1960 NASA AUTHORIZATION HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND SECURITY (SUBCOMMITTEE No. 3), Washington, D.C., Friday, April 24, 1959. The subcommitttee met, pursuant to notice, at 3 p.m., in room 304, Old House Office Building, Hon. Erwin Mitchell (member of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. MITCHELL. The subcommittee will be in order. Dr. Dryden, we are most happy to have you with us this afternoon, together with your associates. I would appreciate it if you would identify yourself and them for the record. Dr. DRYDEN. I will. I am Hugh Dryden, the Deputy Administrator. I have with me, Mr. Ulmer, the budget officer, and Mr. Vaccarro, who will be the business manager of the Beltsville Center. We are prepared to go over this in any way you like; either proceed with some general background, or proceed directly to questions. Mr. MITCHELL. I think, first, Doctor, that Mr. King does have a series of questions which will be in the nature of background, that he would like to ask of you and your associates. Dr. DRYDEN. He has discussed them with Mr. Ulmer, and I think I will let Mr. Ulmer answer them, since you have had a little prior discussion. Mr. KING. Could I proceed, Mr. Chairman? Mr. MITCHELL. Proceed. Mr. KING. Mr. Ulmer, you have kindly discussed with me for a moment or two the general structure of this proposed budget. I wonder if you could restate what you told me for the record, indicating broadly how the proposed budget is divided into three broad classifications and what the rationale behind that is for dividing it into those three classifications, and in general what those three classifications cover. Mr. ULMER. Yes, Mr. King. The three appropriations titles which make up the total NASA budget consist of salaries and expenses, commonly referred to as S. & E.; research and development, which we call R. & D.; and construction and equipment, which we call C. & E. The S. & E. appropriation covers the salaries of all NASA employees, regardless of where they are located or what type of work they are doing. It was the intent of Congress from the legislative history which supports the enactment of the NASA Act, that insofar as possible all normal annual expenses of the NASA be provided on a single-year basis. That is, the money becoming available at the beginning of a fiscal year and expiring for obligation at the end of that fiscal year. This, then, led to the establishment of the S. & E. appropriation, which as I mentioned covers the salaries of all employees. The other expenses are travel expenses, transportation, communications, rents, and utilities, printing, security investigations, Federal life insurance, taxes and assessments, awards, and contributions to the retirement fund. The research and development appropriation covers the bulk of the budget, about $333 million of a total of $485 million, and this is a no-year appropriation. It provides money for all of the contractual services of the agency, the major part of which is required to support the development of new space flight vehicles. As a matter of administrative simplicity many items of procurement required in running our laboratories—many big equipment items and many of the big supply contracts--are similar to the contracts that we let under the R. & D. item. So for purposes of simplicity we have lumped all of the items for supply and equipment required in running our laboratories in this same R. & D. appropriation. This simplifies our procurement procedures-I would like to give you an example. If a man is buying a series of rockets for use in basic research at one of our laboratories, he would like to write a contract for, say, $80,000 or $100,000 worth of rockets. Some of those rockets might be used to support our in-house effort. Some might also be used in support of a research and development contract. To eliminate the need for that man having to decide at the time he obligates the money whether the rocket is going to be used in the in-house effort or to support the contractual effort, we have decided that all supply procurements would be funded under the research and development appropriation. Now, the third item, namely, construction and equipment, covers the procurement and the contracting for all major facilities, that is all capital improvements of the agency, whose estimated cost exceeds $250,000. This, again, is the requirement of the basic NASA Act which requires specific authorization for all those items. So any single item whose estimated cost exceeds $250,000 and which results in a capital improvement is construction and equipment. That generally is the background behind the three appropriations, Mr. King. Mr. KING. There is no overlapping, then? Mr. ULMER. No, sir, there is no overlapping. Mr. KING. So that the salaries and expenses appearing in the first category would include all salaries? Mr. ULMER. All salaries. Mr. KING. And annual operating expenses? Mr. ULMER. Right. Mr. KING. Even though they might relate to R. & D. or construction? Mr. ULMER. Or C. & E., that is right. Mr. KING. Now, roughly what proportion of the total is represented by each of these three? Mr. ULMER. $94 million, approximately 20 percent of the total budget, is for salaries and expenses. $333 million of the $485 million is R. & D.; that is the major portion of the budget. And $57.8 million is for construction and equipment, capital improvements. Mr. King, if I could refer you for a moment to the chart on page 3. I have put those same figures in a pie chart that perhaps will give you a better picture of the distribution. Mr. KING. Yes. One other question. On the salaries and expenses. Mr. ULMER. Yes? Mr. KING. Now, is that broken down according to geographical coverage in your budget? Mr. ULMER. It is, sir. It is broken two ways. The geographical coverage you will find on page 5 of the budget, starting with the requirements for NASA headquarters. Mr. KING. Yes. Mr. ULMER. The three major research centers at Langley Field, Va., Moffett Field, Calif., and Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. KING. Yes. Mr. ULMER. The high-speed flight station in California. The space project center at Beltsville; the pilotless aircraft station at Wallops Island; the Patrick office; the Western coordination office; and the Wright-Patterson liaison office. Dr. DRYDEN. You may not be familiar with all the locations. The headquarters is here in Washington. Most of the people are in two buildings at 1512 and 1520 H Street NW. Mr. MITCHELL. If I may interrupt you Dr. DRYDEN. Yes. Mr. MITCHELL. I think you are going right into something that I think we should have for the record. Dr. DRYDEN. Yes. Mr. MITCHELL. And that is beginning with NASA headquarters. If you would identify each of these locations-the installations, and give a brief description of just what phase of NASA work is carried on there, it would be invaluable as far as the record is concerned. Dr. DRYDEN. Yes. It would take a very short time to run this down. We have some pictures of some of the installations. Mr. MITCHELL. Start, if you will, with just a brief word description of what is done right here at headquarters in Washington. Dr. DRYDEN. Yes, sir. In the Washington headquarters, of course, you have the usual people in a headquarters. They are the people who manage the operations primarily. You start with the office of the Administrator and the Deputy. The major units here are the legal staff, which includes a patent section, the public information office, the congressional relations office, and the office of program planning and evaluation. Now, these groups in the Administrator's Office. Now, below this, there are three Mr. KING. Pardon me. How many are in this central office? Dr. DRYDEN. 486 is the total requested for 1960. Mr. MITCHELL. Right at that point, Doctor, we might-I note a change, an increase in headquarters of some 150. Dr. DRYDEN. From 336 at the end of 1959 to 486 in 1960, an increase of 150. Now, a large part of the increase in the headquarters staff comes from requirements in the act. I mentioned the patents, for example. There is a rather complex patent provision. There is an inventions and contributions board set up to evaluate ideas submitted by people from outside. In the public relations office in NACA, we had two or three people. As you know, the space business is in the public eye. We have had to take care of relations with the press when we have firings. office has expanded. We can give you some of the numbers. That Mr. ULMER. We have a complete breakdown, Mr. King, that we would be glad to insert in the record. Dr. DRYDEN. We will put it in the record if you would like. Mr. MITCHELL. Without objection, then, it will be filed and made part of the record. (The document referred to is as follows:) |