Of the increased amount, $19,980 is to cover the cost of within-grade salary increases for employees, as provided by law. The remaining $125.000 is being requested for necessary temporary and intermittent (part-time) employees and necessary overtime compensation. This amount, we believe, will be necessary to handle orders for estimated sales for fiscal year 1962 of $11,300,000, with earnings for return to the Treasury estimated at $5,600.000. Sales for the first 9 months of the current fiscal year reflect an approximate 15-percent increase over the comparable period of last year, and there is every evidence that this trend will not only continue but will probably increase in fiscal year 1962. 12 Personnel benefits: Estimate, 1961. Increase_____ $174, 610 176, 303 1,693 For required contributions to retirement fund, employee insurance and health benefits, due to within-grade increases for permanent employees. 21 Travel and transportation of persons: Estimate, 1961. Estimate, 1962. Increase‒‒‒‒ $1,500 1,500 None We anticipate that the same amount requested for “Travel and transportation of persons” in 1961 will be sufficient to meet the travel expenses incidental to the operations of the Office of the Superintendent of Documents, which include the statutory requirement of inspection by the Superintendent of Docu ments of the condition of depository libraries, which now number 592. 22 Transportation of things: Estimate, 1961. Increase -- $1,600 1,600 None This expenditure covers the cost of transporting sales publications ordered by Members of Congress for local delivery and deliveries to branch bookstores of the Office of the Superintendent of Documents in Washington, D.C. 23 Rents, communications and utilities: Estimate 1961---- Increase $61,000 69,000 8,000 Funds in the object classification are used principally for payment of postage to the Post Office Department for necessary official correspondence, for telephone and telegraph service, and they also cover charges for heat, light, and power. Of the increased amount requested, $4,000 is being requested to cover additional postage, telephone and telegram charges incidental to the increase in volume of sales expected in the fiscal year 1962. The remaining $4,000 is requested to cover additional costs for heat, light, and power. The cost details in this object classification are as follows: 24 Printing and reproduction: Estimate, 1961. Increase_. $675,000 169, 000 No appropriation is required for the printing of publications offered for sale by the Office of the Superintendent of Documents, as the cost of these publications is paid from sales receipts. We are, however, charged by law with the function of furnishing free of charge upon request one copy of every publication not confidential in nature printed at the Government Printing Office, to each of the 592 designated depository libraries throughout the United States. Another statute requires us to compile and issue catalogs and indexes covering all Government publications. The total increase of $169,000 requested will enable us to provide from this amount $12,000 to cover increased costs of printing the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and the numerical list and schedule of volumes for each session of Congress; $25,000 for additional costs involved in the purchase of copies of Government publications for distribution to depository libraries; $132,000 for the printing of catalogs, price lists, and price circulars which list Government publications available from this Office. These price lists are used as working tools and as a labor-saving device to help in processing the many thousands of requests which are received by letter, telephone, and telegram concerning available Government publications. The tremendous increase in public interest and use of the facilities of this Office has resulted in an increased demand for lists of publications available on the many subject areas encompassed by Government publications. We believe that the amount requested for price lists and price circulars will enable us to meet the requests which we anticipate will be forthcoming in the next fiscal year, and will eliminate a situation whereby in the current fiscal year it has been necessary to defer for as much as 3 months many requests for specific lists of groups of Government publications. 25 Other services: Estimate, 1961. Increase- $92, 000 None These funds cover repairs to office and plant fixtures and equipment, maintenance of electric trucks, alterations to work areas and cleaning of work areas and maintaining restrooms. 26 Supplies and materials: Estimate, 1961. Estimate, 1962_-_ Increase__ $287, 370 349, 370 62, 000 These funds cover the cost of wrapping paper, cardboard, envelopes, shipping bags, cartons, mailing tubes, adhesive tape, cord, glue, and office supplies, necessary in the mailing of more than 175 million publications which must be performed each year by the Office of the Superintendent of Documents to the public which purchases Government publications, to depository libraries, and for Members of Congress and other Government agencies as requested. We have no control over the volume of mailing that these functions may require but each publication or order must be packaged or wrapped, which requires the extensive use of the materials in this category. We have based our 1962 estimate on the known factors of materials used and their cost in previous fiscal years, and the anticipated substantial increase in the volume of business expected in fiscal year 1962. The additional amount requested would provide $12,000 additional for stationery supplies, ribbons, microfilm, rubber stamps, printing of forms, form letters, cards, coupons and notices, autostat supplies and photostats, and $50,000 additional for jiffy bags, envelopes, cartons, mailing tubes, twine, cord, tape, stencils, wrapping paper, paste, glue, and corrugated board. 