tee with respect to the costs of administering the Longshoremen's Act. While the OWCP's district offices have had their workload increased by the shoreward extension of the act with respect to the injuries reported, et cetera, it should be borne in mind that with the equivalent of 13 full-time employees, if not 13 full-time administrative law judges having taken over the former responsibilities of the district offices to hold formal hearings and adjudicate claims in which contested issues were involved, to this extent at least, the district offices have had additional personnel available.

CONCLUSION

I call to the committee's attention one other matter relating to the Department's claim of an alleged increased backlog for which presumably it has not had sufficient funds available to obtain the necessary staff persons to handle the new injuries coming in from the extension of jurisdiction ashore. The annual Statistical Report dated October 1974 from the Department covering operations under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act and the Longshoremen's Act and its extensions contains table 3 which deals with appropriations and expenditures under all acts for salaries and expenses for fiscal years 1970-74. Attached to this statement as exhibit B is a copy of table 3. On the bottom of the page on which the Department's table is shown, I have added in ink the total expenditures for salaries and expenses for all acts after those expenditures for salaries and expenses for the administration of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act have been deducted. As these figures show, the salaries and expenses expended in administering the Longshoremen's Act and its extensions stayed fairly uniform at approximately $2 million per year for fiscal years 1970 through 1973, but in fiscal year 1974 the expenditures for salaries and expenses in administering the Longshoremen's Act and its extensions was $6,259,327, more than three times the expenditures for salaries and expenses for administering these same acts on an average for the preceding 4 years. With three times as much money expended for salaries and expenses (approximately $4 million) it is difficult to see how such an alleged backlog of cases could develop. With an additional $4 million having been expended for salaries and expenses in fiscal year 1974 compared to any of the preceding 4 years, and even allowing 50 percent of this increase or $2 million to cover the cost of the additional legal support in the Office of the Solicitor, for the administrative law judges and the Benefits Review Board, there was still $2 million more spent in 1974 for salaries and expenses in administering the Longshoremen's Act and its extensions than in any of the previous 4 years. And in addition to that table 3 shows that there was an additional $2,396,000 in funds available for salaries and expenses which apparently were not expended or used to any extent.

The West Gulf Maritime Association therefore respectfully submits that the Department has failed to show that user charges need to be imposed on the maritime industry for the regulation and/or administration of the Longshoremen's Act. Indeed, quite the contrary exists, for even using the Department's own unrealistic figures of a 109.8 percent increase in reported injuries, and an 86.5 percent increase in

lost time injuries in fiscal year 1974 compared to fiscal year 1972, an increase of 246 percent in expenditures for salaries and expenses in fiscal year 1974 compared to fiscal year 1972, amounting to $4,450,834, should have been more than ample to handle such increases.

If such a 246 percent increase could develop when Congress was looking at their request for appropriations, and would make them account for these expenditures, we shudder to think what would happen if the Department was given the requested authority to assess user charges against the maritime industry in whatever amount the Department might deem appropriate without limitation, except that the Secretary would explain how the costs on which the user charges were assessed were computed in submitting its annual budget to the Congress, not for Congressional approval but just as a matter of information.

If the salaries and expenses for administering the Longshoremen's Act can increase by more than 200 percent from one fiscal year to the next with their budget request requiring congressional approval, it is staggering to envision what increases might be in store for the industry if the Department was given the unfettered authority which they have proposed and advocated to this committee. The West Gulf Maritime Association respect fully suggests that the Department's proposed user charges should be rejected.

Respect fully submitted.

E. D. VICKERY, Attorney for West Gulf Maritime Association.

Note:

Beginning with FY 1972, the data shown for incomplete cases on this and each of the following tables is based on a physical inventory count taken at the end of the fiscal year, and may not be strictly comparable with data for prior years.