HARRISON A. WILLIAMS, JR., New Jersey PETER H. DOMINICK, Colorado EDMUND S. MUSKIE, Maine EDWARD V. LONG, Missouri MAURINE B. NEUBERGER, Oregon THOMAS J. MCINTYRE, New Hampshire MATTHEW HALE, Chief of Staff JOHN R. EVANS, Minority Clerk II S. 2272 CONTENTS Page WITNESSES Symington, Stuart, U.S. Senator from the State of Missouri; accompanied by James J. Gehrig, legislative assistant; William H. Darden, profes- sional staff member, Armed Services Committee; and J. Fred Buzhardt, legislative assistant to Senator Thurmond....... LETTERS AND DATA SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD American Mining Congress: Letter from J. Allen Overton, Jr., executive vice president, to Senator Bennett, with enclosure entitled "Con- Bennett, Wallace F., U.S. Senator from the State of Utah: Letter from J. Allen Overton, Jr., executive vice president, American Mining Congress, with an enclosure entitled "Congressional Control Introduction__ Douglas, Paul H., U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois: Letter to Federal stockpile inventories, May 1964: Summary of cost value of stockpile inventories by major category, Table 1. Strategic and critical materials inventories (all grades), May 1964 (showing by commodity net changes during the month in terms of cost value and quantity, and excesses over stockpile objectives in Table 2. Agricultural commodities inventories, May 1964 (showing by commodity net changes during the month in terms of cost value and Table 3. Civil defense supplies and equipment inventories, May 1964 (showing by item net changes during the month in terms of cost Table 4. Machine tools inventories, May 1964 (showing by item net changes during the month in terms of cost value and quantity)____ Table 5. Helium inventories, May 1964 (showing by item net changes during the month in terms of cost value and quantity)_ A. Program descriptions and statutory citations.. B. New stockpile objectives: Excerpts from Office of Emergency General Services Administration, report on borrowing authority, December Table 2. Long-range forecast of maximum cash requirements. - Table 5. Status of gross transactions and probable ultimate net cost___ Table 7. Status of procurement transactions by agency and program__ Hale, Matthew, chief of staff, Senate Committee on Banking and Cur- Joint Committee on Defense Production: Correspondence between Chairman Paul Brown, and Leo Hoegh, Director, Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, Executive Office Executive sessions and organizational meetings. List of committee publications, excerpts from 13th annual report__ Correspondence between Senator Robertson and Senator Russell, Letter from the Office of the Director of Civilian Defense Mobilization Letter to Senator Douglas dated August 4, 1964- Letter to Senator Symington dated July 20, 1964. on Banking and Currency, dated July 10, 1964. Memorandum from Matthew Hale, chief of staff, Senate Committee DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT INVENTORIES FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1964 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY, The committee met in executive session at 10:15 a.m., in room 5302, New Senate Office Building, Senator A. Willis Robertson (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Senators Robertson, Sparkman, Douglas, Clark, Proxmire, Williams, Muskie, Neuberger, McIntyre, Bennett, and Simpson. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. We are pleased and honored to have with us our distinguished colleague from Missouri, Senator Symington, who has had a long connection with our military program. He was at one time the Secretary of the Air Force. He was head of our Surplus Property Board, Chairman of the National Security Resources Board, and for many years now he has been a high-ranking member on the Armed Services Committee and an ex officio member of the Appropriations Committee dealing with military affairs. Senator Symington will recall a hearing we had back in 1950 when he was strongly advocating the Defense Production Act, so we could have authority to buy materials and to increase the productive capacity and supply of materials. At that time he was Chairman of the National Security Resources Board. I think Senator Symington's position at that time is quite pertinent to this discussion. I felt the proposed Defense Production Act was mighty broad authority. I thought the administrators could do a lot of things without proper congressional control, and I was a little uneasy about giving blanket authority to pile up all sorts of materials, at such prices as they saw fit, and entering into long contracts. Senator Symington, testifying as Chairman of the National Securities Resources Board at this committee's hearing on July 24, 1950, made this comment: Mr. SYMINGTON. I think Senator Robertson's point was quite pertinent to this discussion. The question is whether in operating this act there is going to be integrity in the way it is handled. I think these questions are all technical questions and questions of integrity, as you put them up. I think at this stage it is much more advisable to risk possible details of maladministration and get the powers out and support the troops than it is to question the details. Of course, we were right in the midst of a mighty tough war. Senator BENNETT. In 1950 we were starting in the Korean war. The CHAIRMAN. That is right. 1 |