Agencies have also been asked to review their program activities, and will submit comprehensive reports to the Commission.

The Commission's own agenda for evaluating agencies' equal employment opportunity programs has been revised to include specific Coverage of the goals and objectives of the 16-point program.

This agenda I speak about is an agenda which is used by our evaluators who move into agencies and make onsite inspection of actual activity. In addition to the current Government-wide evaluation of the 16-point program now underway covering hundreds of installations, we annually make onsite evaluations covering equal employment activity in over 500 installations.

The Office of Spanish-Speaking Program has been in continuous contact with agencies' headquarters officials to assure that guidance on the 16-point program reaches the local levels where it must make its major impact.

As part of these contacts, Mr. Costales, the Commission's Director, Spanish-Speaking Program, will be visiting personally officials of major agencies to establish meaningful and productive relations and effective lines of communication, as was done by his predecessor.

The Commission's Interagency Advisory Group, composed of agency directors of personnel, has established a standing subcommittee to monitor agency actions in support of the 16-point program. This subcommittee with members from 14 agencies, has held fruitful discussions and is an invaluable aid in assuring a coordinated approach to problem solving and meeting the goals of the program.

Just a word about other action. Although the Civil Service Commission, as the Federal Government's central personnel agency, has the primary role in guiding and administering the 16-point program, the Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for Spanish-Speaking People is also vitally interested in the area of Federal employment, and we have worked closely with Cabinet Committee Chairman Henry Ramirez and his staff.

Recently, we participated in the regional council meetings sponsored by the Cabinet Committee in Chicago, New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, and San Francisco to focus attention on the needs of the Spanish-surnamed population in these areas.

In other words, the meeting in San Francisco was concerned with the entire west coast region which includes all of California and Arizona. These meetings gave us the opportunity to further emphasize the 16point program to the Federal agencies involved in the regional councils, including Labor, HUD, DHEW, Transportation and OEO.

I might add at this point that although the focus of the conference was the Regional Council Agency, other agencies, some of whom were much larger Federal employers than members of the regional council, were also in attendance so this message of what we are trying to do in the 16-point program also reached these agencies.

Following the issuance of Executive Order 11478, we had discussions with agencies regarding the inclusion of numerical employment goals and timetables in equal employment opportunity action plans and instructions, and we have issued guidance on the use of this useful management concept where it will contribute to the resolution of equal employment opportunity programs.

We believe realistic goals and timetables-based on analyses of the skills and abilities available and related to projected job opportunities encourage affirmative action to achieve equal employment opportunity within the context of merit employment principles.

In our analysis of data from the November 1970 and May 1971 minority employment surveys, we find that in certain geographical areas, Spanish-surnamed persons are generally well represented in the Federal work force and that with continued upward mobility efforts, they should gain more of the middle and higher level jobs.

In other areas, however, it appears this group's potential for Federal employment has not been fully realized for a variety of possible reasons. We are now zeroing in on specific problem areas to insure that a wide range of program efforts are directed to improving to the fullest extent possible employment opportunities for the Spanish-surnamed.

In summary, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, we believe it is clear that the 16-point program and other actions we have taken are off to an encouraging start, but we realize that we are only beginning to make necessary progress.

While Federal agencies have taken the necessary affirmative steps to assure equal employment opportunity for Spanish-surnamed Americans, much more needs to be done. You can be sure, Mr. Chairman, that the Civil Service Commission will continue to provide the necessary leadership, and that we will work with individual Federal agencies as appropriate to assure equal employment opportunity for all persons, including those of Spanish descent, in a results-oriented program.

Mr. Chairman, that concludes my statement. Mr. Costales and I will be glad to answer any questions we are able to.

Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you very much, Mr. Kator, for your most useful testimony. The committee is most interested in the work you are doing and of course in the 16-point program.

The administration is to be complimented for the establishment of the program and its assignment to the Civil Service Commission. This subcommittee has the responsibility for general oversight with respect to the execution by the executive department of the various civil rights laws, including those relative to equal employment. We will look forward over the next few months and years to working closely with you.

