VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION, Hon. JOE T. ROBINSON, Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Government Organization, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR ROBINSON: This is in further reply to your letter of June 24, 1937, requesting my views on Senate bill 2700, Seventy-fifth Congress, insofar as the provisions of that bill affect the Veterans' Administration. It is my belief that the provisions of title I of this bill empower the President, by Executive order, to transfer, retransfer, regroup, coordinate, consolidate, reorganize, segregate or abolish the whole or any part of the Veterans' Administration or its functions or to prescribe for the Veterans' Administration a new name as well as prescribe the title, powers and duties of its executive head. This view is predicated on the provisions of section 2 (a) and by construing the language of paragraph (2) of section 5, which reads: "The term 'Independent Establishment' includes the legislative courts and the United States Board of Tax Appeals (emphasis supplied). * As excluding from the term "Independent Establishment" the agencies not therein specified; the Veterans' Administration not being specified. However, the language of paragraph 2 of section 5 is susceptible to an interpretation that in addition to the organizations therein specified, other agencies, including the Veterans' Administration, which are independent establishments under existing law, may be included. You may desire, therefore, to eliminate any possible ambiguity with respect to this feature of the bill because of the very definite interrelation of the provisions of paragraph (2) of section 5 with other provisions of the bill, particularly to wit, sections 2 (b) (1), 2 (b) (4), and 2 (c). If the bill is enacted in its present form and construed as I have first hereinbefore indicated, the President, with respect to the Veterans' Administration, would be clothed with the full powers set forth in section 2 (a) without the limitations contained in sections 2 (b) (1), 2 (b) (4), and 2 (c). In the light of the experience of my principal assistants any myself, going back to the days when the administration of laws relating to veterans was divided among different agencies and departments and with a knowledge of the difficulties engendered by the separation of these functions pertaining to veterans, I can wholeheartedly express accord with and favor the purposes outlined in section 1 of the bill because the very difficulties designed to be overcome by that section inhered in the separation of functions relating to veterans' affairs prior to the consolidation of all of these related functions into the Veterans' Administration, and it is my mature judgment that the purposes sought to be accomplished by section 1 of this bill have already been effected in the administration of veterans' laws. In order that the committee may have readily available the historical background of the Veterans' Administration and of the administration of laws relating to veterans, the following brief statement is submitted: The administration of pension laws dates back to the year 1789 and in the evolution of this purpose of Government the administration of such laws has at various times been placed in several of the executive departments, the United States circuit courts, a corporation created by Congress, and at one time in the Congress itself. During these years there have been transfers, consolidations, and changes, a major change having been effectuated by the act of August 9, 1921, when the Veterans' Bureau was created as an independent bureau under the direction of the President, by consolidating the then Bureau of War Risk Insurance (a unit of the Treasury Department), the Rehabilitation Division of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, and certain related functions of the Public Health Service, all of these units administering laws relating to veterans of the World War. The act of July 3, 1930, created the present Veterans' Administration as an establishment under the direction of the President by consolidating the Pension Bureau of the Interior Department, the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (a Government corporation), and the United States Veterans' Bureau, thereby placing under one executive head (the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs) directly responsible to the President, the administration of laws dealing with what we may term our military and naval pension system. As I have above indicated, the present consolidated organization was brought about and built up because of experienced difficulties caused by the separation of related functions vested in the control and management of different agencies. The consolidation into one unit of administration of the laws relating to veterans has eliminated overlapping and duplicate functions and has resulted in the coor dination of effort with full service in one agency to the veterans and the dependents of veterans of all wars and the Regular Establishment. Following the consolidation into the Veterans' Administration in 1930, subsequent laws and regulations dictated by study and experience have resulted in the elimination of inequalities, and internal consolidations which have been and are being made, particularly in field activities, have permitted improved service at lower cost. These major changes have been made under the direction of the President and the Veterans' Administration today functions under the direction of the President. Under the provisions of the first Economy Act, June 30, 1932, acts amendatory thereof, and Presidential orders issued thereunder, functions of procurement, disbursements, insurance litigation, and civil retirement have been transferred from the Veterans' Administration. These comparatively minor changes rounded out the jurisdiction and perfected the organization of the Veterans' Administration as an independent establishment within the purview of the Consolidation Act of July 3, 1930. It follows, I believe, that the administration of the laws granting benefits to veterans, that is, the granting of hospital and home care, the payment of benefits in the form of pension, compensation, and related items, together with the administration of the insurance laws (except litigation which is in the Department of Justice), representing as it does a major purpose of government and as to which I believe there is no comparable function of government, is now set up in an organization compact, effective, and economical. I am confident that any inquiry by the President or the Congress of the administration of veterans' laws