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shops for field employees, deferred consideration of additional regional institutes, and approved a series of workshops for middle-management officials in the Washington area. These steps reflect the conclusion that the TAM program has contributed to broader understanding of the Department and improved management skills and techniques among the persons selected for this type of managerial training.

(c) Practices observed in reporting employee leave and compiling time and attendance reports were analyzed in a presentation made by the Office of Budget and Finance. A survey had been conducted which indicated need for closer adherence to prescribed procedure and for more uniform application of policy. (d) Other topics, including a presentation of management improvement activities in the Agricultural Marketing Service, management improvement reporting procedures in USDA, provisions of the Federal Employees Health Benefit Act, the management and activities of USDA committees, and the development by General Services Administration of a Federal correspondence manual for general use in the executive branch.

A Digest of Management Improvement Accomplishments was issued as OAM publication No. 1 in February 1960, reporting specific examples of progress in the Department. The publication is distributed within the Department to inform agency officials and employees of improved work methods, systems, and procedures adopted by USDA agencies, and is designed to encourage and stimulate continuing management improvement effort.

Organization.-Analysis of reorganization changes proposed during the year resulted in approval of 54 functional organization charts, submitted by 10 agencies of the Department. An index was prepared covering 191 charts now included in the compilation of currently approved functional charts. Major organizational developments were reported to the Senate Committee on Government Operations.

Administrative issuances.-To assure uniform application of policy, the Office initiated an editorial review of material submitted for inclusion in the USDA Administrative Regulations. Amendments to the Administrative Regulations usually number about 75 annually. During the past year the Office also originated 15 office memorandums containing policy and procedural guidance for agencies of the Department.

Committee management. In addition to maintenance of current information on (a) public advisory committees, (b) interdepartmental committees, and (e) departmental committees, this activity has involved consultation with agencies on matters concerning committee operation and reports responsive to congressional inquiries. For better understanding of committee activities among Department employees, a series of five articles were published in "USDA-Employee News Bulletin."

Paperwork management.-For better understanding of techniques applicable in managing paperwork functions, 23 representatives from 12 USDA agencies attended a 1-week seminar presented by the National Archives and Records Service, of the General Services Administration. This Office arranged for and scheduled the training program.

(a) Correspondence: Three 10-hour workshops on writing of plain letters were conducted. One course was given for the Agricultural Research Service to employees from its regional business offices; representatives of the Agricultural Marketing Service participated in the other two courses. These pilot workshops exemplify and demonstrate an approach to improved correspondence practices. In the Agricultural Marketing Service the program is being extended to other employees, using agency instructors. Six AMS workshops for 108 employees were concluded in the fiscal year 1960. In the Farmers Home Administration, a kit of instructions for self-study has been used to reach approximately 600 field employees.

In connection with a projected "U.S. Government Correspondence Manual," sponsored by the General Services Administration, the Office participated in developing the publication in draft form. The draft was tested in USDA in cooperation with several operating agencies, and based on this evaluation additional suggestions were made for incorporation in the manual.

(b) Forms: As the result of training effort directed toward improvement of forms, agencies reported direct benefits as follows:

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Standardization effort involving forms used departmentwide (AD forms) produced the following results:

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(c) Reports: Department staff offices cooperated in eliminating or modifying 16 reports originating in operating agencies and furnished to the Department or other Federal agencies. Progressive results are also being obtained in the operating agencies through review of their internal reporting procedures. The Soil Conservation Service, for example, discontinued more than 35,000 individual reports, resulting in a substantial saving in time. This count is computed on the basis of a variety of reports that were submitted formerly by 3,000 work unit (county) offices, 300 area offices, and 50 State offices.

(d) Records: Through review and analysis of agency records activities, the Office exercises general direction and technical supervision of records management in the Department. Close operating contacts are maintained to provide assistance on problems and cooperate on special projects. During 1960, the Office reviewed 7 records retention and disposal schedules and lists providing for appropriate action on 39 categories of records material. Summary data on USDA records holdings as of June 30, 1960, are as follows:

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The total volume of USDA records holdings has been reduced 28,851 cubic feet in the past 2 years.

Progress on special projects.-Specific areas to which staff attention was directed include:

(a) Paperwork surveys.-Surveys were made in four agencies (the Commodity Exchange Authority, Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, Federal Extension Service, and Soil Conservation Service) to evaluate agency practices in the handling of forms, reports, correspondence mail handling and records. Surveys are made to aid agency officials in the application of improved management techniques and principles, and to assure that reasonable standards of efficiency prevail and that emerging problems are promptly recognized for attention and action.