The subcommittee will be operating as usual this morning under the 5- or 6-minute rule.

The problem, of course, Mr. Kator, is that the program is probably too new to judge at this time. By your own figures, the program was announced on November 5, 1970. At that time the percentage of Spanish-surnamed people employed in the Federal Government was 2.9 percent. The latest statistics indicate the same 2.9 percent, so that is hardly an event to celebrate.

Mr. KATOR. Although the total number, Mr. Chairman, has increased.

Mr. EDWARDS. The total number has increased, that is correct. It has increased from November 30, 1970, to May 31, 1971, by 1,090 Federal employees, a 6-month period. How many do you suppose, Mr. Kator, of the 1,090 new jobs resulted from positions in equal employment opportunity programs established as a result of the 16-point program?

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Mr. KATOR. I can only hazard a guess, Mr. Chairman. I think not a large number, because there are not that large a number of equal opportunity employment jobs throughout the Government which could possibly attract the additional 1,000.

I would have to say some of the jobs might well be in those kind of jobs. However, I think probably some of the biggest gains have been made in the public contact positions where the use of the ability of the individual to speak Spanish must be recognized and special efforts have been made to reach these kinds of people.

Mr. EDWARDS. We will be looking forward to the new report that will be out in November, is that correct?

Mr. KATOR. We will have, Mr. Chairman, a report out in July which will cover the data as of November 1971.

Mr. EDWARDS. The information we have to date is still more than 9 months old.

Mr. KATOR. That is right.

Mr. EDWARDS. How many employees in the Civil Service Commission-perhaps Mr. Costales could answer this better, because he is the boss of this particular program-do you have working on the 16-point program?

Mr. COSTALES. On the 16-point program we have three, including myself.

Mr. EDWARDS. Is that for the 50 States, Mr. Costales?

Mr. COSTALES. This is strictly on the staff of the Spanish-speaking program, but we have to realize also that we do have field representatives in all the regional offices and their responsibility also includes the 16-point program.

I might further say we also utilize the bureaus that we have within the Commission for whatever evaluation activity might be considered necessary in the 16-point program and they are at my disposal. Mr. EDWARDS. Well, Mr. Costales, how many staff do

you feel would be necessary for you as the head of the 16-point program to accomplish the objectives of the program?

Mr. COSTALES. It is very difficult for me to say after being there only 4 weeks.

Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Kator, how many do you think you need if we were going to do a real bang-up job throughout the 50 States?

Mr. KATOR. Let me put it this way. I am not sure you can look at it strictly in terms of what the numbers are on Mr. Costales' staff. Whether 10, 20, or 30, we still wouldn't be able to do the job we think we are able to do by using the various parts of the Commission.

In other words, for example, the training center was set up in San Antonio. This is a training effort. No one on Mr. Costales' staff was directly involved in actually setting it up. This was done by our Bureau of Training which is an organization of several hundred people.

We are now making an evaluation of the 16-point program. How is it doing? What benefits are we getting? What were the results? This is not being done directly by any member of Mr. Costales' staff. It is being done by the Bureau of Personnel Management Evaluation and the regional offices.

The way I like to look at it is we have the entire Commission and ail our resources working on the 16-point program just as we have in

the other equal opportunity efforts whether examining, recruitment, or evaluation.

We would certainly work closely with Mr. Costales and as I indicated, he is new. And if more staff is necessary in his particular operation, I can assure you that this will be done. I can't commit the chairman, of course, but I know this would be looked on favorably. I don't think that is our problem. We have many more people in other parts of the Commission who have to do the job if we are going to make any accomplishment under the 16-point program.

Mr. EDWARDS. We are going to have testimony, I understand, contrary to some of the statements made by you, Mr. Kator. We are going to receive testimony that the number of Spanish-surnamed Federal employees has actually decreased recently because of the 5 percent reduction in total Federal employment with the special impact involved on the loss of jobs in cutting back of VISTA and the Job Corps and OEO programs.