will result in a conclusion that not only the major purposes as set out in section 1 of the bill have been accomplished, but also that the continuation of the Veterans' Administration in its present form of organization under the direction of the President will best serve the Government and the veterans in the field of veterans' affairs. As to the remaining titles of the bill, I feel that you would not desire my comment at this time, but I shall freely cooperate with you in regard to any request which may be made by you or your committee. Very truly yours, FRANK T. HINES, Administrator. Hon. JOE T. ROBINSON, WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION, Chairman, the Senate Select Committee on Government Organization, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR ROBINSON: Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of June 24, 1937, transmitting a copy of Senate bill 2700, to provide for reorganizing agencies of the Government, extending the classified civil service, establishing of a General Auditing Office and a Department of Welfare, and for other purposes, and stating that your committee would be glad to receive views on such provisions of the bill as affect the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and the National Youth Administration. In view of the fact that the Federal Emergency Relief Administration is in the course of liquidation under the direction of the Works Progress Administrator, the bill would have no effect upon that Administration. By Executive Order No. 7086 of June 26, 1935, the National Youth Administration was established by the President to be within the Works Progress Administration, which was created by Executive Order No. 7034 of May 6, 1935, and the comments herein apply to both agencies. TITLE I Title I of the bill sets forth a declaration of standard, conferring authority upon the President to investigate the organization of the various agencies of the Government with a view to their reorganization. That such authority be given to the President appears highly desirable. TITLE III This title contemplates the transfer of accounting functions from the General Accounting Office, which is to be abolished, to the Bureau of the Budget. This change would appear to place in the executive branch of the Government the authority and responsibility for the proper expenditure of public moneys. Section 302 (b) authorizes the Auditor General to report to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget and to the Congress any expenditure of public funds which the General Auditing Office "deems to have been unwisely or improvidently made." Should the Auditor General be given such authority, he should first be required to confer with the heads of the agencies with respect to the expenditures he might deem to have been unwisely or improvidently made. The suggestion is, therefore, offered that this phrase be changed to read "deems to have been made in contravention of law." TITLE IV As section 401 proposes to create a new executive department to be known as the Department of Welfare, and as new departments have heretofore been established by separate laws, the committee may desire to consider the advisability of placing this section in a title separate and apart from other sections of the bill. Section 403 (c). There are several problems intimately connected with the general purposes and functions of the Department of Welfare as set forth in the bill, which are not mentioned and which it would seem advisable to include. It is believed, therefore, that thought should be given to the insertion of a clause which would include problems pertaining to youth, such as are now under the guidance of the National Youth Administration; a clause providin for the training and the preservaton of the skill of the unemployed; and a clause to include authority to study, gather, compile, publish, and disseminate statistical and other useful information with respect to unemployment and other activities within the jurisdiction of the department. Sincerely yours, HARRY L. HOPKINS, Administrator. SUBJECT INDEX Accounting and auditing: General Accounting Office: Page R. N. Elliott, Acting Comptroller General of the United States. 281 312 C. H. Cooper, Chief, Post Office Division.. 335 J. D. Denit, Chief, Accounting Division. 323 V. R. Durst, Chief, Files and Records.. J. C. McFarland, Ássistant General Counsel O. R. McGuire, counsel... D. Neumann, Chief, Claims Division. S. B. Tulloss, Chief, Investigations Division_. President's Committee on Administrative Management. Civil service: United States Civil Service Commission, H. B. Mitchell, President... W. B. Greeley. 342 341 366 292 316 435 422 271 147 165 27 National Civil Service Reform League, H. E. Kaplan.. 139 National Federation of Federal Employees, L. C. Steward.. 155 National League of Women Voters, Mrs. Harris T. Baldwin.. 157 President's committee, Luther Gulick. 60 Veterans of Foreign Wars, M. W. Rice. 162 Leonard D. White, former commissioner, United States Civil Service- 168 Conservation and forestry: Department of the Interior, Hon. H. L. Ickes, Secretary- 353 American Forestry Association, J. G. K. McClure, Jr. 103 Association of State Foresters, H. A. Smith_. 109 Conservation Association of Los Angeles County. 119 California State Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations, Society of American Foresters, H. H. Chapman, president. Association of Railroad and Utilities Commissioners, H. L. Hooker.. 224 278 Federal Communications Commission, E. O. Sykes, acting chairman_ 197 207 Federal Trade Commission, W. A. Ayres, chairman. 202 Government Printing Office, R. H. Herrell, comptroller. 263 Interstate Commerce Commission, J. B. Eastman, chairman. 177 National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Dr. L. J. Briggs, Independent establishments-Continued. Page National Labor Relations Board, J. W. Madden, chairman_. 261 246 91 Securities and Exchange Commission.. 278 United States Court of Claims 277 United States Tariff Commission, O. B. Ryder, commissioner _ _ 260 National Resources Planning Board: American Planning and Civic Association.. 101 Senator Herbert E. Hitchcock.. 102 Reorganization: Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, M. C. Hazen, Independent establishments and agencies: American Battle Monuments Commission_ Alley Dwelling Authority for District of Columbia.. Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia... Central Statistical Board. Civil Service Commission_ Emergency Conservation Work. Farm Credit Administration__ Federal Trade Commission_ 362 454 358 446 455 453 446 444 1 I 442 447 463 463 275 463 278 464 271 465 466 202 |