Without objection, these statements will appear in the record at this point.

(The statements referred to follow :)

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. BEN BLACKBURN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your affording me the opportunity to submit a statement regarding H.R. 17112, the Program Information Act. As all members of this committee are aware, this legislation would authorize the Bureau of the Budget to compile a catalog of all Federal assistance programs.

Recently, the Georgia State Planning Bureau, which is in charge of funneling all grant applications from local communities in Georgia to the proper regional office of the various departments and agencies of the Federal Government, has informed me of some problems which it has experienced under the present system. They are very much in agreement with the necessity of a complete catalog of the Federal assistance programs, updated regularly and distributed to duly constituted State and local agencies.

Its need is obvious to anyone who has ever applied for a Federal loan or grant. Where to go? What to do? Who can give some help in applying? A case in point: a small community in Georgia desires to raise the economic status by attracting tourists; it hopes to accomplish this by setting up a type of model farm and agricultural museum, a kind of "agrirama." Who should be approached-Agriculture, EDA, or Education?

Another community in the State is badly in need of a fire engine but has only limited funds available. Are there any Federal programs available for this?

A neighborhood group, not a governmental entity, desires to establish a community center to provide family social services. Recognizing the vast array of services needed in a community, the group has determined that piecemeal efforts are inadequate and that comprehensive planning and service delivery is mandatory if the community is to rise from its current status of neglect and despair. The social services needed include health services, day care, preschool training, gymnasium recreation facilities, adult vocational training, and senior citizen activities. This group has an almost insurmountable problem in determining which programs provide funding for a community center with this range of services. The proposed catalog would enable this and similar community groups to determine which programs are available and whom to contact in order to develop an application which has a reasonable chance of being funded.

Recently more emphasis has been placed on the concept of joint fundinggetting two or more Federal agencies to help fund a program. Even with a comprehensive up-to-date catalog, this would be a problem, but without it it would be almost impossible to find out which agencies to apply to. Here, it might be well to point out that if the catalog were cross indexed to identify possible joint funding agencies, its usefulness would be greatly enhanced.

The catalogs now available, Roth and OEO, are a great help and provide much detailed information, but oftentimes considerable searching is still required to come up with a program which might be applicable.

The Bureau of State Planning and Community Affairs gives an excellent example of this deficiency in the latest OEO catalog. An attempt by one of the staff to find several of the programs covered by the Bureau of the Budget circular A-95 (issued to promulgate the U.S. Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1968) resulted in the following: Three of the first nine of the total 51 programs listed in the circular could not be located, either because they were not included or because they are listed under another title bearing no resemblance to its designation in circular A-95-namely USDA-"Greenspan" program; HEW-health research facilities construction; HEW-narcotic treatment center construction.

Another major problem in the Federal program information area is knowing whether or not there are sufficient funds available to warrant an application. It is pointless for a group to go through the considerable effort of drawing up an application and then having it turned down because funds are not available. Up-to-date funding information should be available.

The catalog prescribed in H.R. 17112 will provide more current and much more useful information to concerned elected officials at the municipal and county level. This information should enable these decisionmakers to better fulfill their considerable responsibilities to their constituents.

I notice that the Bureau of the Budget has recommended the early enactment of H.R. 17112. Clearly, the experience of the Georgia State Planning Bureau has

shown the drastic need for this legislation. I hope that provisions will be made in the catalog to assure that the unit of Government applying for a grant will know whether or not funds are available. I urge the committee to favorably recommend this legislation.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. J. CALEB BOGGS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for this opportunity to present testimony on H.R. 17112, the Program Information Act. I believe this legislation, which I have had the honor to sponsor in the Senate as S. 60, is important to the full and effective utilization of Federal grant and assistance programs.

This bill, creating a catalog of these programs, is sponsored by my distinguished colleague from Delaware, Congressman Roth. He is to be commended for identifying so clearly this need for such a Federal catalog. Congressman Roth has devoted great energy to this project, and he has twice prepared his own catalog to demonstrate what can and should be done. I am honored to be associated with this legislation.

It is my hope that legislation similar to H.R. 17112 will be adopted by this session of the Senate. S. 60 has received broad bipartisan support. It is cosponsored by Mr. Bennett, Mr. Case, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Goodell, Mr. Javits, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Mathias, Mr. Montoya, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Scott, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Tower, and Mr. Williams of Delaware.

