ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF CONGRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1951 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10: 15 a. m., Senator John L. McClellan (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators McClellan, Monroney, Underwood, Moody, Mundt, and Dworshak. Also present: Walter L. Reynolds, chief clerk, and George B. Galloway, consultant. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order, please. We will resume the hearings on the reorganization of Congress. Dr. Griffith, will you come forward, please. STATEMENT OF ERNEST S. GRIFFITH, DIRECTOR, LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE SERVICE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS The CHAIRMAN. I believe you have a prepared statement, do you not? Mr. GRIFFITH. Yes, sir. I have submitted a copy of my statement to the committee. The CHAIRMAN. Will you identify yourself for the record and give your background of experience. Mr. GRIFFITH. I am Director of the Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress, and have been for over 10 years. The CHAIRMAN. Áll right, Doctor, you may proceed. Mr. GRIFFITH. In the prepared statement, Senator, there are two or three points to which this committee may wish to give particular attention in its evaluation of the staff services arising out of the Reorganization Act. Under the Reorganization Act, the Legislative Reference Service was made the primary reliance of the individual Member and supplementary reliance for the standing and special committees. It was anticipated, as you know, in the Reorganization Act, that each of the committees would be given a nucleus of a permanent staff, but that provision beyond that nucleus would be made with the first line of defense, the Legislative Reference Service, and the second line of defense the requests for supplemental funds from the Rules and Administration Committee, in the case of the Senate, and from the House Administration Committee in the case of the House. The use made by the individual Member has reached the point at which we are now handling over 200 requests a day while Congress is in session. The CHAIRMAN. May I interrupt you, Doctor? Mr. GRIFFITH. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. You do not intend to read your prepared statement, do you? Mr. GRIFFITH. No, I am just summarizing it. The CHAIRMAN. Then insert it, please, at the beginning of the doctor's remarks as if he had read it to the committee. Mr. GRIFFITH. Thank you, I appreciate it. (The prepared statement of Mr. Griffith is as follows:) STATEMENT OF ERNEST S. GRIFFITH, DIRECTOR, LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE SERVICE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1. What has been accomplished? This is best measured in terms of use. (a) Extent of use.-Inquiries handled for Members have increased from 16,444 in fiscal 1946 to an estimated 40,927 in fiscal 1951, or 148 percent in 5 years. Every Member of both Houses used the Service last year. About 200 Members made very extensive use. (b) Level of use.-Use of LRS specialists on major problems at the policy level by committees has increased from an estimated 22 reports in fiscal 1946 to an estimated 107 in fiscal 1951, or 386 percent in 5 years. Committee prints and congressional documents prepared by the Service have more than doubled. A survey by the House Subcommittee on Accounts of the major work performed free of charge for committees by the Legislative Reference Service during July to December 1949 indicated work which would have cost the committees, according to their own estimates, over $150,000—or an annual rate of over $300,000. Major research and analyses for Congress were carried by LRS staff either on loan to committees or remaining with the Service on the following subjects (among others): Foreign Aid (Marshall Plan); Revision of Social Security Program; Effective Collective Bargaining; Federal Policies in Education; Use of Fiscal Policy as an Instrument in Economic Stabilization; Basic Policy in Natural Resources; "Point IV"; Industrial Mobilization; Antimonopoly; State Veterans' Laws; Status of the Indians; Reapportionment; Low-Income Groups in Agriculture. The work of Fedele Fauri, senior specialist in social welfare, in connection with the revision of the social-security program (H. R. 6000) may be noted as an example of the kind of service LRS is equipped to render. Mr. Fauri served with the House Ways and Means Committee during many months of public hearings and 65 executive sessions. He answered questions and prepared memos for Members, and made suggestions as to witnesses and questions to be asked of them. He cooperated with the legislative counsel in the bill drafting. He served as consultant on the floor of the House during debate. At the request of the Senate Finance Committee, he performed the same service for this committee, and because of his House experience was able to clarify many matters much more easily. He served as consultant on the floor of the Senate during debate. Following passage in the Senate, he returned to the House committee for three sessions to clarify the amendments made by the Senate and the reasons therefor. He then met with the conferees in joint session as an expert who had the confidence of Members of both Houses. (Attention should be called to (a) the fact that as an LRS specialist, he was immediately available, (b) his experience in handling inquiries for Congress in this field made him immediately useful, (c) his "neutral" position made it possible for him to serve and be a liaison between both Houses.) (c) Types of use (additional facilities since 1946).