are followed as to the handling, transmittal, and protection of classified defense information. For details as to the answers to this question (including its subsections), please refer to the regulations attached hereto and mentioned above in answer I−2. (a) The regulation identified above has been issued. (b) None. (c) and (d) Not applicable to this Agency. (e) Whenever an employee believes that classified material in his possession is classified too highly. (f) The document security officer, with the consent of the originating agency. (9) This Agency recognizes the importance of the public's right to be informed regarding its operations, and its policy has been fixed accordingly, in order to make the maximum amount of information available to the public. (h) and (i) Not applicable to this Agency. 5. $1,500. 6. Complete information regarding the activities of this Agency is available to all interested individuals and organizations, except as indicated in answers I-1 and II-5. 7. Within the Office of the Administrator, there is a Division of Information under the supervision of the Assistant Administrator (Congressional Liaison and Public Affairs), with operations carried on under the supervision of the Director of Information. The Division provides a central point of information and referral for the public on housing activities of the Government generally, including policies and activities of the Office of the Administrator and the Agency as a whole. It also coordinates constituent Agency release on informational material of general Agency concern; and provides information services to the Administrator and the staff of the Office of the Administrator, including the Community Facilities Administion, the Urban Renewal Administration, and the Voluntary Home Mortgage Credit Program. Within the Federal Housing Administration, there is a Public Information Office in the office of the FHA Commissioner, under the direction of a public information officer. Within the Public Housing Administration, there is an Office of Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Liaison, concerned primarily with keeping the Congress informed, but also serving the press and the public. Within the Federal National Mortage Association, there is an Office of Public Affairs, headed by a Director, in the office of the President of the Federal National Mortgage Association. The estimated annual cost is $136,200. 8. Not by our consent, or with our knowledge. 9. Yes. (a) None. (b) None. This Agency has experienced no difficulty with respect to the flow of information between Federal agencies. 10. This Agency has experienced no difficulty in this regard. II. PRESS 1. Three. (a) Housing and Home Finance Administrator. (c) Tape recordings made, but not transcribed as there was no demand for full transcript. 2. Press and trade press representatives from time to time, singly or in groups, request meeting with various officials in the Agency for background purposes or general information. While there are many instances of such meetings, they usually are not formalized, and no record of the actual number is maintained. 3. The employees of the offices described in I-7, above, plus the Administrator, Commissioners, and other top officials. (a) Full authority. (b) No one is instructed not to speak to the press. Officials are asked, where possible, to channel information through the information office as a matter of accuracy and fair relations to all the press. (c) No, but officials who do talk directly with the press are asked to advise the information office regarding information which they gave out, in order to keep the information center current on latest developments. 4. This Agency issues no strategic information and imposes no specific restrictions or controls over what is authorized for publication other than the restrictions set forth in answer I−1–(a). (a) No restrictions except those covered in answer I-1-(a). (c) No restrictions on photographers or newsreel and television representatives. (d) This Agency has no emergency news censorship plans other than those established through the Office of Defense Mobilization. (e) They relate to relocation. 5. None except FHA information involving investigation or litigation, particularly where the release would more appropriately emanate from the Department of Justice. (a) No. III. CONGRESS 1. (a), (b), and (c). This Agency has received no requests for information from individual Congressmen or congressional committees which it refused to make available. As to restrictions which might be for application if the occasion arose, please refer to answers I-1 and I-2. 2. (a), (b), and (c). No refusals. If the occasion arose, the authorities discussed in answers I-1 and I-2 would be for invocation. 3. (a), (b), and (c). None. 4. None. 5. Full disclosure of policies, procedures, and specific actions in the States and communities, subject only to limitation by higher authority. (a) It is the policy and practice of this Agency to respond immediately to all congressional requests for information. Also, prior congressional notification is effected on Agency action on applications filed by the States and their political subdivisions for Federal financial assistance relating to urban renewal, community facilities, college housing, etc. The Public Housing Administration has an administrative policy of notifying all Members of Congress of disposition actions and contracts for low-rent public housing entered into within their districts and States. (b) No formal regulations or directives; instructions are transmitted through oral or other informal means. (c) Section 802 (a) of the Housing Act of 1954 (Public Law 560, 83d Cong., 2d sess., 68 Stat. 590) provides that— The Housing and Home Finance Administrator shall, as soon as practicable during each calendar year, make a report to the President for submission to the Congress