SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL
YEAR 1973

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1972

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

AND RELATED AGENCIES, COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,

Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., in room 1114, New Senate Office Building, Hon. Alan Bible (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Bible, Montoya, Stevens, Young, Hruska, and Hatfield.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

STATEMENT OF RICHARD S. BODMAN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

ACCOMPANIED BY:

JAMES M. DAY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF HEARINGS AND APPEALS RAYMOND C. COULTER, DEPUTY SOLICITOR, OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR

EVERETT TURNER, ASSESSMENT OFFICER, BUREAU OF MINES

SUBCOMMITTEE PROCEDURE

Senator BIBLE. The hearing will come to order.

This is the time and place for hearing supplemental appropriation requests of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies, as embodied in House Document 92-368. These supplemental requests involve four agencies of the Department of the Interior and an addition of $3,225,000 to the Department's budget for fiscal 1973. In addition, the committee will consider the fiscal 1973 appropriation for the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, which was passed over in action on the regular appropriation for lack of authorization. We will hear requests from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Office of the Secretary, and Office of the Solicitor.

We will first give consideration to the supplemental requests of the Department of the Interior. Since the requests of the Office of the Secretary and the Office of the Solicitor are closely related, we will now hear them jointly. A representative of the Bureau of Mines is also on hand, I understand, to discuss the administration of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, which is involved in the supplemental request.

INTRODUCTION OF ASSOCIATES

Senator BIBLE. I think we will first hear from the Secretary, or I guess Dick Bodman, Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget, and whomever he has with him.

Mr. Bodman, you may present these gentlemen at the front desk who are with you, please.

Mr. BODMAN. Senator Bible, it is a great pleasure to be with you again this morning.

I really am here today only to answer specific questions and I would like to have our other members of the Department give testimony.

I have with me, on my immediate left, Jim Day, who is the Director of the Office of Hearings and Appeals. On his immediate left is Ray Coulter, Deputy Solicitor for our Department. Ray, who is on your left?

Mr. COULTER. Everett Turner from the Assessment Office of the Bureau of Mines.

Mr. BODMAN. If I may, Mr. Day will take over.

JUSTIFICATION

Senator BIBLE. There will be printed in the record the budget justifications submitted by the Office of the Secretary and the Office of the Solicitor. They total $760,000 for additional trial attorneys, hearing examiners and clerical support for the Secretary's Office of Hearings and Appeals and the Solicitor's Division of Mine Health and Safety. The estimate provides a total of 33 new positions.

(The justification follows:)

A supplemental request for $360,000 is needed to provide for additional trial attorneys and clerical
support for the Office's Division of Mine Health and Safety in order to meet the projected schedule
of increased administrative hearings to be set by the Office of Hearings and Appeals. This requested

supp

lemental is submitted in conjunction with the requested supplemental for the Office of Hearings and Appeals. Attorneys of the Office of the Solicitor are required to present the Government's position in each case considered by the Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Fiscal year 1973 presently available, $7,000,000; revised estimate, $7,360,000; proposed supplemental, $360,000.

(1) Eleven man-years of staff assistance consisting of $257,000 for salaries and benefits, $36,000 for travel, and $67,000 for space rental, communications, equipment and other support costs.

Need for Supplemental:

The

The Office of the Solicitor is requesting a supplemental
appropriation for fiscal year 1973 to meet the demands now
facing the Office's Division of Mine Health and Safety.
Division of Mine Health and Safety must represent the
Bureau of Mines as a statutory party in hearing proceedings
before the Department's Office of Hearings and Appeals in
all cases under the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act
of 1969. This requested supplemental is submitted in con-
junction with the requested supplemental for the Office of
Hearings and Appeals. The number of hearing examiners for
coal mine health and safety dictates the number of attorneys
that are required to present the Government's position in
each case. At the present time the Department has an exist-
ing backlog in hearings cases approaching 2,200. We fully
expect the continuation of this demonstrated workload. How-
ever, because of the unknowns associated with projecting
workloads, the Department has chosen to take a conservative
posture, and is requesting a correspondingly conservative
supplemental amount.

In order to meet the projected schedule of administrative hearings to be set by the Office of Hearings and Appeals, the Division will need, at a minimum, ten (10) additional new trial attorneys, five (5) new secretaries, and one (1) docket clerk. At the present time, the Division has only seven (7) trial attorneys plus an Assistant Solicitor who is in charge of the Branch of Trials. The requested addition of ten (10) new trial attorneys would provide the Branch with a total complement of seventeen (17) trial attorneys and the Assistant Solicitor. Experience has demonstrated the most expeditious handling of hearings to result when a one-to-one ratio of trial attorneys to hearing examiners exists. The Office of Hearings and Appeals is presently proposing a total of sixteen (16) hearing examiners assigned to this area and the total complement of seventeen (17) trial attorneys for the Solicitor's Office would provide the needed one-to-one ratio plus an additional attorney. The latter is necessary because, in addition to the above hearings, the Branch of Trials must also handle cases that arise in the Federal courts under the Mine Health and Safety Acts.

At present, there are approximately 200 of these cases in the U. S. courts. In addition to the administrative caseload before the Office of Hearings and Appeals, this division handles, in coordination with the United States Department of Justice, (1) the defense of trial and appellate actions brought against the Secretary of the Interior in the Federal courts concerning the operations under the Act; (2) injunction actions brought by the Secretary against coal mine operators under Section 108 of the Act; (3) actions brought by the Secretary for the collection of civil penalties against coal mine operators under Section 109(a)(4) of the Act; and (4) criminal prosecutions under Sections 109(b), (c), (d), and (e) of the Act. Also, this division acts as legal counsel for the Bureau of Mines in all public hearings conducted pursuant to the Act concerning investigations and promulgations of regulations thereunder.

If the supplementals for the Office of Hearings and Appeals and for the Office of the Solicitor are not granted, the entire implementation and administration of the Act will be greatly thwarted and frustrated in that the industry, the miners, and the Bureau of Mines will not be afforded timely administrative review of their cases as required under the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. With the absence of prompt administrative disposition of these cases, the Secretary will undoubtedly be subjected to numerous embarrassing law suits in the Federal courts to compel expeditious hearings in these matters.