Mr. PHILLIPS. In order to get that average you are going to end up the year with at least 2,000 people?

Mr. MADIGAN. No, sir. We will end up with around 1,350. In June it would be less than that, 950.

Mr. PHILLIPS. The only way you could reach an average like that would be to reduce your personnel very materially in June of next year.

Mr. MADIGAN. Page 27 takes it through from July and shows the reduction month by month until we hit April, when it drops very markedly.

Mr. THOMAS. We will insert page 27 in the record at this point. (The table referred to is as follows:)

Mr. Woods. Because of the peculiarities of this particular act, with the local option provision as it is now written, we anticipate very little decontrol between now and December 31. Whatever big amounts there are will come as of January 1, so we expect to reduce with a normal reduction up until the end of the year-a stepped-up reduction in the first quarter and a very drastic reduction in the last quarter.

Mr. THOMAS. Let us get back to the duties of these employees. You have 40 engaged in property management, 23 are located in the District of Columbia, for 1951.

Mr. COMFORT. Yes.

OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

Mr. THOMAS. Now, take up other administrative services. You have 88.9 for 1950 and 58.9 for 1951. Where are they located? Mr. COMFORT. All are in the District of Columbia. We have centralized that activity.

Mr. THOMAS. What do they do?

Mr. COMFORT. All of the servicing of the entire organization. They keep forms and prepare them for shipment. They keep all supplies. They prepare them for shipment. They furnish all the messenger service and perform the mail and file activities and reproduction.

TOTAL EMPLOYEES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Mr. THOMAS. What is the total number of employees in the District of Columbia now?

Mr. COMFORT. Two hundred and seventy-nine.

Mr. THOMAS. Of that 279 how many are doing housekeeping activities? You have listed here 58.5 of them under the heading of "Other administrative services." You have 24.5 under "Personnel" and 39 under "Fiscal." The total for the District is 279, you say?

Mr. COMFORT. Yes; in the national office.

I have a complete breakdown here which was as of May 12. In the national office at that time there were 292 instead of 279. There has been some reduction, but I have not had time to break down the July 1 figure. At that time there were 13 employees on the staff of the Housing Expediter, his immediate office. There were 62 in the Legal Division. There were 53 in the Rent Operations Division, and 146 in the Administrative Division.

Mr. THOMAS. That is the housekeeping crowd?

Mr. COMFORT. That is right.

Mr. THOMAS. One hundred and forty-six to take care of two-hundred and ninety-two.

Mr. COMFORT. No. They take care of the whole organization.

Mr. MADIGAN. Last summer we began a centralization program as a result of the cut in the appropriation, and by October 1 we had brought into Washington all the activities that had previously been conducted at the several regional headquarters, and as Mr. Comfort has just said, the group that is here now takes care of the entire field except we set up at convenient places-New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco-units which we call field records and property offices.

Mr. THOMAS. How many employees do you have in each of those six offices you just mentioned? How many do you have in San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, and so forth?

Mr. MADIGAN. New York, 6; Atlanta, 6; Chicago, 8. There are 2 additional at Chicago because we do a considerable amount of distribution for that area. We send bulk to Chicago and they retail it out. At Dallas there are 4 and at San Francisco there are 3, or a total of 27.

Mr. THOMAS. What duties are performed in those offices, and what do you mean when you say you send it out in "bulk"?

Mr. MADIGAN. Forms, both our own OHE forms and standard forms that are used. They are sent to this field distribution center at Chicago and they service offices within a certain radius of Chicago. Mr. THOMAS. Is that the main function in those six offices? Mr. MADIGAN. No.

Mr. THOMAS. What else do they do?

Mr. MADIGAN. As Mr. Comfort indicated, they are the ones who take care of taking up the property and files in connection with decontrolled offices, or the merging of offices, and are points of contact where there are field problems.

Mr. THOMAS. From what you have said, they are doing more or less of a warehousing activity?

Mr. MADIGAN. There is that phase of it, definitely, but the property angle is something more than the warehousing. Mr. THOMAS. Take your Atlanta office with six.

What does that office cost you, as to rent, salary schedules, and so forth, for the six people?

Mr. MADIGAN. The salaries for the six there are $19,920. I cannot tell you offhand about the rent. That is a separate item. In some instances, like in Dallas, we moved out to some Army installation where we got free space. The building was not being used.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTION

Mr. THOMAS. What do you mean by "executive direction" here? It seems that you have seven people.

Mr. COMFORT. That is described as those in charge of the program. They are listed under there-six regional housing expediters and the Housing Expediter.

Mr. THOMAS. And these are in addition to the 13 employees in the Director's office?

Mr. COMFORT. There are six regional housing expediters, and they are in the regional offices in the field.

Mr. THOMAS. These people are located in the field and not in the District of Columbia?

Mr. COMFORT. Just one in the District of Columbia, the Housing Expediter.

CONTINENTAL PROGRAM FUNCTION

Mr. THOMAS. Now, you have continental program functions, 2,141. What are these people doing and where are they located in the field? Mr. COMFORT. The continental functions program includes all of the area and branch rent offices functions-the actual operating functions in the continental United States.

