curity program; enforce or assist in enforcement of Federal laws on the high seas or waters subject to U.S. jurisdiction; conduct an oceanography program; maintain ocean stations; provide icebreaking services, train a force of officer and enlisted reservists. Other significant assets (acquisition cost) as of June 30, 1965: Equipment $242, 499, 000 $744, 823, 520 Other__. Total____. Executive and special positions: supergrade positions: GS-16___ $38, 636, 677 $1,025, 959, 197 3 Miscellaneous: there are 338 ships, 2,400 small boats, and 160 aircraft in the Coast Guard. Mission and programs (H) THE ALASKA RAILROAD The Alaska Railroad was built pursuant to the act of March 12, 1914, which authorized the President to locate, construct, and operate railroads in the then Territory of Alaska. Primary objectives are to stimulate settlement, and the industrial and agricultural development of Alaska by providing transportation and developing areas along the lines of the railroad; and to provide transportation for national defense. The railroad operates 482.7 miles of line. The railroad owns and controls, through a lease arrangement, a tug and barge line. owns and operates docks and terminals, and provides limited dormitory and mess facilities for a few employees. Other significant assets (current value) June 30, 1965; Land, buildings, structures, facilities, equipment, and nonoperating property Executive and special positions: GS-18---. $102, 253, 647 1 1 5 1 For repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or replacement of facilities and equipment. damaged or destroyed as a result of the Alaska earthquake, to remain available until expended. NOTE.-Finances are obtained through the Alaska Railroad revolving fund from revenues of the transportation and other receipts. Except for the appropriations for disaster recovery totaling $25.4 million, it has not been necessary to seek direct appropriations since 1956. No appropriation is being requested for 1967. It is estimated that at the end of the fiscal year 1967 there will be a Treasury balance of $3,291,000, of which $2,402,000 will be unobligated. Based upon the present revenue outlook and forecasts of operating expenses, deficits from operations should amount to $1,000,000 for each of the years 1966 and 1967. Alaska Railroad positions are not subject to the Classification Act. The Appropriations Act authorizes these pay levels. (I) BUREAU OF SAFETY (CAB) Mission and programs Established by the CAB to carry out its responsibilities set forth in title VII of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, to investigate accidents involving civil aircraft occurring in the United States and its territories (the CAB has, by Public Notice 16, authorized the FAA to investigate nonfatal accidents involving fixed-wing aircraft); to recommend to the Board (or to determine in accordance with delegation) the probable cause of all aircraft accidents regardless of who investigates; to make public reports on aircraft accidents and probable causes; to make recommendations which will tend to prevent similar occurrences; and to ascertain what will best tend to reduce or eliminate the possibility of aircraft accidents. Funding: Fiscal year 1966: NOA___. Fiscal year 1967: NOA.... Personnel: Actual employment Dec. 31, 1965: Full-time permanent---. Fiscal year 1966: Full-time permanent. Fiscal year 1967: Full-time permanent.. Other significant assets: (Negligible). Executive and special positions authorized Dec. 31, 1965: Supergrades: $2,924,000 $3,409, 000 170 176 186 GS-18-- GS-17_ GS-16--- 1 (J) BUREAU OF RAILROAD SAFETY AND SERVICE; PORTIONS ONLY OF THE BUREAU OF OPERATIONS AND COMPLIANCE AND OF THE BUREAU OF ENFORCEMENT (ICC) Mission and programs Established by the act to regulate commerce, February 4, 1887 (with subsequent legislation to strengthen and broaden its scope), the Interstate Commerce Commission was created for the general purpose of regulating common carriers subject to the act, who are engaged in transportation in interstate commerce, and in foreign commerce to the extent that it takes place within the United States. The functions being considered for the Department of Transportation include: Preparing, administering, and enforcing regulations and emergency orders regarding railroad trains, locomotives, cars and other vehicles used in the transportation of property; promoting safety of employees and travelers on railroads as relates to trains, locomotives, safety appliances, signal systems, safety devices, acts of heroism and inspections to determine that locomotives are in proper condition and safe to operate; determining that required inspections of locomotives, signal systems, and power or train brakes are made by carriers and that defects are repaired; administering safety regulations concerning qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees, safety and operation of equipment for rail carriers and for common, contract, and private carriers by motor vehicle (including carriers of migratory workers, and including pipelines except natural gas); prescribing regulations for the safe packing and transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles; investigating serious accidents; inspecting carrier