(b) Survey of mailing list operations.-The Department has currently nearly 1,600 mailing lists containing about 565,000 names. Annually about 130,000 changes occur in the lists to add or delete names, or provide for changes of address. Analysis of existing procedures was made to determine factors of time and cost, with a view to more efficient performance of those functions found necessary. Recommendations made in the survey report were under consideration at the year-end.

(c) A staff member developed and introduced in the Department a "Storaform Box" designed to facilitate shelf-filing of forms and other letter-sized materials. More than 5,000 of the boxes have been requisitioned for use. When used in lieu of valuable space in filing cabinets, either in storage cabinets or on shelving, the boxes produce economies and provide a convenient container for protecting varied materials.

(d) Disposition of nonrecord material.-Recognizing a tendency to preserve in official files material of ephemeral value, which frequently should be discarded currently, the office issued guidlines covering 12 categories of nonrecord material. Agencies were encouraged to avoid retention of valueless materials which expand the files and reduce their serviceability. (e) Automatic data processing.-The Department is cooperating, under Budget Bureau leadership, in the work of the Interagency Committee on Automatic Data Processing. In response to Budget Bureau Bulletin No. 60-4 a report was compiled on current utilization of such equipment in

USDA. Informative literature has been distributed to agencies of the Department and liaison services are rendered, particularly concerning negotiations for ADP equipment, training needs, and developmental projects. 6. Regulatory hearings and decisions.

This activity includes the work of the Office of Hearing Examiners and the functions of the judicial officer and his staff. The Office of Hearing Examiners holds hearings, makes reports, recommends decisions and performs such related duties as may be required by the Administrative Procedure Act and the statutory provisions, regulations, and rules of practice applicable to matters under their jurisdiction. A comparison of the number of hearings held by the hearing examiners under the various acts is shown in the following table:

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A number of hearings held during fiscal year 1960 presented novel and difficult problems. Among them was a proceeding instituted under section 8c (15) (A) of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, by a handler subject to the provisions of the recently issued order regulating the handling of milk in the upper Chesapeake Bay marketing area, who filed a petition challenging the level of the class II prices established pursuant to the provisions of that order. This is the first proceeding under this act wherein the propriety of prices established for milk used for manufacturing purposes pursuant to a duly promulgated milk order has ever been questioned.

A difficult case arose under the 1956 amendment to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, raising the question as to whether a person who shipped in interstate commerce perishable agricultural commodities that failed to conform to the U.S. grade stamped on their containers, but who was without knowledge of such grade failure, violated that act, as thus amended.

Antitrust type proceedings under title II of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921, have continued to increase. These cases involve meat packers and include charges of unfair, deceptive and discriminatory practices in the sale of meat and food products, such as allegations of price discrimination, selling below cost, and other practices whereby some buyers are preferred while others are prejudiced. Such cases present difficult and vigorously contested economic, factual and legal issues.

The Judicial Officer serves as final deciding officer, in place of the Secretary, in regulatory proceedings of a quasi-judicial nature where the applicable statute requires a hearing. These include cases in which a hearing examiner files a recommended decision and also reparation proceedings under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act and the Packers and Stockyards Act which are not subject to the hearing examiner provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. Exceptions to a hearing examiner's recommendations may be filed by any party to the proceeding and oral argument is available before the Judicial Officer before the preparation and issuance of the final decision and order. Oral argument was held in 11 proceedings during the fiscal year and 14 requests for oral argument were pending July 1, 1960. The Judicial Officer acts directly without reference to a hearing examiner upon applications to dismiss petitions and applications for interim relief by petitioning handlers under section 8c (15) (A) of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act and upon stipulations for consent orders under the Packers and Stockyards Act, the Commodity

Exchange Act and the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. The Judicial Officer also rules directly upon matters arising in proceedings such as motions to dismiss that are certified by the hearing examiners without recommendation. A comparison of the number of decisions and orders issued under the various acts is as follows:

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Two of the decisions under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act, In re Grocer's Dairy Company and In re Knudsen Dairy Products, involve the validity of so-called "compensatory payments," that is, payments required to be made into the producer-settlement fund under a milk marketing order by nonpool handlers who distributed fluid milk in a regulated marketing area. The decisions upholding the validity of the payments are on appeal to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan and the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, respectively.

