Estimated amount requested for the education of congressional pages, and pages of the Supreme Court for the 1966-67 school year Mr. STEED. I just want to say that I think they are doing a very fine job in the Page School and want to commend them for it. No questions. OFFICIAL MAIL COSTS Mr. SLACK. The next item is entitled "Official Mail Costs" and is to be found at page 73 of the committee print and page 44 of the justifi cations. Mr. ROBERTS. Official mail costs. The appropriation requested for 1967 is $7,248,000 as compared with $6,512,000 for 1966, or an increase of $736,000. Mr. Chairman, the only justification I have for this item is a letter that I received from the Assistant Postmaster General. This is printed below my statement. Do you want me to read it? Mr. SLACK. Please. Mr. ROBERTS (reading). Hon. RALPH R. ROBERTS, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, DEAR MR. ROBERTS: This refers to my letter of October 7, 1965, concerning the amount that should be included in the budget estimates for the House of Representatives for fiscal 1967 to reimburse the Post Office Department for the cost of franked mail. Final volume and cost figures for 1965 have been completed. The volume data are as follows: The cost of handling the franked mail volume from Members of Congress was $6,497,000, and the cost of the Congressional mailings for Members of Congress was $751,000, for a total of $7,248,000. In accordance with accepted practice, the amount to be included in the appropriation for 1967 is $7,248,000, with the funds to be immediately available so that they can be credited to postal revenues in fiscal year 1966. Sincerely yours, RALPH W. NICHOLSON, Assistant Postmaster General. Mr. SLACK. Mr. Roberts, do you have an explanation as to why this appropriation is up by more than 10 percent over last year when the volume appears to be virtually unchanged? Mr. STEED. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman would yield. Maybe I can assist you somewhat since I handle the postal budget on my committee. The per item costs of the Post Office Department, against which our franks are assessed, have gone up by virtue of the pay raise and other factors. This is an automatic increase insofar as our obligations are concerned. I think for the sake of the record, Mr. Chairman, it might be well to point out that while this new total is considerably above the amount of 1965, part of it can be attributed to volume but most of it is due to two factors. One, that the postal pay rate went into effect and then some various postal pay raises and other cost factors were added on then that caused most of the big jump in the assessments against the Congress. Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. Chairman, I think Mr. Megill would like to say something off the record. Mr. SLACK. All right. STATEMENT OF APPROPRIATIONS Mr. SLACK. The final item, gentlemen, is entitled "Statement of Appropriations" and is to be found at page 75 of the committee print and page 45 of the justifications. Do you have a statement with regard to this request, Mr. Roberts? Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. United States Code, title II, section 105, requires the preparation of statement of appropriations; $13,000 is requested for fiscal year 1967. GENERAL PROVISIONS Under the heading of "General Provisions" of the Committee Print, we have inserted the numbers of the resolutions which I have placed in the record at the beginning of my general statement, so that the provisions of these resolutions shall become permanent law. To repeat, these resolutions are House Resolutions Nos. 416, 543, 625, 640, 661, 669, and 690 of the Eighty-ninth Congress. This, Mr. Chairman, concludes our statement covering the various items in the budget estimates, for the operation of the House of Representatives, for the fiscal year 1967. We will be glad to answer any questions or supply any additional information the committee may desire. Mr. SLACK. If there are no further questions, we thank you, Mr. Roberts and gentlemen. Mr. ROBERTS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1966. OFFICE OF THE ATTENDING PHYSICIAN WITNESS DR. GEORGE W. CALVER, ATTENDING PHYSICIAN Mr. ANDREWS. We are glad to have with us this afternoon Dr. George W. Calver, the attending physician of the Congress, who comes before us with a distinguished record of service to many, manyI guess thousands of Congressmen. Would it be in the thousands, Doctor? Dr. CALVER. Easily. Mr. ANDREWS. We note that you have a statement that you like to make to the committee. We will be glad to hear you. GENERAL STATEMENT would Dr. CALVER. The attending physician's office has been greatly benefited by the new construction which provides a separate room for each medical officer in that they have the opportunity to examine and talk with their patients with the privacy which a physician's office needs. The third room is used for casual examinations and the administration of various vaccines. The Clerk of the House cooperated in getting floor covering, equipment, and furniture which we needed for the arrangement of the office and its efficient operation. The total patient visits in our medical office and the five first-aid