$4.4 million for research on the impact of trade on domestic employment, with special attention to the operations of multinational corporations, and for increased audit activities, strengthened support of program operations and financing of the Construction Industry Stabilization Committee;

Employment Standards Administration-$0.8 million to prepare for the administration of the black lung benefits program when it is taken over by the Department.

The budget request provides for overall departmental employment of 12,600 persons by the end of 1973, a rise of 800 over 1972 to provide for increases in program levels. More than half of this new employment for the Department will go to the expanding occupational safety and health operation.

Before this subcommittee completes its deliberations on this budget request, we anticipate we will have one amendment to present on the recently enacted Talmadge amendments to the work incentive program, which becomes effective on July 1, 1972. We expect to complete the planning necessary to determine our needs under this legislation very soon, and then be able to prepare the amendment and submit it to you.

I think this provides the fiscal highlights of the budget request. Now I would like to talk to you about our goals in the areas we have assigned top priority, and give you a picture-as time allows-of some of the ways we plan to reach those goals.

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

The occupational safety and health program is an exciting challenge to the Department. The potential for accomplishment is vast. The pitfalls are plentiful. We have chosen to move just as quickly as we can, to set up sound procedures and train people to do the job well. As we go along, we are constantly reviewing results, so that we can improve the quality and effectiveness, as well as the output of services.

Starting from scratch, we now have operations in 10 regional offices and 51 area and district offices. Among the accomplishments so far: inspections in over 17,000 establishments employing about 2.8 million workers, publishing a large body of safety and health standards, helping the States to take a large role in the program. Together with the States, we will make even more progress in the months and years to come. At the same time, we are working to refine the program, making it as practical and effective as we can in the light of accumulating experience.

Prior to the passage of the Williams-Steiger Act, a considerable body of occupational safety and health standards had been developed by consensus organizations such as the American National Standards Institute and the National Fire Protection Association, with participation by affected groups. The act made special provision for these standards to be adopted, and many were incorporated into the standards adopted for general industry on May 29, 1971. In adopting these initial standards, however, the Department carefully edited them to pick those affording the greatest protection for employees while avoiding inconsistencies and impracticalities. Naturally, some significant problem areas remain. OSHA is in the process of reviewing all

standards to identify and either modify or eliminate any standards which do not significantly add to the protection of employees.

New standards are in the process of being developed with the assistance of a wide array of professional people, including the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health of HEW, specially appointed advisory committees representing potentially affected parties and specialists, and any other available sources. For example, as a result of major disasters in tunnel construction last year, new standards are being sought. Also, the President in February requested us to speed up our efforts to develop standards to protect agricultural workers, especially from the toxic effects of pesticides, and we are moving ahead rapidly in this area.

This is a key year for the States in the OSHA program. If States do not choose to participate by December 29 of this year, they will be preempted from enforcing their standards. As a result, we are working hard to carry out the congressional intent to involve the States to the maximum extent feasible, and are encouraged by the response we have had to date. Until we get a better fix on the degree of State participation, we fell it would be irresponsible to seek vast numbers of Federal inspectors to enforce the act. We are, however, seeking an increase this year and it may be necessary to reprogram funds into the Federal effort if the States do not come in in the numbers anticipated. In the meantime, we are concentrating on recruiting and training the best compliance personnel we can find.

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

The complexity of the economic issues which face our Nation today has once again underscored the importance of the functions performed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Never has the demand for economic data been as intense. Business, labor, Congress, academic, and other sources deluge us with demands for additional data. Meanwhile, the Bureau's limited but useful figures on employment and unemployment, prices, wages, productivity, and occupational injuries and illnesses provide a sound underpinning for social and economic policy decisions. During the past year, the economic stabilization program has relied heavily on the Bureau's data and its technical and analytical staff.

In addition to positions and funds to continue the comprehensive review and revision of the Consumer Price Index, the fiscal year 1973 budget requests funds for a series of programs to expand the scope and quality of the Bureau's economic data.

