The reorganization act approved March 3, 1927, authorized the creation of a Bureau of Customs under a Commissioner of Customs. Under the authority of that act, the Secretary of the Treasury has conferred upon the Commissioner of Customs, subject to the general supervision and direction of the Secretary, the powers and duties relating to the importation and entry of merchandise into, or the exportation of merchandise from, the United States vested in or imposed upon the Secretary of the Treasury by the Tariff Act of 1930 or any other law, with the exception that certain classes of regulations and decisions shall be approved by the Secretary. Under this delegation of authority from the Secretary of the Treasury, the Commissioner of Customs has general authority for the administration of the Customs Service and the conduct of customs business, prescribing customs practice and procedure, and the supervision of the assessment and collection of customs duties, certain taxes, and miscellaneous receipts. The office of the Commissioner of Customs directs and controls the functioning of the Customs Service throughout (1) the 45 customs collection districts, into which the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico have been divided, with a collector of customs in charge of each; (2) the 7 comptroller districts to which the 45 customs collection districts have been allocated, with a comptroller of customs in charge of each; (3) the 12 active customs agency districts-9 in the United States and 3 in foreign countries; (4) 1 border patrol district established on the Mexican border; and (5) 9 customs laboratory districts.

The principal functions of the Customs Service are to enter and clear vessels; supervise the discharge of cargo; ascertain the quantities of imported merchandise, appraise and classify such merchandise, and assess and collect the duties thereon; control the customs warehousing of imported merchandise; enforce customs and other laws by patrolling the international borders and inspecting international traffic by vessel, highway, railway, and air; review protests against assessments of duties; determine and certify for payment the amount of drawback due upon the exportation of articles manufactured or produced from duty-paid or tax-paid imports; prevent the smuggling of contraband merchandise and the release of prohibited articles; prevent and detect undervaluations and frauds on the customs revenue; apprehend violators of the customs laws; enforce the antidumping act, and perform certain duties under the Foreign Trade Zones Act.

The Bureau of Customs administers the navigation laws and related laws pertaining to the registry, enrollment, and licensing of vessels, including the issuance of commissions to yachts and the assignment of signal letters; the measurement of vessels; the collection of tonnage duties and tolls; the entry and clearance of aircraft; the operation of vessels in the coasting and fishing trades and limitation of the use of foreign vessels in waters under the jurisdiction of the United States; the recording of sales, conveyances, and mortgages of vessels; and the protection of steerage passengers; and the laws governing the remission and mitigation of fines, penalties, and forfeitures incurred under laws governing the foregoing matters.

The Customs Service also cooperates with other services in the Treasury Department and other Executive departments and agencies of the Government in the collection of taxes, fees, and other charges, and in the enforcement of preventive, sanitary, and other laws under their respective administrations relating principally to persons and articles coming into this country and in some cases to articles sent out of the country.

OFFICE OF THE TECHNICAL STAFF

The Office of the Technical Staff in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury has the responsibility of providing technical assistance for the Secretary, the Under Secretary and other Treasury officials on matters relating to Treasury financing, public debt management, and other Treasury matters.

DIVISION OF TAX RESEARCH

The Division of Tax Research serves in a technical capacity, assisting both the Secretary of the Treasury and the congressional committees dealing with taxation by assembling the facts and preparing the analyses (other than legal) needed to formulate tax policy. On request, it provides information on various tax matters for the use of the President, the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation, and officials of the Treasury Department and other Federal agencies. It answers inquiries and analyzes suggestions on taxation submitted by the public. It appraises

the operations and results of Federal tax legislation to determine whether congressional objectives are being accomplished and to advise of defects or inadequacies. The Division is also charged with general responsibility with respect to the assembly and publication of statistics pertaining to Federal taxation.

To carry out its functions, the Division is required to make basic surveys of the tax problems of the Federal Government, to devise alternative methods of meeting revenue requirements, and to develop methods of adjusting the tax system to changing economic conditions. The tax system as a whole is analyzed with a view to obtaining revenue yields large enough to meet prospective revenue requirements and to making adjustments in a manner which will be fair to taxpayers and will avoid undesirable economic effects. Individual taxes are studied (1) to determine their effects on the particular groups of taxpayers involved, (2) to avoid inequity among taxpayers within a given group, (3) to ascertain and develop methods of meeting the administrative and compliance problems of the tax, and (4) to devise ways of integrating the particular tax with the tax system as a whole. These studies require economic analyses of the effects of each tax; technical analyses of the more complicated problems inherent in various tax measures; and statistical analyses of the distribution of the burden of specific taxes, of the total Federal tax load, and of the combined Federal, State, and local burden.