equipment, operations, and records; requiring carriers to file reports; and enforcement of the above requirements. Other significant assets: None. Executive and special positions authorized Dec. 31, 1965: GS-17 GS-16 (K) CORPS OF ENGINEERS (CERTAIN FUNCTIONS) Mission and program Corps of Engineers functions to be transferred to the Department of Transportation are these: (a) Designation of certain areas as anchorages; (b) Establishment of regulations regarding drawbridge operations; (c) Determination of whether existing bridges are unreasonably obstructive to navigation and Government participation in the cost of necessary alterations; (d) Review of bridge tolls to determine reasonableness if controversy arises; (e) Policing of oil and chemical pollution; and (f) Determination of proper vertical and horizontal bridge clearances over waterways. Funding: Fiscal year 1966: NOA. Fiscal year 1967: NOA___ $500,000 500, 000 NOTE. These are estimated amounts of a larger dollar amount used for the corps total purposes. These amounts can and do vary substantially among years; e.g., about 50 percent of the half million concerns alteration of obstructive bridges-this item alone could jump to several million for a given year. Personnel: Actual employment Dec. 31, 1965_. Fiscal year 1966: Full-time permanent__ 151 151 151 1 These are estimates of equivalent totals, because they represent parts of jobs of many people scattered throughout the organization. Other significant assets: None. Executive and special positions: None. 10. REASONS FOR BRINGING TOGETHER IN DOT ALL SAFETY FUNCTIONS IN TRANSPORTATION Safety is an operational responsibility and therefore one of the primary functions that must concern an executive Department of Transportation. Coordination of transportation systems and problems would be incomplete without inclusion of an operational aspect as important as safety. To do the job effectively, the Department's information and views on safety must be as complete and comprehensive as possible. One of the major tools that makes this possible is the investigation of all types of transportation accidents and safety problems. The Department must be completely equipped to find out what is involved and what has happened when accidents occur. Accidents in various forms of transportation have many common elements. Since transportation involves motion and the movement of people in vehicles of different types, many accidents vary in accordance with degree of impact and other deceleration forces involved. Similarly, the construction of vehicles, the type of materials used, as well as structural techniques, and the nature of effective restraining devices, both for the vehicle and the passenger, relate directly to the nature of injuries and the possibility of preventing injuries. Other common elements of transportation systems include navigation facilities, and their effectiveness and their responsiveness. These few examples illustrate that many common elements exist among many modes of transportation. A common effort to identify them and their bearing on safety in all modes of transportation, as well as their utility for such purposes, will spread the benefits of improved safety practices much more rapidly than would otherwise be possible. It should also be possible as a result of a single department to consolidate research into the many common facets of accidents, not only those involving structures and materials, but particularly those involving the human factor and the strain on the human body in conditions of stress and danger. Additionally, since so many common elements are involved, there will be a greater opportunity to improve investigative techniques and procedures by applying the lessons learned in one mode to problems in another. These benefits will be more readily realizable and coordinated more effectively if all of the investigations are conducted under unified direction of a single Department. The same beneficial results follow when the circumstances involved in all accidents are reviewed by a single safety board whenever such investigation is necessary. The assignment of responsibility for determining the cause of all accidents to a National Transportation Safety Board would create finally in the history of government a single body concerned exclusively with safety matters. This is not to suggest that safety does not today receive the attention it requires, but there can be no denying the fact that it is conducted by officials who have other and sometimes more important functions, such as those in the CAB and the ICC which relate to economic regulation. Safety no longer can be incidental to other work. The toll of human lives and the economic consequences of accidents are so great that the Government must recognize its responsibility to provide this area the attention it deserves, in the hope of eliminating some of the human tragedy and economic waste. By creating the NTSB, the Government will concentrate attention on safety in a body to which no other functions will be assigned. It will also develop a much higher degree of expertise, if only by freeing those involved in safety from the responsibility of discharging other functions that demand their time and attention. The determination |