In eight disciplinary proceedings under the Packers and Stockyards Act, cease and desist orders were entered against meatpackers for unfair trade practices such as misrepresenting grades of meat, failure to pay for livestock purchased, failure to account properly for livestock purchased, and for labeling margarine as "churned." In another packer case, Wilson & Co. was found to have violated section 202 of the act because its Davidson Meat Co. Division of San Francisco, Calif., engaged in a discriminatory price-cutting campaign to acquire hotel and restaurant accounts in the San Francisco area. The decision and order are now under review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

In a lengthy and vigorously disputed case, In re Vincent W. Kosuga et al., under the Commodity Exchange Act, the respondents were found to have attempted manipulation and to have manipulated onion prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The decision and the order for sanctions have not been appealed. In another proceeding under this act, In re Benedict Goodman, the decision that the respondent violated the act by exceeding trading limits in rye futures and by failing to file required reports has been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

WORKING CAPITAL FUND, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

The working capital fund is a no-year operating fund established by an appropriation of $400,000 in the 1944 Agricultural Appropriation Act to finance the operating costs of certain centralized service operations pending receipt of reimbursements for such costs from the agencies provided with the services. Operations include duplicating, photographic, art and graphics, motion picture, supply, library photocopying services, and employee training programs conducted by the Office of the Secretary, the Office of Information, and the library. The integrity of the original appropriation is maintained from year to year by means of reimbursements for services performed.

Statements reflecting the assets and liabilities and income and expenses of the working capital fund as of June 30, 1960, as well as estimates for 1961 and 1962, are printed in the budget schedules for the fiscal year 1962.

Mr. WHITTEN. We would be glad to have any general statement now that you might care to present.

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GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. ROBERTSON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have a little statement here that can probably be incorporated into the record, if it meets with the approval of the committee.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we appreciate this opportunity of discussing with you the budget estimates for fiscal year 1962 for the Office of the Secretary. The appropriation for the Office of the Secretary, as you and the other committee members know, covers not only the immediate Office of the Secretary, but the Office of Personnel, the Office of Budget and Finance, the Office of Plant and Operations, the Office of Administrative Management, and regulatory Hearings and Decisions (which includes the Office of Hearing Examiners and the judicial officer and his staff).

I would like to outline very briefly for the record the functions of these staff offices.

The Office of Personnel administers the personnel management activities of the Department, including position classification, job evaluation, salary and wage administration, recruitment, examination, placement, retirement, separation, leave, safety, health, employee relations, performance ratings, training, incentive awards programs, personnel and records security, and investigations. This Office also acts as liaison on matters of personal management with the Civil Service Commission and other agencies concerned with the work of the Department.

The Office of Budget and Finance provides overall coordination, and supervision of the budgetary and financial affairs of the Department. These functions include the acquisition, allotment, and apportionment of funds; accounting; internal audit and program investigation; financial reporting; and organization and management of budget, fiscal, and related matters. The Office also serves as liaison with the Budget Bureau, the General Accounting Office, the Treasury Department, and other agencies on matters of mutual interest.

The Office Plant and Operations is responsible for the coordination and supervision of all real estate and personal property of the Department and for supply management. This office formulates and promulgates instructions, policies, and procedures on property, supply, and procurement management. It is also responsible for departmental service operations in the District of Columbia, including telephone, telegraph, reproduction and supply services, and the Department's post office.

The Office of Administrative Management is responsible for departmentwide direction, leadership, and coordination in the areas of management improvement, organization, administrative issuances, paperwork management, and committee management. Management analysis projects and studies are undertaken to improve administration and introduce new work performance techniques and equipment.

To carry out our responsibility for regulatory hearings and decisions we have the Office of Hearing Examiners which holds hearings, makes reports, recommends decisions, and performs such related duties as may be required by the Administrative Procedure Act and the statutory provisions, regulations, and rules or practice applicable to matters under their jurisdiction.

Also included in this function are the activities of the judicial officer, who renders final administrative decision in regulatory proceedings of a quasijudicial nature. He also is responsible for preparing the monthly publication known as Agriculture Decisions.

Finally, expenses of the National Agricultural Advisory Commission are paid from this appropriation. The Commission, as you know, meets at least once during each quarter of the year. It reviews national agricultural policies and the administration of farm programs, and makes recommendations thereon to the Secretary of Agriculture.

This covers, very briefly, the activities financed from the appropriation for "Salaries and expenses, Office of the Secretary." We have prepared a number of charts that are customarily furnished for your use, which indicate in a very general way the functions for which this appropriation is made. If you like, we can insert these in the record.

The appropriation requested for "Salaries and expenses, Office of the Secretary" for 1962 is $3,107,000. This represents an increase of $26,500 to provide

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