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CONTENTS

Page

Johnson, Charles E., legislative attorney, General Accounting Office-- 146, 330
Johnson, Kirt, investigator, General Accounting Office in St. Louis--- 146
Jones, Roger W., Assistant director, Bureau of the Budget Division
of Legislative Reference‒‒‒

6

Neustadt, Richard E., member, Legislative Reference Division, Bu-
reau of the Budget_

6

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_.
Estimated expense of European trip by Oscar R. Ewing----
Ewing, Oscar R., letter, Sept. 8, 1950, to Hon. Frank Buchanan__
Examples of laws authorizing informational activities by Government
agencies, submitted by General Accounting Office__

General Accounting Office report re meeting of Minnesota committee

men of the Production and Marketing Administration, St. Paul,

April 3 and 4, 1950_.

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)‒‒‒
National Health Assembly material on receipts and expenditures fur-
nished by Oscar R. Ewing_

25

59

331

353

35

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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

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