-Consultations with Members and committees have become daily occurrences. Drafts of speeches are now furnished on request. These are currently running about 250 a year, and include important pronouncements on the floors of the Houses and statements before committees as well as in the Members' districts. Charts and graphs are now executed on request. Two persons are employed full time in this unit. Staff members are loaned to committees on a reimbursable basis for extended periods. (Loans up to 2 months are usually without charge.) A monthly bibliography is published for the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. (d) Special services.-The Digest of Public General Bills is issued in a cumulative edition every month instead of every 3 months. Public Affairs Abstracts on subjects before Congress are issued semimonthly. These consist of a general survey of the subject prepared by an LRS specialist and summaries of a cross section of the significant current writings on the subject. They have been requested by 431 Members and committees. Paid subscriptions by the public now number 635. Subjects covered since July 1950 are as follows: The Middle East (1,350). Social Security (1,417). The South as an Economic Region (1,289). Industrial Mobilization (1,343). Economic Stabilization and National Defense (1,274). The Refugee Problem (1,232). Pensions in Industry (1,390). Statehood for Alaska and Hawaii (1,560). Civil Defense (1,484). Democracy and Communism (1,807). Valley Authorities (1,570). (Figures after each indicate congressional circulation. Paid sales to the public range from 300 to 650 copies.) Public Affairs Bulletins are issued whenever the occasion warrants and time allows. Members are notified of their issuance and copies are sent on request. The titles of recent issuances are as follows: Résumé of Federal Law Enacted for War and Emergency Periods. Universal Military Training and the Problem of Military Manpower. Civil Defense in the United States: Federal, State and Local. Fair Employment Practice Legislation in the United States-Federal-StateMunicipal. The Concept of Civil Supremacy over the Military in the United States. Summaries of hearings before committees are now prepared in a limited number of instances. Those recently covered include the Antimonopoly Subcommittee hearings of the House Judiciary Committee, the St. Lawrence seaway hearings of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee (at the request and for the use of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), and the Special Committee of the Senate no Organized Crime. (e) Conclusion as to accomplishments.-Congress has in the Legislative Reference Service a source of competent and authoritative research, analysis, and information-without conscious bias or attempted influence of legislation. It is making increasingly important use of it in floor debate, in committee deliberations, in Member statements, as a basis for congressional action. Increasingly LRS enables Members to serve their constitutents intelligently, thereby raising the level of voters' participation in public affairs. 2. Expansion of the Service Staff (permanent positions): Fiscal 1946: 68. Fiscal 1951: 151. Appropriations: Fiscal 1946: $234,034. Fiscal 1951: $790,000. Funds from committee reimbursement: Fiscal 1946: 0. Fiscal 1951: $35,000. 3. Fields in which senior specialists have or have not been appointed (sec. 203 (b) (2)) Agriculture: Yes. American Government and public administration: Yes. (Item 3 covers Congress, District of Columbia, Territories and insular possessions, organization of executive branch, parties, loyalty and civil rights, post office, civil service.) American public law: Yes. Conservation: Yes. 85166-51-9 Education: Yes (part time). Engineering and public works: Yes. Full employment: No (handled by specialist in industrial organization). Housing: Yes. Industrial organization and corporation finance: Yes. International affairs: Yes (one and one-half plus one vacancy in national defense). International trade and economic geography: Yes. Labor: Yes. Mineral economics: No (handled by specialist in conservation). Money and banking: Yes (one-half time). Price economics: No (handled by specialist in industrial organization). Taxation and fiscal policy: Yes. Transportation and communications: Yes. Veterans' affairs: No. 4. Suggestions for amendment Under section 203 (b) (2), add the fields of (a) national defense (now included under international affairs) (b) recreation, (c) public health, (d) immigration, (e) forestry, (f) fisheries, (g) insurance, (h) crime, (i) atomic energy. It is not contemplated that full-time senior specialists in any of the above (except (a)) will be needed immediately, but the time may come at which it will be economical for Congress to have such a specialist connected with LRS, probably part time, rather than one each on the payroll of the two Houses. The fields are, or may be, important. Change "price economics" to "marketing" as a more comprehensive and accurate term. The committee may wish to recommend amending the rules of the Houses so as to allow the standing committees to reimburse the LRS for services rendered in lieu of a committee maintaining its full complement of professional staff. Safeguards may or may not be necessary in this regard; but, if thought advisable, all such transactions might be made subject to prior approval of the Committees on Accounts. At present, standing committees are not allowed to utilize their authorized funds in this fashion, and have to transfer LRS staff to their regular payroll if they wish to use them for periods of any length. This is unnecessarily complicated and in practice not sufficiently flexible to meet the need. 5. Issues and problems (a) Relationships to committees.