For example, the United States does not now have a monthly index of the general price level, or the integrated system of measuring price changes that is needed to understand what is happening to prices. The need for such a general price index, together with a coordinated system of subindexes, was demonstrated dramatically in 1969-71 when the most comprehensive available indexes-the Consumer Price Index, Industrial Wholesale Price Index, and GNP Implicit Price Deflatorprovided sharply divergent measures of the trend in the rate of inflation. According to the CPI, the rate of inflation dropped substantially during 1970 and the first half of 1971 (before the wage-pricerent freeze), but the other two indexes did not tell the same story. Because of differences in concept and coverage, it is difficult to trace

the source of these divergencies. The proposed General Price Index, together with its subindexes, will provide a superior monthly measure of the price level and the sources of change in it.

The BLS is requesting funds to accelerate the development of this index. It will incorporate data from three ongoing price programs: the Consumer Price Index, the Wholesale Price Index, and the Industry Sector Price Indexes. Changes in prices for goods and services at various stages of production will be measured to fill the need to pinpoint the sources of inflationary pressures and to trace their effect on other industries.

Because of the great importance of the national employment and unemployment figures, the BLS is proposing to test several methods of reducing irregularities in the monthly numbers. The survey currently used to estimate employment and unemployment is based on a single week in every month (the week that includes the 12th). When that week reflects special factors such as unusual working conditions or holidays, the statistics are not representative of the underlying situation. These irregularities can be reduced and a more representative picture of employment conditions obtained by collecting the data for all weeks in the month. Other irregularities occur because the survey covers only a sample of all households.

Under the proposed program, alternative methods of collecting employment and unemployment data will be tested to determine the best method of reducing irregularities in the monthly data. One method to be tested is collecting the data during 4 weeks in the month and averaging the results; this would produce a more representative picture of unemployment for the month. A second method would test the contribution that a larger sample would make to reducing irregularities in the monthly data.

While a great deal of data on wages and earnings are currently available, no single measure of wage change comparable to the CPI or the WPI has been developed.

The BLS budget request is proposing the accelerated development of such a measure: a general wage index that will measure changes in the price of labor and have the usefulness of the existing BLS measures of employment, prices, and productivity. When completed, it will cover all employees, and include all forms of employee compensation, but will be free of the effects of fluctuations in the amount of overtime pay, shifts in employment between low- and high-wage industries, between geographic sectors, and changes in the occupational mixall of which distort current measures. It will be available monthly, will be seasonally adjusted, and will measure hourly wages both in current dollars and in dollars of constant purchasing power. It will provide separate data for industries, areas, union and nonunion employment situations, and to show separately the various components of compensation. Development of a general wage index will not be simply a marginal addition to the vast array of wage data. Rather, it will constitute an integrated set of statistics reflecting changes in the price of labor.

MANPOWER PRIORITIES

Although we are not coming to you for large increases in manpower appropriations, we intend to make real progress on some critical problems in the year ahead.

An especially high priority has been assigned to efforts directed at Vietnam-era veterans and unemployed engineers, scientists and technicians.

The Department of Labor has assumed the leadership in an intensive interagency effort to place unemployed Vietnam-era veterans in jobs or training programs. The program has already achieved significant results, but much more remains to be done, and it will be continued through fiscal year 1973. We will work with the Federal regional councils wherever appropriate to insure cooperation of field staffs from all Federal agencies in achieving the goals of the program.

The Department's own efforts are expected to provide some services-training, counseling, placement, or the like for about 1,038,000 Vietnam-era veterans during the current fiscal year. For all classes of veterans, we expect to place 1,200,000 in jobs during the 1973 fiscal year. This total, which includes 64,000 disabled veterans, is up 60 percent from fiscal year 1971.