on all operations under the jurisdiction of the Housing and Home Finance Agency during the previous calendar year, and section 817 of the same act adds that such report— shall contain pertinent information with respect to all projects for which any loan, contribution, or grant has been made by the Housing and Home Finance Agency, including the amount of loans, contributions, and grants contracted for, and shall also contain pertinent information with respect to all builders' cost certifications required by section 227 of the National Housing Act, as amended, including information as to the amounts paid by mortgagors to mortgagees for application to the reduction of the principal obligations of the mortgages pursuant to that section. (d) Yes. (e) Security considerations would enter into the decision to the extent of conformance with law or other authority as to access to the particular material. (f) None. (g) This agency is familiar with the recent statement by a congressional committee that congressional liaison should not be concerned primarily with the presentation of testimony on pending legislation, but rather with the performing of a dual service function, namely, to keep the Congress currently informed of the work of these boards and commissions, and to provide a convenient source to which Members of the Congress may turn to secure prompt answers to inquiries from constituents for information, copies of decisions or rulings, etc. At the same time, the liaison officer could keep his agency up to date on legislation and congressional activity affecting that agency, as well as serving as a personal contact with the Members of the Congress and the various committees (S. Rept. No. 411, 84th Cong., 1st sess., on the independent offices appropriation bill, 1956, p. 3). We believe that our congressional liaison activities comply with the above recommendations. (a) Director of Congressional Liaison; Special Assistant to Commissioner for Liaison; 2 liaison officers; deputy liaison officer; congressional correspondence officer and 3 stenographers. (b) Within the Office of the Administrator, there is a congressional liaison staff, under the supervision of the Assistant Administrator (congressional liaison and public affairs), with operations carried on under the supervision of a congressional liaison officer. This staff maintains liaison with Members of Congress, and prepares or expedites the preparation of responses to congressional requests for information and service. Within the Federal Housing Administration and the Federal National Mortgage Association, the congressional liaison work is carried on as part of the function of the information office as described in I-7 above. Within the Public Housing Administration, the congressional liaison work is carried out under the direction of a Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Liaison, assisted by a liaison officer and a congressonal correspondence officer. (c) and (d) It is estimated that the salary of congressional liaison personnel costs this agency $72,330 annually. It is recognized that there are other costs involved; for example, budget personnel respond to inquiries from appropriation committee staff members and attorneys respond to inquiries from substantive committee staff members, etc.; however, no records of such expenses are maintained and it would not be feasible to make an estimate thereof. Sincerely yours, FRANK J. MEISTRELL, Acting Administrator. LIST OF ATTACHMENTS OF HOUSING AND HOME FINANCE AGENCY Office of Administrator Administrative Practice Handbook, Part 5, Communications, Section 1, Handling of Classified Defense Information INDIAN CLAIMS COMMISSION Answer to questionnaire submitted to Federal executive departments and independent agencies by Government Information Subcommittee of the House Government Operations Committee I. GENERAL 1. What categories and types of information possessed by your agency are not available to (a) The press and other information media serving the general public? None. (b) The Congress? None. (c) Other Federal agencies? None. (d) Business, trade, and other groups with an economic interest in the information? None. (e) Research specialists, scientists, public affairs organizations, and similar groups or individuals? None. 2. On what do you base authority_for denying access to or not making available such information? Please provide copies of regulations, directives, letters, policy statements, etc., bearing on the withholding of information by your agency. Please cite any court decisions and statutes which relate to your agency. 3. What terms do you use to describe restrictions placed on imparting information? No restrictions. (a) Please define each term to indicate the type of informational material which it includes, to what group or individuals it applies and what exceptions are made in its application. (b) What proportion is withheld on each basis? (c) What steps have been taken by your agency to insure that procedures for restricting information are not being abused? (d) What persons in your agency are authorized to apply restrictions on imparting information in the first instance? (e) What provisions are made for review of the decisions of these persons? (f) Who reviews the initial restrictions placed on imparting information? (g) How often does your agency review information to which restrictions have been applied to determine whether the restrictions should be removed? (h) Who removes the restrictions? 4. If the information from your agency is restricted on security grounds, list the specific statutes, Presidential directives or other bases for such action. No classified material. (a) What steps have been taken by your agency to insure that security classification procedures are not being abused? (b) What persons in your agency are authorized to apply security classifications in the first instance? |