A hearing on S. 60 was held last September 17 by the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the Committee on Government Operations. Subsequent to that hearing, the Subcommittee considered this bill, and very recently reported the bill, in a form similar to H.R. 17112, to the full Government Operations Committee.

Passage of this legislation will serve to benefit the public. It would be an effective roadmap for the American public through the maze of over 400 Federal grant programs and nearly 1,000 other assistance programs.

As a former Governor of Delaware, I know that State and local officials would benefit greatly from passage of the Program Information Act. Such a catalog, giving potential applicants and beneficiaries a general overview of all programs that might bear on their needs, would permit the applicant to evaluate various programs and make preliminary choices. This would save him time and it would save the time of Federal officials, at a relatively small cost.

Congressman Roth has discussed these points most effectively. But I would like to point out two specific provisions of H.R. 17112 that I consider necessary to an effective catalog.

One provision requires identification of "closely related programs." This is an important service of cross reference. Another feature is the proposal for quarterly updating of the catalog. This is essential as a method to maintain the currency of the catalog's information.

I wish to commend the Nixon administration and, in particular, the Office of Economic Opportunity, for its recent efforts to upgrade the quality of its catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. Since Congressman Roth began focusing attention on this need, there has been a marked improvement in program information.

Nevertheless, I consider that it is essential that the Congress of the United States establish the standards for this catalog, rather than leaving it to administrative prerogative.

The standard contained in H.R. 17112, as well as S. 60, is one that will prove to benefit the public.

Mr. Chairman, I strongly urge that your subcommittee take favorable action on this legislation.

Thank you.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN DELLENBACK, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON

Over the last several years the Federal Government has made a commendable effort to establish assistance programs which cover a wide range of activities. It is one matter, however, to establish a domestic assistance program in Washington, and quite another to see that it is made known and available to the people it is meant to reach. The growing complexity of the network of domestic assistance programs is making this task increasingly difficult.

Therefore, I am delighted to be a cosponsor of H.R. 17112, the Program Information Act, which would make readily available to Congress and to the public up-to-date information about the nature and status of existing Federal programs. For the past 2 years the Office of Economic Opportunity has published a catalog of such programs. This has proven helpful, but not helpful enough. A study was made of ways in which this catalog could be improved, and the outcome is formally presented in H.R. 17112, which, if passed, would set standards for the publishing of the catalog, designed to make it more useful. It is important to people seeking Federal assistance to have at their disposal an accurate, up-to-date description of programs together with current information on available funds. I believe that this catalog will also provide to Government officials a comprehensive digest of existing programs so that this network can be better coordinated to more effectively meet the needs of the people intended to be benefited.

I am satisfied that this bill provides for a useful, continuing publication, and that its enactment will prove beneficial. I heartily urge the subcommittee to report this bill favorably.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. THADDEUS J. DULSKI, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your calling this hearing on legislation to catalog Federal assistance programs in a comprehensive and effective manner for the convenience of all parties of interest.

For the record, Mr. Chairman, I am Thaddeus J. Dulski, representing the 41st Congressional District of New York.

In January 1969, I was a cosponsor of H.R. 3861, proposing the "Program Information Act."

The bill before you today is H.R. 17112, a modification and improvement on the original bill. I support the revised bill.

The introduction of H.R. 3861 led to many suggestions and comments from many sources, particularly the Bureau of the Budget, which have been taken into account in the new version.

To me, the important point is the obvious need for a better system of assembling data on assistance programs for reference and guidance.

With States and local communities more and more looking to the Federal Government for help, it is vital that there be a comprehensive and understandable updated listing and explanation of all domestic assistance programs. In a report to the subcommittee last year the Bureau of the Budget suggested that the catalog should be limited to domestic programs except for such foreign aid or assistance programs which have a direct impact on State or local economics. This exception may provide some administrative confusion at the outset, but probably is the long-run reasonable approach.

Mr. Chairman, we have the experience of the listings by the Office of Economic Opportunity which I believe is the most ambitious project to date in Government. This experience should be helpful and should be fully utilized if the broader program receives favorable action by the Congress.

I am convinced that the proposed Government-wide catalog is needed and justified. I hope your subcommittee will recommend enactment of the concept of H.R. 17112, a variation on my original proposal.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE A. GOODLING, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA

Mr. Chairman: I am a cosponsor of H.R. 3861, legislation companion to H.R. 17112, a bill designed to create a catalog of Federal assistance programs and to maintain this catalog in an efficient and up-to-date manner.

