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developed by the subcommittee indicating willful evasions of about $3.6 million in interest equalization taxes. The report's principal recommendation was to have the chairman of the committee refer copies of the evidentiary matter which had been developed to the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service for such investigative, prosecutive and tax action as may be warranted.

(b) Previously unreported benefits.-After receipt of the material from the committee, the Department and the Internal Revenue Service discussed the matter and determined that the IRS would conduct investigations, including audit and collection activity and would make any appropriate recommendations for criminal prosecution. The Department has advised that these investigations are continuing.

VI. Projected Program for Remainder of 91st Congress

1. Department of Justice.

Study antitrust operations, including consent decree determinations and enforcement.

2. Bureau of Customs-Treasury.

Continue studies of inspection procedures to assure collection of import duties, including "one-stop" and preexamination procedures. 3. Treasury Department-Bureau of the Mint.

Continue studies of coinage operations, including silver sales. 4. Federal Reserve Boards-Eurodollars.

Inquiry concerning Eurodollar operations, including their relation to inflation problems.

5. U.S. Treasury-One-check payment.

Continued study of operations under Public Law 89-145, authorizing one-check payments for groups of Government employees. 6. Federal Reserve Board-Consumer Credit Protection Act. Continue study of agency operations under "truth-in-lending" law. 7. Crimes Against Banks.

Continue study into agency operations under Bank Protection Act, and other actions taken to decrease bank crimes.

8. U.S. Treasury-Internal Revenue Service

Continue study of possible simplification of income tax forms and procedures

9. Federal Effort Against Organized Crime.

Continuing study of means to improve the Federal effort, including new operations and training to combat organized crime.

10. U.S. Treasury-Agency Obligations.

Study of possible economies through single method of issuance of Treasury and agency obligations.

11. Department of Justice.

Continue study of collections practices and procedures.

CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES

SUBCOMMITTEE

HON. HENRY S. REUSS, Chairman

I. Investigations

A. INVESTIGATIONS RESULTING IN FORMAL REPORTS

1. "1966-68 Survey of Water Pollution Control and Abatement at Federal Installations," H. Rept. 91-75, March 12, 1969, First Report by the Committee on Government Operations.

(a) Summary. This report supplements the previous studies of wastewater discharges from Federal installations, which the subcommittee conducted in the 89th and 90th Congresses. The 1966-68 survey outlines various significant developments in water pollution control and abatement which occurred since the cutoff date of the last previous report (Dec. 31, 1965; H. Rept. 1644, 89th Cong., June 22, 1966) and evaluates progress achieved during the period commencing with that date and ending April 1, 1968, in waste disposal practices at 1,954 facilities. The report states that, with the establishment of State water quality standards, it has become increasingly important for Federal agencies to set a good example in their waste water disposal practices. In the period surveyed, the rate of construction of treatment facilities at the Federal installations surveyed more than quadrupled, but budgetary stringencies resulting from the Vietnam war hampered the agencies' efforts to meet the Budget Bureau's target date of June 1972 for full achievement of effective water pollution control at all Federal installations. During the period surveyed, the performance of the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration's Division of Federal Activities Coordination remained inadequate. The report recommended: (1) intensification of efforts to meet the 1972 deadline; (2) strengthening and reorganization of the FWPCA Division of Federal Activities Coordination; and (3) establishment and maintenance by FWPCA of a continuing inventory of Federal agencies' wastewater disposal practices, including qualitative as well as quantitative data, analyses of deficiencies and the measures needed to correct them, and time schedules for doing so. The Division of Federal Activities Coordination has been abolished and its functions transferred to a Federal Activities Branch under a new Assistant Commissioner for Operations.

(b) Benefits. The monetary benefits which will result from the investigation cannot be estimated. However, the report further stimulated Federal agencies to accelerate water pollution control and abatement programs at their installations and thus set an example for the States, municipalities, and industry. The report will undoubtedly help

to improve water quality throughout the country with consequent extensive benefits, both monetary and otherwise.

(c) Hearings.-None.

2. "Federal Air Pollution Research and Development: An Interim Report on Sulfur Oxides Pollution Abatement R. & D.," H. Rept. No. 91-79, Second Report by the Committee on Government Operations.

(a) Summary.-This report reviews the overall Federal air pollution abatement research and development program. It discusses in detail the need and existing methods for, and the status of Federal research on, sulfur dioxide pollution abatement. It also summarizes Federal air pollution R. & D. appropriations and obligations, including those for abatement of sulfur oxide pollution. The report concludes that current abatement technologies in this area are inadequate and will be even more inadequate in the future. The report recommends that the Federal sulfur oxide pollution research and development plan, adopted by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare with the concurrence of the Budget Bureau and Office of Science and Technology in 1968, be evaluated by Federal agencies and non-Federal experts and revised and updated on a continuing basis. It recommends that interagency coordination of sulfur oxides pollution abatement R. & D. be pursued vigorously through a formal mechanism of coordination, and that the R. & D. plan be expanded to include all participating agencies and then examined for balance, gaps, and duplications.

(b) Benefits.-Great benefits, both economic and aesthetic, will follow effective sulfur dioxide control. It is not possible to estimate the dollar value of the committee's contribution.

(c) Hearings.-A hearing was held on September 5, 1968, and the transcript has been printed.

3. "Disposal of Rights in Indian Tribal Lands Without Tribal Consent," H. Rept. No. 91-78, March 13, 1969, Third Report by the Committee on Government Operations.

