Second Supplemental Appropriation Bill

Mr. TABER. Off the record. (Discussion off the record.)

Mr. PHILLIPS. How much money do you need to operate until June, when you might know a little bit better what your program is?

Mr. HOLLISTER. I would have to study that. I can let you know within 24 hours. It was our hope by getting everything cleaned up now we could make our plans, and I can assure you gentlemen that as much as possible will be turned back. The previous Commission, I believe, turned back $31,000, and I should hope to do much better. We are making a guess at the present time about what these costs will be. It is very helpful to us in our planning to know what we might be able to count on. After all, we are getting some rather important people to knock off work and help us, and we would much rather operate with a fair assurance of how we are coming out. But it is whatever you gentlemen say, naturally

Mr. PHILLIPS. That raises a new thought in a way, very briefly, that you are making plans on the basis of what this Congress gives you; you are not making them on the basis of a program and then asking us to finance it.

Mr. HOLLISTER. There is no question we could spend 2 or 3 times as much as this. I think you are familiar with our task-force method of operation. There are obviously many things we are not going to cover. We could spend $10 million with no effort if we went into everything. We do feel that to do this job adequately we need this amount of money, with a reserve for some other things that within 2 or 3 months we will decide whether we are going into. Obviously we could broaden our work, but we feel this is a fair example of what might be done, and we could come up with enough recommendations to justify many times the money that has been put into it.

Mr. PHILLIPS. Thank you very much, Mr. Hollister.

SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE APPROPRIATIONS

FRED E. BUSBEY, Illinois, Chairman

ARBITRATION AND EMERGENCY BOARDS

Mr. BUSBEY. The committee has before it a request for a supplementary appropriation for the current fiscal year for the arbitration and emergency board work of the National Mediation Board.

Mr. Thompson, do you have a statement you would like to make to the committee at this time?

Mr. THOMPSON. Yes; I have. First, I want to say that all three members of the Board are in Chicago mediating the case between the railroad carriers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which explains their absence from this meeting.

Mr. BUSBEY. I am sure you will be able to present their case in a very satisfactory manner.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. THOMPSON. We will do our best.

The Board has been in Chicago practically continuously since the 1st of November on these various cases.

The appropriation for the current fiscal year was $138,000 for the arbitration and emergency board funds.

For the last 2 or 3 years, the Board has promoted a program of what we call special adjustment boards on the rail carriers, to consider the large docket of grievance cases and things that normally would have gone, in the first place, to the National Railroad Adjustment Board. That program was the real reason for this request for the supplemental fund.

Last year there were 24 such boards in operation. This year we know of 36 special adjustment boards that will be in operation.

That brought about a situation in November where we saw that the $138,000 for this entire fiscal year was insufficient and would not even carry us through the first 6 months of the year.

We were able to secure, through the Bureau of the Budget, funds in the amount of $85,000 from the President's special fund, which added to our appropriation, gives us a total of $223,000.

The prospective expenditure rate for the special adjustment boards, arbitration and section 10 emergency boards for the entire fiscal year, projecting the boards now in operation through the end of the year, taking into account everything that will be done before the end of the year to meet necessary expenditures, makes a total estimated expenditure that will be in the neighborhood of $342,430, which leaves a deficit of $119,430.

We have asked for additional funds in the amount of $150,000 to take care of any contingencies which may come up in addition to what we actually foresee at this time; to take care of the section 10 emergency board situation, and the arbitration boards which we do not now have any knowledge of for the rest of this fiscal year. That is about the way the thing stacks up from the standpoint of

money.

ADVANCE FROM PRESIDENT'S FUND

Mr. BUSBEY. As I understand it, you have had an advance of $85,000 from the President's emergency fund?

Mr. THOMPSON. Yes.

Mr. BUSBEY. Now if the supplemental request of $150,000 is granted, will you be required to reimburse the President's emergency fund in the amount of $85,000?

Mr. THOMPSON. No; that is not my understanding. That has been a grant of those funds.

Mr. BUSBEY. The $138,000 originally appropriated plus the $85,000, plus the $150,000 you are requesting would give you a total of $373,000.

Mr. THOMPSON. That is about right, yes.

Mr. BUSBEY. Without these contingencies you speak of, you will need approximately $342,000 did you say?

Mr. THOMPSON. That is the prospective expenditure on the boards which are now operating, and which we feel or see in the immediate future. That is, we anticipate an emergency board either on the engineers and carriers and the switchman and national carriers, but we can never tell from 1 week to another when we might have an emergency on an individual railroad which will necessitate a section 10 board, and also we have no way to anticipate an arbitration board in addition to what we now have.

FORMAL SUBMISSION AND RELATED DATA

Mr. BUSBEY. At this point in the record, without objection, we will insert the letter of February 12, 1954, addressed to me, from Mr. E. C. Thompson, Secretary, National Mediation Board, and also the letter of January 29, 1954, from Mr. Thompson to the Bureau of the Budget, along with the schedule of supplemental appropriations attached.

(The statement referred to follows:)

Hon. FRED E. BUSBEY,

NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD,
Washington, February 12, 1954.

Chairman, Labor and Health, Education and Welfare,
Committee on Appropriations,

United States House of Representatives,

Washington 25, D. C.

DEAR MR. BUSBEY: Attached hereto please find two copies of our justification to the Bureau of the Budget requesting supplemental funds to see us through the current fiscal year in our arbitration and emergency board work.

There has been no great change since this information was presented to the Budget, and the letter is self-explanatory. The only change that has occurred is that the Long Island Railroad crisis has been settled by a mediation agreement. However, there are two other possible strike emergencies, one involving the trainmen on the Michigan Central Railroad and the other involves the switchmen on all first-class carriers.

If there is any further information your committee may desire, or if a hearing is deemed necessary, please call on us.

By direction of the Board.

Yours very truly,

E. C. THOMPSON, Secretary.

BUREAU OF THE BUDGET,

Washington 25, D. C.

NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD,
Washington, January 29, 1954.

SIRS: Supplementing our letter dated January 14, 1954, wherein we detailed our estimate on the arbitration and emergency boards for the balance of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1954, we wish to call your attention to a condition with which we are now confronted on the Long Island Railroad involving the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. This case has been in mediation for almost a month without success. The employees have threatened to go on strike Sunday morning January 31, and arrangements are being made to create a section 10 emergency board.

Through December 31, 1953, our total obligations in the A. and E. fund is $127,490. Our best estimate at this time is that we will have obligations of $44,150 for January and $51,220 for February, thus obligating the entire $223,000 presently available. We estimate that the present special adjustment boards, arbitration and emergency boards in operation will cost $117,000 from March 1 through June 30, 1954. We now have positive information that 2 and possibly

3 additional special adjustment boards will be set up on the rail carriers shortly after March 1, 1954. We will have an arbitration board set up on American Airlines, Inc., within the next 2 weeks, and will probably have 2 or more additional arbitration boards during the last 4 months of the fiscal year. Also, there is always the possibility that it may be necessary to recommend to the President the creation of additional section 10 boards in emergency situations.

We therefore strongly urge that additional funds be provided for these operations in the amount of $150,000 for the balance of the current fiscal year instead of the sum of $107,000 as recommended in our letter of January 14, 1954.

The above has been discussed with the members of the Board, who are now in Chicago, Ill., engaged in mediating several important national wage and rule disputes involving the rail carriers, and these recommendations have Board approval.

By direction of the National Mediation Board.
Very truly yours,

E. C. THOMPSON, Secretary.