Our proposed budget for fiscal year 1973 will permit continued Federal funding for 835 State veteran aides. Further, we are seeking $18 million in the "Grants to States" appropriation for 1,407 new State positions to carry out the recently begun program of requiring Federal contractors to list their job openings with State employment

services.

Counseling, placement, relocation, and other services will be made available to more engineers, scientists, and technicians through the recent expansion of the special assistance program from the original 14 heavily impacted areas to nationwide coverage. We are cooperating with other agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and Small Business Administration, in exploring ways by which these agencies can participate in assisting engineers, scientists, and technicians. To date, we have registered over 34,000 eligible applicants, of whom over 13,000 have been placed in employment.

UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE

The Emergency Employment Act presented a kind-sized challenge. We had to move fast, but thoughtfully. I am proud of the Department's record on this assignment. We estimate that a total of 160,000 new entrants will come into the program by June 30, 1972. The endof-year employment level should be 146,000. And 92,000 more new entrants are anticipated in 1973. At the close of 1973, the employment level is expected to be 11,000 higher than 1972, or 157.000.

Unemployment continues as a stubborn national problem. It remains a very high-priority concern. We have been working hard with the programs we have. Some of our legislative proposals, such as the minimum wage youth differential and manpower revenue sharing, would help us to do better. We will continue seeking further improvements and pressing on with tested programs.

LABOR-MANAGEMENT SERVICES

The Labor-Management Services Administration will receive muchneeded help in carrying out its enforcement responsibilities under the proposed budget. Under the Landrum-Griffin Act, the Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act, and Executive Order 11491, the Depart

ment must often conduct union elections or provide observers, oversee reporting and disclosure requirements, and prepare compliance cases dealing with such matters as embezzlement of union operating or pension funds. We have found it impossible to schedule routine duties successfully with the available manpower, since unavoidable legal requirements often forced us to defer these duties for other actions. For example, work in connection with a single supervised union election rerun may use up 23 man-years. Schedules here are determined more by court orders and statutory reqiurements than our own preferences.

The increases we are asking will enable us to reduce the unacceptable backlog of compliance cases, so that there will be prompt and vigorous action in case of fraud, embezzlement, and the like. We will also have the resources to do a better job under the statutory deadline of 60 days to investigate alleged election improprieties.

The Department continues to mount a vigorous effort in labormanagement relations. We have been able to wind down many problems in the railroad industry and score major productivity gains through work rules changes. And, in spite of limited staff, we are undertaking a wide range of new tasks in Federal labor relations and doing them effectively.

EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS ADMINISTRATION

As a major move toward decentralization, the Employment Standards Administration has appointed 10 regional administrators to coordinate ESA programs. The programs of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCC) and the Women's Bureau will now be coordinated by the regional administrators with the other ESA programs, to promote maximum use of our resources and personnel in each region. For example, this means that OFCC personnel now working in the field will be supplemented by other ESA personnel. ESA personnel at the field and area level have already developed considerable expertise in the field of compliance and employment discrimination, due to their administration of the FLSA, Equal Pay and Age Discrimination Act. Thus, the OFCC and Women's Bureau Washington staffs will now be able to devote most of their time and attention to policy setting and program development, leaving the business of implementation primarily to the regional administrators. The reorganization will require no additioal resources in 1972. The only increase requested is $800.000 for fiscal year 1973 to finance 100 new positions. This will provide staff for administration of black lung provisions of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, currently scheduled to be transferred from the Social Security Administration to the Department of Labor on January 1, 1973. It is estimated that 33,000 cases in payment status requiring de novo adjudication will be transferred from Social Security, and that 10,000 to 15,000 new claims will be filed in the second half of fiscal year 1973. The positions are for claims examiners and support personnel to process and adjudicate claims, determine liabilities, work with State compensation personnel, and administer insurance regulations.

In "hometown solutions" we did not achieve the major gains we had hoped for. I would like to report 100 or more in operation, rather than the 45 plans that we have now. As you know, the "hometown