NOTE. The Surveys and Investigations supervisory staff is supplemented by selected personnel borrowed on a reimbursable basis for varying lengths of time from various agencies to staff up specific studies and investigations. The current average annual fulltime personnel equivalent is approximately 42. GERARD J. CHOUINARD ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT FRANCES MAY DALE M. SHULAW (III) ANN M. STULL BETTY LOU TAYLOR ELLEN C. ZACOFSKY DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE, AND COMMERCE, THE JUDICIARY AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1977 TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1976. ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT AGENCY WITNESSES FRED C. IKLE, DIRECTOR JAMES T. HACKETT, EXECUTIVE OFFICER JAMES L. MALONE, GENERAL COUNSEL Mr. SLACK. This morning we shall direct our attention to 1977 appropriation request for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, which is found on page 131 of the committee print. The appropriation to date for fiscal year 1976 is $10.5 million. We have a proposed pay supplemental in the amount of $230,000. In addition we received yesterday a supplemental request totalling $1 million. These amounts would bring the 1976 total to $11,730,000. The amount requested in the President's budget for 1977 is $11.8 million. We received a budget amendment yesterday for 1977 in the amount of $400,000, bringing the total amended 1977 request to $12.2 million, an increase of $470,000 over the 1976 amount adjusted to include the supplementals. GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. Director, do you have a statement covering both the supplemental request for the current year and the budget request for 1977? Mr. IKLE. I do, Mr. Chairman. Mr. SLACK. Please proceed. Mr. IKLE. Would you like me to read the full statement or abbreviate it, Mr. Chairman. Mr. SLACK. Please proceed in your own way. Mr. IKLE. Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to appear before you in support of a supplemental budget for fiscal year 1976 and my Agency's regular budget for fiscal year 1977. Our request consists of four parts: A fiscal year 1976 supplemental of $1 million; a transition quarter supplemental of $250,000; a basic fiscal year 1977 budget of $11,800,000; and a fiscal year 1977 budget amendment of $400,000. If these are all ap (1) proved, the Arms Control Agency will have a budget of $11,730,000 for fiscal year 1976, an interim period budget of $3,030,000 and a fiscal year 1977 budget of $12,200,000. Our most immediate need is for action on the fiscal year 1976 supplemental. The SALT negotiations, as you know, are proceeding at an intensive pace. SALT was in session for a full 6 months during the first half of fiscal 1976, twice as long as any previous session. As a result, our SALT operating funds were completely exhausted in December. A new round of talks begin in January and is now in session. We are requesting $625,000 in the fiscal year 1976 supplemental to keep the talks going through the remainder of this fiscal year. Since SALT is a continuous process, we fully expect talks will continue in fiscal year 1977 regardless of whether a SALT II agreement is reached this year. The Arms Control Agency must continue to backstop and help staff both the U.S. delegation to SALT and the U.S. component of the Standing Consultative Commission, which monitors compliance with SALT agreements. Therefore, our fiscal year 1977 budget includes funds for both purposes, but at a lower level than fiscal year 1976 in view of the likelihood that there will be interruptions in the negotiations and the negotiations will be somewhat less intensive in the period immediately after the SALT II agreement. The other half of our supplemental for fiscal year 1976 and the transition quarter, also totaling $625,000, is required to implement amendments to the Arms Control and Disarmament Act enacted by Congress last November. These amendments require ACDA to analyze the impact on arms control policy and negotiations of certain weapons programs proposed by other agencies, to review proposals to transfer arms to other countries, to study the impact on military expenditures of arms control agreements between the United States and U.S.S.R., and to increase research aimed at developing improved nuclear safeguards techniques against the diversion of fissionable material for weapons use. In our 2-year authorization Congress earmarked up to $1 million for the military expenditures study and $440,000 for additional safeguards research. We are now asking for the full $440,000 authorized for additional safeguards research, in increments of $220,000 each in fiscal year 1976 and fiscal year 1977. The military expenditures study, however, must be concluded by the end of calendar year 1976, and we believe that only about $320,000 of the $1 million authorized can usefully be spent on that subject in the time allowed. Therefore, that amount is included in the fiscal year 1976 supplemental. We intend to handle these new statutory functions as fully as possible with existing staff and are requesting only four new permanent positions in fiscal year 1976, mainly to work on arms impact analyses. This will raise our permanent employment from 175 to 179. We are also seeking approval for five temporary employees to give us the flexibility we will need to perform these new functions adequately without adding more permanent staff. We are asking for no additional new personnel in fiscal year 1977. The most compelling tasks facing ACDA in the next 111⁄2 years are likely to be in three areas: Containing nuclear weapons spread; the continuing SALT negotiations; and preparing the new arms impact analyses. Our most urgent task is to find better means of limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. To this end, we are proposing a substantial increase in our research to develop safeguards instrumentation that will assist the International Atomic Energy Agency in its monitoring of nuclear proliferation. Our budget for this research is increasing nearly twofold, from $680,000 in fiscal year 1976 to $1,220,000 in fiscal year 1977. And we are adding another $220,000 under the fiscal year 1976 supplemental. In addition to these technical efforts, we are also trying to establish international political controls over the diversion of nuclear materials. We are making both bilateral and multilateral efforts to reach agreement in this area with the nations that are the main suppliers of nuclear plants and materials. You will note that our total fiscal year 1977 request of $12,200,000 is only $470,000 more than the fiscal year 1976 total of $11,730,000. Our operating costs in fiscal year 1977 are actually expected to be $120,000 less than in fiscal year 1976. This is because we are assuming a SALT II agreement this year, followed by a somewhat less protracted round of negotiations at lower cost than in fiscal year 1976. Our proposed increase of $470,000-slightly less than 4 percent-consists entirely of external research, primarily in the nuclear safeguards area. REPRESENTATION EXPENSES One final point. This year we are requesting funds for official representation expenses, mainly for the SALT and SCC delegations in Geneva and other ACDA representatives abroad. The State Department has previously provided funds for this purpose, but now the Department has informed ACDA that its own requirements are such that it can no longer provide us representation funds. This assistance from State ended last December. Mr. SLACK. Are you speaking now of the supplemental or of the 1977 budget? Mr. IKLE. I have spoken of the supplemental and the 1977 budget. The general point for the need for representation funds covers both. Mr. SACK. While we are on that, what are you requesting in the 1977 budget? Mr. IKLE. In 1977 on representation funds, $15,000. Mr. SLACK. Very well. Mr. IKLE. We have since received urgent appeals from both Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson at SALT and Ambassador Joseph Martin at the CCD for assistance in meeting their official expenses. We are requesting $5,000 for this purpose for the remainder of fiscal year 1976 and $15,000 for fiscal year 1977. This is a small but imperative adjunct to our negotiating efforts. I believe the Agency's appropriation request is a minimal proposal that will provide us the means necessary to carry out our mission. I will be pleased to answer any questions you may have. REQUEST FOR 1977 Mr. SLACK. The amended request for fiscal year 1977 is $12.2 million. We shall insert at this point in the record pages 1 through 14 of the justifications. [The justification follows:] |
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