31 Equipment: Estimate, 1961. Increase.. $33, 100 94, 000 In the performance of the operations required of this Office, a variety of items of equipment and laborsaving devices must be employed, such as mailing and inserting machines, high-speed addressing machines, lift trucks, stencil cutters, tying machines, typewriters, adding machines, pneumatic tube and automatic conveyor system equipment, bookkeeping machines, tape and labeling machines, etc. The additional amount requested of $94,000 would be used for basically nonrecurring items. Of this amount, $27,000 would be spent for the urgent replacement of necessary items of equipment which would have been purchased in prior fiscal years but for lack of funds; $67,000 of this amount will be used for the specific purchase of two high-speed mailing machines, the purchase of which will enable us to mechanize a multiple-copy inserting operation that now must be done by hand. These mailing machines have been recently placed on the market and offer the flexibility that is required in the processing of Govern: ment publications of various sizes and formats. We believe that this purchase will enable us to effect substantial economies in operating costs in the future. Reserve for contingencies: Estimate, 1961___. Estimate, 1962_-_. Increase_-- $200,000 200, 000 For use only to the extent necessary to provide the expenses (excluding permanent personal services) for workload increases not anticipated in the budget estimates and which cannot be provided for by normal budgetary adjustments. Income and expense statement, Superintendent of Documents-Sale of publications 1 This amount is turned into the U.S. Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. SUMMARY OF WORKLOAD AND INCREASES REQUESTED Mr. BUCKLEY. We certainly appreciate the opportunity to be here. We are here with a familiar story. Last year when we appeared before the committee we thought that after a recordbreaking year, we would have a leveling-off period that might run for a year or more. That has not taken place. We find ourselves again, because of the tremendous interest in the Government documents that we sell, faced with a 15-percent increase in our volume of business over last year. We are again coming into the last quarter of the fiscal year in which we are curtailing some of our requests for price lists and some of our other services, and for that reason we now are thinking ahead for the forthcoming fiscal year beginning the 1st of July and anticipating that in the year ahead we must again be prepared to handle a corresponding increase over and above that experienced this year. The increases that we have requested over our 1961 appropriation are, with two exceptions, the normal increases that we have requested in other years as our volume of work, over which we have no control, has increased. However, this year I want to call attention to the fact that our increase which we are requesting for personnel compensation is not designed to cover any permanent positions. Our operations lend themselves very readily to the use of part-time temporary personnel in operations, many of which are of a seasonal nature, involved in meeting distribution schedules of the Government agencies which we serve. Overtime is frequently necessary to enable us to meet those schedules. That is the feature of the personnel compensation I want to mention particularly. NONRECURRING EQUIPMENT INCREASE We are requesting for equipment an increase of $94,000 over what we requested for 1961. The bulk of this increase would be to provide us with two inserting and mailing machines that have recently been put on the market that would enable us to further mechanize our operations. These two machines offer great advantages over the ones we have been using and we estimate will save 5,000 man-hours a year and we should be able to amortize the cost over 4 or 5 years. us. PROPOSED CONTINGENCY RESERVE The final thing I want to mention is something that is a bit new to We have worked it out with the assistance and cooperation of the Bureau of the Budget, which we deeply appreciate. That is a request for a change in the appropriation language whereby, of the requested increase of $679,673, $200,000 would be designated as a reserve for contingencies. It would not be used unless the amounts that we can now estimate for the forthcoming fiscal year should prove to be inadequate. If that should occur, because of a much greater increase in volume of business than we can now anticipate, this $200,000 would be available as a reserve to be expended in the amount necessary, only with the approval of the Public Printer, and it could not be used to increase the number of full-time permanent positions. I want to tell you how much we appreciate and have appreciated. the interest and help of this committee in the past. UNANTICIPATED INCREASE IN SALES VOLUME Mr. STEED. You say your sales run about 15 percent ahead of last year? Mr. BUCKLEY. Yes, sir. Mr. STEED. Is that somewhat in excess of what you had estimated a year ago that the increase would be? Mr. BUCKLEY. Yes, it is. We have a further increase over and above what we estimated last year. We are running about 15 percent ahead of that estimate. Mr. STEED. In other words, this 15 percent is more than you thought it would be? Mr. BUCKLEY. Yes. Mr. STEED. And you entered this year with the thought there would be an increase? Mr. BUCKLEY. We thought there would be an increase but we thought after the recordbreaking year we had last year, it would not be as great an increase. Mr. STEED. Is this increase an abnormal increase? Mr. ADDISON. Mr. Chairman, the normal increase has been 6 or 7 percent. This year we are experiencing a 15-percent increase. Last year we had a 24-percent increase. In past years the normal increase has been about 6 percent. So 15 percent is considerably greater than the normal increase. RETURNS TO THE TREASURY Mr. BUCKLEY. We did, Mr. Chairman, have an unprecedented year last year in which our earnings for return to the Treasury were about $4.1 million. This year it looks like it will run $4.9 million and, anticipating that there will be no leveling off, when we think of a year from now, we have to think in terms of going over $5 million in return to the Treasury for fiscal year 1962. ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL IN 1961 Mr. STEED. I believe you got authority last year, in the 1961 bill, for 25 additional people, yet on page 122 of the committee print it shows you have listed, for 1961, permanent positions 48 above the year before. Can you clear that up for us? Mr. BUCKLEY. I am checking that figure, Mr. Chairman. Mr. STEED. That is in the personnel summary on page 122 of the committee print. Mr. ADDISON. Unfortunately, Mr. Steed, I think it is a case of terminology. This indicates permanent positions, but for purposes of a summary here we include temporary people. When we ask for this money we use it to the best advantage, and where we can hire temporary people in lieu of full-time employees, we do that. What I am trying to point out is that the total number of permanent positions in question is probably misleading because, instead of filling all permanent positions, we hired temporary 90-day employees. |