Mr. KATOR. I don't know what other figures would be available. These surveys, of course, are conducted under pretty carefully developed methods in each agency every 6 months and these are the figures that we used and we have confidence that they are correct.

Now, there is no question in my mind that we are not in a period where we are expanding employment where it would be easier to make gains. At the same time, despite the decrease in Federal employment, I think we have been able to make some gains which I think are quite significant.

Mr. EDWARDS. Thank you.

Mr. Wiggins?

Mr. WIGGINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Kator. You would agree, would you not, with the statement that it is the policy of the United States that in Federal employment no person shall be discriminated against by reason of race or ethnic background?

Mr. KATOR. Yes, sir.

Mr. WIGGINS. I deliberately couched that statement in terms of individual rather than broad classes of persons. Do you understand it to be the Federal policy that discrimination is to be measured in terms. of the impact upon an individual or rather its impact on broad ethnic classification or racial classifications?

Mr. KATOR. Well, the impact, Mr. Wiggins, is, I guess, measured in a sense in both ways. The discrimination or the absence is measured on an individual basis where the individual comes in and makes a complaint of discrimination.

Incidentally, for the information of the subcommittee, only about 6 percent of the total complaints of discrimination which are filed by Federal employees come from Spanish-speaking persons, Spanishsurnamed persons.

That, I think, is a response to your question. It is an individual matter. At the same time, we are concerned with the overall picture in terms of whether we are effectively reaching, doing sufficient recruitment, for example, among Spanish-speaking groups. Are there things we are doing that are keeping them from coming into the Government where we should give them equal opportunity? We want to make sure every individual has an equal opportunity.

In this sense, this is why we are concerned where we have some figures that look out of line or out of balance. But I buy 100 percent that it is an individual matter we are talking about when we speak of discrimination.

Mr. WIGGINS. Are you aware of any Federal agency which is violating that policy?

Mr. KATOR. No, not in any policy sense. We have individual discrimination complaints. We get about 1,300 formal complaints a year out of 22 million employees. These are handled on an individual basis. We have a hearing and a decision is made.

In most of those cases, the finding is no discrimination, although oftentimes corrective action is taken; 6 or 7 percent result in a finding of discrimination.

Mr. WIGGINS. Your goal of equal employment opportunity also is expressed in individual terms, is it not, Mr. Kator; that is, individuals should be given an equal opportunity for employment without reference to their racial or ethnic background?

Mr. KATOR. That is right.

Mr. WIGGINS. Does a member of a minority, without refernce to his personal disabilities or lack of them, receive special preference in Federal hiring?

Mr. KATOR. No, sir.

Mr. WIGGINS. How do you square your statement, as I understood it, that all persons of certain racial background are excused from taking a written examination in certain classifications?

Mr. KATOR. If I said that, Mr. Wiggins, I was incorrect. This is not so. If it was in connection with the Veterans Readjustment Authority, this is a program which is designed for all veterans, all returning Vietnam era veterans, regardless of race, color, or ethnic origin.

I was simply pointing out that to make sure that the Spanish-speaking veteran knows about this opportunity, we have made these efforts. Now, this is not to say we don't make similar efforts when working with, for example, black organizations in the community, that we don't use other resources of our Civil Service Offices to publicize this information to the community at large. Most of the VRA appointments are of course, of nonminority persons.

Mr. WIGGINS. How does your policy of equal employment opportunity square with your policy of selective placement on the basis of ethnic background?

Mr. KATOR. NO, Mr. Wiggins, the policy of selective placement is based on the language ability of the individual. Now, if an individual is working in San Antonio, and is working in claims job and has significant dealings with the Spanish-speaking people, we may think it may be helpful to have that kind of background.

Another example, we have established Federal Information Centers throughout the country. The one in San Francisco must have bilingual people. Many of the people coming in there simply do not speak English well enough to make themselves understood.

Mr. WIGGINS. Moreover, I can understand where fluency in more than one language would be an essential job qualification, and I can further understand cases where even being a member of an identifiable minority group might be an essential and wholly legitimate job specification.