NONCONTINENTAL PERSONAL SERVICES

Mr. THOMAS. You have noncontinental personal services here—23 people. Where are they located?

Mr. COMFORT. Eighteen in Puerto Rico and five in Alaska.
Mr. THOMAS. You have rent control in both places?
Mr. COMFORT. Yes.

LANGUAGE

Mr. THOMAS. What does this language in the bill mean:

Provided further, That as to cases involving the functions transferred to the Office of the Housing Expediter by Executive Order 9841, section 204 (e) of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, as amended, shall be considered as remaining in full force and effect during the fiscal year.

Mr. DUPREE. If I may explain that, under the Emergency Price Control Act, as you know, there was set up an Emergency Court of Appeals for handling cases involving the Price Control Act, including When the OPA went out of existence, certain functions were transferred to the Department of Commerce for liquidation and the rent function was transferred to the Housing Expediter.

rent cases.

In 1948 an appropriation measure for the Commerce Department included a clause which deleted a savings clause that was in the old Price Control Act, and the Supreme Court of the United States held in effect that although it was in the appropriation act for Commerce, it was applicable to the function transferred to the Office of the Housing Expediter.

That the provision of the Price Control Act gave a defendant, a landlord in these particular cases, a right when he had been arraigned in court or a judgment had been obtained against him, to stay action until he had a right to test the order in the Emergency Court of Appeals. The matter was first brought to the attention by a landlord in New York who said that he had been deprived of his rights. We had no objection to this savings clause being put in originally. However, I might add that that is the only case the clause has been applied to, one case, and we have had none under it for the last year and a half. So far as we are concerned, the language is not necessary any longer.

Mr. THOMAS. But it is not bracketed out.

Mr. DUPREE. No, sir; because in the original instance the Congress put it in because the public wanted it in and we had no objection, and we did not feel that we should take it out.

Mr. THOMAS. It serves no useful purpose?

Mr. DUPREE. Not today.

PRINTING AND BINDING

Mr. THOMAS. You have printing and binding here, $1,500. Is that not about $1,000 too much?

Mr. COMFORT. That is for newspapers.

Mr. THOMAS. Certainly you do not want $1,500 for newspapers? Mr. WOODS. That is about what it runs. We take these newspapers to keep ourselves current on building activities.

Mr. THOMAS. The language says, "not to exceed $5,000 for payment of claims, pursuant to section 403 of the Federal Tort Claims Act." How much have you spent for that in 1950?

Mr. COMFORT. None.

Mr. THOMAS. We could make that $500 instead of $5,000.

Mr. COMFORT. If you have a damage claim against you you do not know just what it might be.

TERMINAL LEAVE

Mr. THOMAS. Here is some new language:

$14,000,000 of which not less than $2,000,000 shall be available only for payment of terminal leave.

You have $2,600,000 for terminal leave in 1950, and $2,000,000 more for 1951, making a total of $4,600,000. How do you arrive at a figure of $4,600,000 for terminal leave.

Mr. MADIGAN. I do not quite follow you.

Mr. THOMAS. You were given in 1950 $2,600,000 for terminal leave. How much have you used?

Mr. MADIGAN. The Urgent Deficiency Act earmarked $2,600,000 of the $4,000,000, and that of course was only a few months ago, back in March or April, and of that $2,600,000 that was earmarked for terminal leave, we spent through June 30, in round figures, $1,000,000, so that there was a definite balance of $1,600,000.

Mr. THOMAS. You are seeking for 1951 $2,000,000 more for terminal leave; yet you have $1,600,000. Do you need $3,600,000?

Mr. MADIGAN. The balance expired June 30 as far as we are concerned. That is the end of it. It will only be a balance to us.

Mr. THOMAS. The $1,600,000 will be returned to the Treasury then? Mr. MADIGAN. Correct.

Mr. THOMAS. How do you arrive at this figure of $2,000,000 for 1951 and 1952?

Mr. COMFORT. That is approximately what our actual liability for annual leave is right now.

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. PHILLIPS. Why could we not extend the $1,600,000 and not give them anything?

Mr. THOMAS. You have this further language:

For an additional amount for "Salaries and expenses, Office of the Housing Expediter," $4,000,000, of which $2,600,000 will be available for the payment of terminal leave only.

That is bracketed.

Provided further, That this appropriation shall remain available until June 30, 1952, for the purpose of liquidating the functions of the Office of the Housing Expediter.

As the matter stands, under existing law, you will be liquidated as of June 30, 1951; is that correct?

Mr. MADIGAN. The recently enacted law continues the Office until June 30.

Mr. THOMAS. Yet this language here continues in effect your funds for operation for another fiscal year. Why is that?

Mr. WOODS. I can answer there. There will be some cities that will maintain that control right up to June 30, 1950. For example, Chicago yesterday passed a resolution to continue the act for the last 6 months of the year, and there will be, in my opinion, a great number of other cities that will go right up to that date. We cannot close those offices as long as the law is in effect, so actually there will be certain offices and functions that cannot start liquidating until July of 1951.

Mr. THOMAS. The intent of every liquidating act is simply thisthat when the expiration date of an agency arrives, it is the intent