UNITED STATES SAVINGS BONDS DIVISION

This Division is charged with the promotional and sales activities relating to United States Savings bonds and savings stamps.

COAST GUARD

The United States Coast Guard, pursuant to the Act of January 28, 1915, as amended, is a military service and at all times constitutes a branch of the land and naval forces of the United States, operating under the Treasury Department in time of peace and as part of the Navy in time of war, or whenever the President shall so direct. It represents, in its historical development from 1790, an amalgamation into one united service of the activities of the old Revenue Cutter Service, the Life-Saving Service, the Lighthouse Service, and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation. Its normal peacetime functions as the Federal maritime police embrace, in general terms, maritime law enforcement; saving and protecting life and property; providing navigational aids to maritime commerce and to air commerce over the ocean; promoting the efficiency and safety of the American merchant marine; and readiness for military operations. More specifically the duties of the Coast Guard are as follows:

(a) The prevention, detection, and suppression of violations of the laws of the United States on the high seas and navigable waters of the United States, its Territories, and possessions; protection of the customs revenue; enforcement of navigation laws, including promulgation and enforcement of rules for lights, signals, speed, steering, sailing, passing, anchorage, movement, and towlines of vessels, and lights and signals on bridges; enforcement of vessel-manning requirements, citizenship requirements, and requirements for the mustering and drilling of crews; enforcement of neutrality laws and regulations; the enforcement of the rules and regulations governing the anchorage and movements of vessels under the Espionage Act; supervision over the loading and unloading of explosives and other dangerous cargoes, in the interest of safety to life and property, by merchant vessels in our harbors; the enforcement of the Oil Pollution Act; the patrol and enforcement of provisions of conventions into which the United States has entered with other nations, such as the patrol in the waters frequented by the seal and the sea otter, a patrol for the preservation of the halibut fisheries of Northern Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, and the enforcement of the provisions of the act giving effect to the convention for the regulation of whaling.

(b) The affording of aid to distressed persons and vessels on the high seas and waters over which the United States has jurisdiction; the saving of life and property from shipwreck; the construction, operation, maintenance, repair, illumination, and inspection of aids to navigation; the enforcement of the regula tions to promote the safety of life on navigable waters during regattas and marine parades; patroling the trans-Atlantic steamship lanes endangered by icebergs; extending medical and surgical aid to the crews of American vessels engaged in deep-sea fisheries; rescuing and safeguarding life and property and distributing food and clothing to marooned people during floodtimes on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and their tributaries; destruction of derelicts; the collection of sta

tistics and investigation of marine disasters; approval of plans for the construction, repair, and alteration of vessels; approval of materials, equipment, and appliances; classification of vessels; inspection of vessels and their equipment and appliances; issuance of certificates of inspection and of permits indicating the approval of vessels for operations which may be hazardous to life and property; administration of load-line requirements; numbering of undocumented vessels; licensing and certificating of officers, pilots, and seamen; suspension and revocation of licenses and certificates; shipment, discharge, protection, and welfare of merchant seamen; licensing of motorboat operators; administration of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, a voluntary organization of owners of motorboats, yachts, aircraft, and radio stations.

To assist the Commandant, who is charged by law with the administration of the Coast Guard, there are established at Headquarters: a Planning and Control Staff; an Advisory Board; a Merchant Marine Council; Offices of Operations, Merchant Marine Safety, Engineering, Personnel, and Finance and Supply; and Legal, Headquarters Administration, Intelligence and Law Enforcement, Inspection, and Public Information Divisions.

OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY

The most important functions of the Comptroller of the Currency are those relating to the organization of new national banks; the general supervision over the national banks in operation; the administration, through receivers, of national banks which have failed.

