in a vigorous effort to root out waste and inefficiency and make our Federal agencies outstanding models of efficient government, sensitively responsive to the people's needs, determined to get a solid dollar's worth of good Government service for every dollar we and our fellow citizens pay each year in taxes. With the taxpayers' average annual payment authoritatively reported at $821.13, which means it takes six taxpayers to keep one GS-5 secretary on the Government payroll for 1 year, or 18 taxpayers to keep a GS-15 executive on the job for a year, our Government just cannot afford to overlook any opportunities to eliminate overstaffing or duplication of effort. We felt that we were on the right track this past Monday when we opened this series of hearings with the Department of Commerce and were able to disclose specific ways to save millions of dollars. If more instances of costly duplication of effort exist, such as we disclosed in mapmaking and the gathering of weather data, they must be found out and halted. We must save as we go if our Government is to give maximum service for every tax dollar spent. We open our second hearing in this series today with the Small Business Administration, which has 3,127 employes as of June 30, 1962, an annual overall budget for 1962 of $26,137,499, and an average monthly payroll during 1962 of $1,728,802. Small business is a key part of our national economy. Big business, of course, sets the American image as a giant industrial power. But big business, under our free enterprise system, once was small business. It is the duty of the Small Business Administration to help keep the way competitively clear for small businesses to continue to grow and prosper: to keep the field fertile for small business to flourish by preserving full opportunity for open competition; to help keep all our people working and producing in small plants as well as large. This agency is designed to offer vital assistance to small businesses, and is headed by a man who knows it from its beginning. I am particularly pleased to introduce this man who, as a Senate aid, knows what it is to put in long of hours of work as an assistant, and played an important and vital role in Congress' original consideration and enactment of the legislation creating this agency now known as the Small Business Administration-Administrator John E. Horne. STATEMENT OF JOHN E. HORNE, ADMINISTRATOR, SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Mr. HORNE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your introductory remarks. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you and the members of the subcommittee. Mr. Chairman, I have a statement here. I shall not read all of the statement. I do want to read the first three or four paragraphs and make reference to some of the balance of it, and end up reading the close of it. I do not want to take the committee's time to read it all. I hope my testimony will assist the subcommittee in carrying out its mandate of "studying the operation of Government activities at all levels with a view to determining its economy and efficiency." Let me say at the outset that I am in accord with this mandate and heartily support the subcommittee's efforts and aims in these hearings. If the funds Congress appropriates are not wisely used by us, the purposes for which Congress created the agency will be frustrated. As fellow taxpayers, we share the subcommittee's concern in seeing that tax dollars are wisely expended. During fiscal year 1962 there was withheld from the salaries of SBA employees over $3 million for Federal income tax payments. SBA employees have donated thousands of hours of voluntary overtime for which they have neither requested nor received pay or compensatory leave, and each year they forfeit unused annual leave to which they are entitled by law. |