(a) Summary.-This report described the Interior Department's proposal to abolish the right of so-called unorganized Indian tribes to veto right-of-way grants made by the Interior Department across tribal lands. While existing statutes require tribal consent in such cases only where the tribe is organized under the Indian Reorganization Act or the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, the Interior Department since 1951 has by regulation required such consent for rights of way over lands of every tribe. In April of 1967, the Department, despite opposition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, published a notice of proposed rulemaking which would have reinstated the situation prevailing before 1951, thereby reversing the national policy to entrust the Indians with more, rather than less, responsibility to manage their own affairs.

The report points out that most of the Indians of the United States do not belong to tribes organized under the Indian Reorganization Act or the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. and that tribes not so organized own more than half of all the tribal Indian land in the country. Most of the tribes not under the IRA or OIWA maintain organizations of their own creation, some of which are as strong

or stronger than IRA or OIWA organizations. The Interior Department proposal would have denied approximately 250,000 Indians owning more than 19.7 million acres of tribal land the right to veto the granting by the Secretary of the Interior of unwanted rights-of-way over their property. Rights-of-way may be used not only to build transportation or communication facilities on Indian land-freeways, railroads, electric transmission lines, telephone cables, etc.-but also dams, reservoirs and thermal electric power plants, without limit on the acreage or term of years of the right-of-way grant.

The report recommended that the present regulations be retained and that consideration be given to amending the present law so as to require tribal consent for all right-of-way grants of tribal land. The Interior Department withdrew the proposal to revise the regulations.

(b) Benefits. The preservation of the Indian consent requirement for rights-of-way grants across all tribal lands will result in definite, although not presently measurable, monetary benefits, since this requirement substantially strengthens the tribes' bargaining position with utility companies, highway departments, and others seeking rights-of-way across these lands. The benefits will redound not only to the tribes and their members, but also the Federal Treasury. Unconsented right-of-way grants would have given rise to Indian claims against the United States. Continued hard bargaining by the Indians with right-of-way applicants, made possible through retention of the consent requirement, will produce local tribal income to replace Federal financial assistance.

(c) Hearings.-None.

4. "The Permit for Landfill in Hunting Creek: A Debacle in Conservation," H. Rept. No. 91–113, March 24, 1969, Fourth Report by the Committee on Government Operations.

(a) Summary.-This report reviews the circumstances surrounding the issuance by the Corps of Engineers of a permit to fill in approximately 9.4 acres of submerged land in Hunting Creek, arm of the Potomac Estuary south of Alexandria, Va. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, whose comments on the application for the fill permit were requested pursuant to the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, in 1964 recommended against the fill, and their recommendations were endorsed by the Secretary of the Interior. However, in 1967, an Assistant Secretary of the Interior withdrew the Fish and Wildlife Service objections, and his withdrawal was affirmed by the Under Secretary of the Interior, without regard to the surveys and investigations of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Corps of Engineers and Department of the Army issued the fill permit because it would not interfere with navigation, and because they believed the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service had withdrawn their objections.

The committee concluded that the permit was issued in violation of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, which requires that the reports submitted by the Secretary of the Interior on proposals to modify waters under Federal jurisdiction, be based on surveys and investigations of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The report recommended that the permit be revoked.

(b) Benefits. In September 1969, the Department of the Army held a hearing on whether the Hunting Creek fill permit should be revoked. Its decision has not yet been announced. While the fill permit will undoubtedly represent a tremendous windfall to the applicant, if allowed to remain in force, there is no provision in present law to require payment of an equivalent by the applicant to the Government. However, as a result of the committee's report, the Secretary of the Interior reversed the Department's position, recommended to the corps that the permit be withdrawn, and established a new policy to protect the Potomac River from future fills, dredging and other degradation. In addition, the Corps of Engineers is reviewing its whole policy on approving fills of navigable waterways in order to protect them from unnecessary destruction.

(c) Hearings.-Four days of hearings were held (June 24 and July 8 and 9, 1968, and March 10, 1969) and the transcripts were printed.

5. "The Rural Electrification Administration's Bulletin Inhibiting Political Activities by its Borrowers and Their Employees," H. Rept. No. 91-550, October 7, 1969, Ninth Report by the Committee on Government Operations.

(a) Summary.-On May 19, 1969, the Rural Electrification Administration issued a bulletin "prohibiting" its borrowers from violating certain Federal clean election laws or engaging in "similar activities" in connection with State or local elections, whether or not specifically prohibited by State law. The bulletin stated REA loan contracts would contain provisions making violations of Federal and State laws against political activities acts of default under the loan contract and mortgage, and that such violation, in addition to other available remedies, would give the REA the right to require the dismissal of any borrower's employee who knowingly participated in any such violation.

This report summarizes the circumstances surrounding issuance of the REA bulletin. It appears to have been issued as an administrative overreaction to one isolated case of possible violation of clean election laws by an REA borrower (a small private telephone company owned by one individual). The report concluded that the bulletin was unwise and unlawful, in that the REA has no authority to enforce either Federal or State criminal law, or to prohibit acts permitted by State law in connection with State elections, or to add the penalties of acceleration of the due date for repayment of the loan, mortgage foreclosure, and discharge of the borrower's employees, to the fines and imprisonment provided by Federal and State law for illicit political activities.

During the course of the subcommittee investigation, REA modified the bulletin by inserting the language "it is against the policy of REA for REA borrower corporations to engage in illegal political activities" and by dropping the prohibitory language and penalty clauses. REA witnesses at the subcommittee hearing, however, continued to claim the power to impose sanctions on borrowers violating REA policy.

The report recommended prompt rescission of the bulletin, by REA, and if REA failed to act, by the Secretary of Agriculture. It also

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