Reports of condition of national banks are required to be made to the Comptroller by the banks not less than three times a year upon a date fixed by the Comptroller. Under the direction of the Comptroller, national-bank examiners make regular examinations of the affairs of the national banks, showing their condition with reference to solvency and observance of the provisions of the National Bank Act. In case of deliberate violation, suit may be brought in the name of the Comptroller against any such bank for the forfeiture of its charter. If it appears to the Comptroller that any national bank is in an insolvent condition he is empowered to appoint a receiver.

The Comptroller of the Currency is an ex officio member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and sits regularly with the Board.

The Comptroller of the Currency is required by law to report directly to Congress annually and to recommend to Congress amendments to the national banking laws.

BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING

This Bureau designs, engraves, and prints for the Federal Government, Federal Reserve Board, and government-owned corporations, all currency, bonds, notes, certificates; checks; revenue, customs, war savings, and postage stamps; military certificates and other forms of engraved documents. It performs a similar function for the insular possessions.

BUREAU OF THE MINT

The Director of the Mint has general supervision of the mints, assay offices, and bullion depositories of the United States; prescribes the rules, subject to approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, for the business transactions of the mints and assay offices, receives daily reports on the operations of the field institutions, directs the coinage to be executed and medals to be made for the armed services and other agencies; reviews the accounts, authorizes expenditures, superintends the annual settlements of the several institutions, and makes special examinations of them when deemed necessary. Appointments, removals, and transfers in the mints, assay offices, and bullion depositories are subject to approval of the Director of the Mint.

The Director of the Mint publishes quarterly an estimate of the value of the standard coins of foreign countries for customhouse use and other public purposes; makes an annual report to the Secretary of the Treasury, covering the operations of the Mint Service for the fiscal year and giving statistics of the production of precious metals in the United States and the world for the calendar year. The Director is responsible for all gold and silver assets of the Government which are in custody of the mint.

BUREAU OF NARCOTICS

The Commissioner of Narcotics, under the direction and supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury, has general supervision of the enforcement of the Narcotic and marihuana tax provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, the Opium Poppy Control Act of 1942, and related statutes, including the administration of the permissive features of the Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act, and cooperates with the Customs Bureau in the enforcement of the prohibitive features of the latter act. The Commissioner also cooperates (1) with the State Department in the discharge of the international obligations of the United States concerning the traffic in narcotic drugs and (2) with the several States in the suppression of the abuse of narcotic drugs in their respective jurisdictions. The Commissioner represents the United States on the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

The duties of the Bureau include the investigation and the detection and prevention of violations of the Federal narcotic laws (including the Federal marihuana law and the Opium Poppy Control Act of 1942), the determination, with the cooperation of the Public Health Service, of quantities of crude opium and coca leaves to be imported into the United States for medical and legitimate uses, and the issuance of permits to import the crude narcotic drugs and to export drugs and preparations manufactured therefrom under the law and regulations. An annual report is made to Congress which also serves the purpose of the special report heretofore prepared in the Bureau on behalf of the Government for transmittal through the State Department to the nations signatory to the International Drug Conventions of 1912 and 1931.

UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE

Organized in 1865, the U. S. Secret Service has as its principal functions: The protection of the President of the United States, the members of his immediate family, and the person chosen to be President, at all times and under all conditions, and the protection of the White House and grounds by the White House Police.

The suppression of counterfeiting, forging, or alteration of obligations or securities of the United States (including war savings stamps, internal revenue stamps, postage stamps, and hunting stamps, but not postal money orders) or of foreign governments; the counterfeiting of coins; the investigation of the forgery of endorsements on, or the fraudulent negotiation of, United States Treasury checks; and the investigation of the counterfeiting or altering of Government transportation requests.

Investigations pertaining to certain violations of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, the Silver Purchase Act, section 12-B of the Banking Act of 1935 covered by subsections (s) to (x), inclusive (sec. 264, title 12, U. S. C.), the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, the Federal Land Bank Act, and the Federal Farm Loan Act.

Investigations pertaining to thefts of Government property under control of the Treasury Department, and loss of valuables in shipments by agencies of the United States (Government Losses in Shipment Act).

Personnel investigations as directed by the Secretary or Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.

