CONTENTS Page Fitzpatrick, B. T., Deputy Administrator and general counsel, Home Johnson, Charles E., legislative attorney, General Accounting Office-- 146, 330 6 Neustadt, Richard E., member, Legislative Reference Division, Bu- 6 Nevins, Matthew, representing General Accounting Office_-_ Stickney, Charles W., chairman, Production and Marketing Committee Weitzel, Frank H., assistant to the Comptroller General_ Letters, statements, memorandums etc., submitted for the record by— Appendix for Production and Marketing Administration__ Buchanan, Hon. Frank, letter, April 19, 1950, to Lindsay C. Warren_. General Accounting Office report re meeting of Minnesota committee men of the Production and Marketing Administration, St. Paul, Investigation of the use of Federal funds for an inspection trip by Federal Security Administration officials to European countries_. Lobbying with appropriated moneys (18 U. S. C., sec. 1913)‒‒‒ 25 59 331 353 35 LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES OF EXECUTIVE AGENCIES THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1950 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON LOBBYING ACTIVITIES, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 a. m. in the caucus room, Old House Office Building, Hon. Frank Buchanan (chairman) presiding. Present: Representatives Buchanan, Lanham, Albert, Halleck, and Brown. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. This morning we continue and conclude our opening series of hearings on the academics of the problem of investigating all lobbying activities intended to influence, encourage, promote, or retard legislation and all activities of agencies of the Federal Government intended to accomplish any of those purposes. In our two preceding sessions on the Role of Lobbying in Representative Self-Government, we discussed the broad premises of private lobbying, what it is and how it works, and how it could or should be kept out in the open where Congress and the public can see it and assess its purpose. Now we turn to a review of the role of Government agencies in influencing legislation. Our resolution calls upon us to investigate their efforts to affect legislation. Before we call upon our witnesses this morning, and before we get into the questioning and exchanges and discussions which the nature of this subject indicates are ahead of us, I believe it might be well to have on the record, at the very start, a few generalizations which perhaps we can all agree on. First of all, as has been said here repeatedly this week, the right of petition is assured in the Constitution. Lobbying efforts to influence action by Congress-is one form of the expression of this right. We have a Federal law, the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1946, which applies to private groups or individuals seeking to influence legislation, requiring that they tell us certain information about their activities. But it does not regulate their lobbying activities in any way. However, when we get over into the field of efforts by Government agencies or employees to influence legislation, several important facts must be stressed. First, not only is there a law applying to lobbying- to use the term in its widest sense-by Federal agencies and employees, and not only |