-The Committee on House Administration has recommended that more and more the standing and special committees of Congress make use of the staff of the Legislative Reference Service when they need research, reference, analysis, and counsel over and above that which is available from their permanent professional staffs, rather than adding temporary personnel from outside. As compared with temporary outsiders, the LRS staff pool (1) is more immediately available, (2) is more immediately useful, because it understands the nature of congressional business, (3) may be more experienced because the specialists have for the most part operated in the particular field as their life work, (4) need not be retained at committee expense once the job in question is complete, (5) is familiar with and can command the tools and resources of the Library of Congress, and (6) can more readily bring the services rendered to the attention of corresponding committee of the other House. (In this connection, it should be noted that the services rendered to committees mentioned above as saving the committees over $300,000 actually cost the LRS (and the taxpayer) under $100,000.) The Senate committee may wish to give consideration to ways and means of extending this economical practice. It should be borne in mind that use of LRS staff for certain types of investigation, e. g., concerning persons or questioned practices in the executive branch, would be of doubtful wisdom. However, this does not preclude their use for field of foreign investigations involving public-works projects, foreign-aid projects, etc., provided the committee concerned is in a position to pay travel. Use of LRS specialists in lieu of the permanent professional staffs of committees has been much more limited. However, it should be noted that a few committees using LRS have in fact left certain of their authorized positions unfilled and certain others have found it to their advantage to transfer LRS specialists to their regular professional payroll on a full-time basis for months or even years. At the present time two of the professional staff of the Foreign Relations Committee, one of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, and one of the House Committee on Education and Labor have been thus borrowedretaining their tenure with the Legislative Reference Service, if and when the committees shall no longer desire their services (note final item under "Suggestions for amendment" above). (b) Opinions and recommendations.-From time to time specialists on LRS are asked by Members and committees for advice and recommendations on legislation. At present it is the policy of the service to refuse to give recommendations on the assumption that it is not its function to influence legislation. On request specialists have been permitted to "predict consequences" of alternative policies, but are always under instructions at such times to indicate the extent to which other authorities in the particular field agree or disagree with them--and their best judgment as to why. This policy should perhaps be reviewed, and either confirmed or modified. (c) Additional functions suggested from various quarters.— (1) Indexing of printed hearings: The service has or can develop a corps of skilled and rapid indexers. The value of such indexing is conceded. The issue is whether it is better and more economically done by committee staffs or by a central indexing service in LRS. (2) Preparation of analyses of lobbying data as recommended by the House Select Committee on Lobbying activities. We quote the report (H. Rept. No. 3239, 81st Cong., 2d sess.): "2. Increased utilization of the Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress. During the course of our investigation, we have utilized the data contained in the reports filed to date under the Lobbying Act to prepare (a) analyses of lobbying activities and (b) indexes of lobbying organizations and lobbyists. We believe that, as reports are filed in future calendar quarters, they should be analyzed and indexed, because the Members of Congress should have the benefit of such information. We recommend that the preparation of such quarterly analyses and indexes be entrusted to the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress, under the supervision of the subcommittees proposed in paragraph 1 above. On the basis of the information thus compiled every quarter, the Legislative Reference Service would be able to furnish to individual Members analyses of receipts and expenditures of various categories of lobbying groups, throwing light on their general specific legislative activities, e. g., power lobby, farm lobby, labor lobby, small business groups, etc." (p. 33). (d) Expansion of services in summarizing and analyzing hearings of congressional committees. (See attached samples.) This is actually a statutory oligation (Legislative Reorganization Act, sec. 203 (a) (3)), but it has never been implemented by appropriations. During fiscal 1950 and fiscal 1951, a "pilot project" of one reporter was recommended by the House Administration Committee, and paid for out of the general appropriation for the service. Probably the time has come to evaluate the results and decide upon the future policy. (e) Digesting pending amendments of major bills at time of floor debate. The CHAIRMAN. All right, Doctor. Mr. GRIFFITH. We are currently running, therefore, in excess of 40,000 inquiries a year. The CHAIRMAN. Forty thousand what? Mr. GRIFFITH. Inquiries from Members a year. We are also performing for Members several other services, almost all of them of a time-saving character. So far as I can judge, these services are operating reasonably satisfactorily and call for no particular change. The CHAIRMAN. How many employees have you in your service? Mr. GRIFFITH. Pardon? The CHAIRMAN. What is the number of personnel in your service? Mr. GRIFFITH. The permanent personnel is 151. In addition there are temporary personnel engaged when funds are transferred to us by committees and also from savings. At the present time, with Congress in session, there are 175 on the staff, but that will shrink between now and the 1st of January. |