Protection by the Uniformed Force of the Treasury Building, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and certain other buildings housing Treasury Depart ment activities; protection of the production, transportation, and storage of money, stamps, securities, and obligations of the United States; protection of all other valuable papers stored in the Treasury Department vaults and buildings. Investigations within the Treasury Department of its several branches when directed by the Secretary of the Treasury or his representative.

Performance of such other duties as the Secretary or Assistant Secretary of the Treasury may direct.

BUREAU OF FEDERAL SUPPLY

The Bureau of Federal Supply, formerly the Procurement Division, was created in the Treasury Department by Executive Order No. 6166, dated June 10, 1933, pursuant to the act of March 3, 1933 (47 Stat. 1517).

The principal functions of the Bureau of Federal Supply are the determination of policies and methods of procurement for all Federal establishments; the procurement and distribution of materials, equipment, and services for Federal establishments; the storing, inspection, and conservation of supplies; and the prepara

tion of purchasing standards, such as Federal Specifications, standard forms of contract, and a catalog system.

The Bureau of Federal Supply

(a) Makes general term contracts for supplies and services for use by all agencies, as announced through the Federal Supply Schedule, and makes definite quantity purchases and contracts for their use. Prescribes standard forms of Government contracts and purchase orders.

(b) Under the Federal Standard Stock Catalog function, develops standard nomenclature covering commodities used by the Government; provides a standard description of commodities for storage and issue of warehoused stock and for cataloging and recording supplies.

(c) Coordinates procedures and activities relating to movement of Government freight by various agencies, negotiates special rates and other particular freight considerations, supplies information on freight rates and routes, and represents the Government before the Interstate Commerce Commission and other regulatory bodies on traffic problems.

(d) Stores commonly used supplies in warehouses in the District of Columbia and the field, and issues them to Federal agencies as requisitioned. Also operates a fuel yard, a furniture repair shop, a typewriter repair shop, and an automotive repair shop, providing in the District of Columbia solid and liquid fuels and major and minor repairs for the Treasury and other agencies.

(e) Makes quantitative and qualitative inspection of equipment and supplies, and examines items offered under proposed contracts, as to compliance with specifications.

(f) Conducts investigations and studies in connection with the establishment or modification of procedures, organization, and policy concerning procurement, warehousing, and distribution of commodities or services for the Government.

(g) Prepares and maintains currently, by amendments and revision as necessary, Federal specifications which describe minimum requirements of commodities important in Government use, with special reference to elements of quality, performance, measurement, or other factors and with due regard to the requirements of consumers with relation to market limitations.

(h) Pursuant to the act of June 7, 1939, and section 22 of the Surplus Property Act of 1944, and the act of July 23, 1946, is responsible for the procurement, transporting, storing, and maintaining of stock piles of raw materials classified as strategic or critical to emergency requirements of the Nation.

(i) Procures various industrial and other commodities and articles to meet requirements of nations subject to benefits of special purchasing programs authorized by Congress. Operates field services of inspection, expediting, and storage incident to such procurement.

(j) Transacts all the Treasury Department printing and binding business with the Government Printing Office and handles all requisitions for nonmonetary requirements of other agencies for supply by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. (k) Processes net renegotiation rebates pursuant to the provisions and procedures of the Renegotiation Act.

(1) Coordinates purchases by the Federal Government of the blind-made products specified by the Committee on Purchases of Blind-Made Products.

(m) Coordinates and controls as to reassignment for Federal use or other disposition property abandoned or seized and forfeited under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, the Liquor Law Repeal and Enforcement Act of 1935, etc. (n) Considers requirements of Federal establishments for electric power, telephone, and other utilities' service; negotiates consolidated contracts and provides assistance toward developing most advantageous practices in use of such service.

FISCAL SERVICE

BUREAU OF ACCOUNTS

(Formerly Office of Commissioner of Accounts and Deposits)

The Bureau of Accounts is composed of the Office of the Commissioner of Accounts, Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants, Division of Disbursement, Division of Deposits, Division of Financial Reports, Section of Surety Bonds, Division of Investments, and the Liquidation Division. In addition to the general supervisory duties relating to these activities, the Commissioner of Accounts exercises supervision over the deposit of withheld taxes under the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943; final liquidation of affairs of the Office of Central Administrative Services and certain other war agencies as listed below;