stations in the office buildings the past year numbered 50,029 visits. This is approximately an increase of 2,000 patient visits in all offices. I believe this was chiefly due to the large number of visitors we have had in the past year not only in the Capitol but in the various office buildings as well. Plans have been prepared for the new first-aid room in the Cannon Building with the provision for a freight elevator in close proximity. The regular passenger elevators are so small it is impossible to put a stretcher in them, so this will be a great convenience. In this way a patient can be brought to the first-aid room from any floor with the minimum publicity and taken out the side door to an ambulance if necessary. Because of the rise in prices of many of our standard drugs and the ever increasing number of patients, it has become necessary to ask that our appropriation be increased by the small sum of $1,000. Since the demands of this office require our medical officers to be on hand beyond normal working hours for which there is no additional compensation, to maintain complete civilian wardrobes as well as complete military wardrobes, and to visit Bethesda Naval Hospital, other local hospitals, and various local medical meetings, it is requested that each medical officer be given an allowance of $100 per month. This is not in the formal budget request now before the committee, but I feel it is sufficiently justified to ask your favorable consideration. It would amount to $3,600 for the three medical officers now on full duty here. Each of our five enlisted men is now receiving this allowance. During January of this year we found that the employees coming to the Capitol office had to spend much too long a time away from the Senator's or Member's office since we give priority to the Members of Congress in treatment. To avoid this loss of time I have put some of the standard cough syrups and other medications in the hands of our trained nurses in the first aid rooms of each of the five office buildings. This has been quite a success and has been generally much appreciated as it is easier for the employees to get early medication without the loss of time from their office due to a trip to the Capitol and the incidental waiting. One of the great satisfactions of my duty at the Capitol is the cooperation and support which the membership of both Houses have given me. This has made my duty a great pleasure even though at times my workday has been extremely long and exhausting. We keep a working crew on hand during the time the Congress is not in session so that this office and most of our first aid rooms are open the year around. Mr. ANDREWs. Thank you, Doctor. Dr. CALVER. Incidentally, I might add for your information, Mr. Chairman, this last session of Congress is the first session of Congress we have carried the membership through without a coronary. Mr. ANDREWS. I suggest that you knock on wood. Dr. CALVER. It has been very interesting, but we have had tremendous cooperation from the Members. If there has been any ques 63-051-66- -30 tion about anything, they have been over to see us, and we tried to get things straightened out for them so as to reduce the tension the Members are under. MEDICAL OFFICERS Mr. ANDREWS. Let me ask about the three men down there as your medical officers. Are they on Navy duty? Dr. CALVER. They are on Navy duty; yes. Mr. ANDREWs. What are their ranks? Dr. CALVER. Two are two-stripers, one is a four-striper. Mr. ANDREWS. They are all graduates of medical schools and have served an internship? Dr. CALVER. Yes, sir. Mr. ANDREWS. And a residency? Dr. CALVER. Yes, sir. My two junior officers; one of them has been in Vietnam for a year, and the other one has been at sea in an Atlantic ship for a year. Mr. ANDREWS. Are they in the Regular Navy? Dr. CALVER. They are in the Regular Navy. Mr. ANDREWS. What is their salary as Naval officers, roughly? Dr. CALVER. I would say the two juniors get around $592 a month. The senior officer gets about $1,000. REQUEST FOR MONTHLY ALLOWANCE FOR MEDICAL OFFICERS Mr. ANDREWS. And you are asking that each be increased $100 a month, $1,200 a year? Dr. CALVER. Yes; because of the overtime duty. Mr. ANDREWS. Those men are subject to call at any time? Dr. CALVER. We have to come up here on emergencies. They have to have a car to get to the Capitol at any time. For instance, we had a fire up in the attic of the Capitol and I had to call in all of my crew to be here for that. Mr. ANDREWS. Do those doctors use their own automobiles? Dr. CALVER. They use their own automobiles. Mr. ANDREWS. And you say they are in the Regular Navy? Dr. CALVER. They are in the Regular Navy. The present ones I have have done overseas duty. Most of the men I have had prior to them have been Reserves. Mr. ANDREWs. I thought so. Any questions, Mr. Langen? ROTATION OF MEDICAL OFFICERS Mr. LANGEN. How often are these men rotated? Dr. CALVER. I try to keep them for at least 2 years, if I can. I prefer to keep them for 2 years and change one every year. That leaves one man who has been there long enough to know the lay of the land, and the other men to other duty. NEW QUARTERS Mr. LANGEN. Are the new quarters working out quite well? |