The object of this legislation, simply put, is to keep our Federal Government from sprawling all over the place in a meaningless mass. This can be done, as the legislation before this committee provides, by keeping a constant watch on the various parts of the bureaucratic body. Those programs which serve a constructive purpose and can be afforded would be retained, while those that either overlapped or duplicated other governmental functions, or proved without merit, could be discontinued.

The fact of the matter is that today no one knows exactly how many Federal programs are in existence and just exactly how much they cost. It is estimated that more than $20 billion a year is being spent on the various Federal programs designed to advance the best social interests of the American citizenry; however,

there is not available a clear definition of the nature of these programs or what they accomplish. It is known, too, that as many as 10 Cabinet-level departments and 14 or more executive agencies have programs devoted essentially to the same general area of activity; hence, it is evident there is a lot of overlapping in Federal functions.

Early last year I had the Library of Congress run a check on the number and cost only of advisory bodies that have been created by the Executive Office and/or Congress from 1964 to early 1969. I was amazed to discover that during that period some 150 advisory units have come into being, costing for operational costs in the vicinity of $1,647,144,000. It would appear from this that the American citizen is paying a rather handsome price for Government advice alone, a considerable amount of which is duplicated.

i This legislation would, in operation, work toward the establishment of priorities n Federal programs. This would have the effect of keeping excessive Federal spending in check and guarding against unbalanced budgets. The end products of this would be restrained national debt and a curb on economy-wrecking inflation. Our Federal Government would operate more efficiently and our taxpayers would enjoy a saving.

We must be careful about big government, because while bigness in itself is not always bad, bigness, where it interferes with efficient function, can prove fatal. We must remember the fate of the dinosaur, who grew so big that he bogged down in the swamps of the distant past and disappeared from the face of the earth-history records that a similar fate has befallen governments; hence, we must be on guard, and the legislation before this committee offers that surveillance.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. SEYMOUR HALPERN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Mr. Chairman, I support the proposed Program Information Act. In recent years, Federal grant-in-aid programs have become a very important vehicle in intergovernmental relations and have generally been accepted as desirable by the American people. But the application for and the adminstration of these programs has raised a number of problems, among them the very basic one of easily obtaining information on the requirements of the various Federal aid programs. The benefits derived from these programs are being undercut by an information crisis.

There are programs about which little is known and less can be learned. The "Catalog of Federal Domestic Aid," compiled by the Office of Economic Opportunity, although incomplete, was a start, a move in the right direction, but in itself not enough. My colleague from Delaware, the Honorable William V. Roth, Jr., realized the need for a comprehensive, easily understandable catalog of Federal aid programs, and he and his staff compiled such a study in 1969. It met with instant wide acclaim, fulfilling for the first time the very real need of all potential beneficiaries for one valid source of information. The catalog is indexed and has sufficient cross references.

The Roth study cataloged more than 1,200 Federal assistance programs in operation-ranging from graduate scholarships to low-cost housing subsidiesadministered by a variety of Federal agencies. Considering the proliferation of Federal aid programs, it is not surprising that State and local officials and private individuals have difficulties selecting the right program from among the maze of available loans and grants. Even if all the administering agencies were to issue catalogs of the programs under their jurisdiction, the problem would not be solved. The need is for one, and only one, catalog for all the Federal assistance programs to afford potential beneficiaries the opportunity to compare programs and to enable them to apply for the assistance that will best serve their situation. Such a catalog must be constantly revised and kept up to date to serve its purpose. One Congressman and his staff cannot be expected to carry that burden. It is clearly the responsibility of the Federal Government.

H.R. 17112, the Program Information Act, by directing the President annually to transmit to Congress just such a catalog and to keep it up to date by monthly revisions, answers the need for coordination, simplification, and consolidation of the various application forms and program guidelines. Our very form of government, a democratic federal system, is based on the free flow of information between the elected and electorate and between Federal and State and local officials. The Federal Government, as the source of grants-in-aid to State and local governments, must provide them with the basic information necessary to obtain that aid. I urge swift passage of the Program Information Act.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN PAUL HAMMERSCHMIDT, a RepresenTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARKANSAS

Mr. Chairman, it is a pleasure to voice my strong support of H.R. 17112, the Program Information Act, which I am honored to cosponsor.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Congressman Roth and members of his staff for their dedicated effort to provide a comprehensive up-to-date guide and description of all Federal assistance programs. He has ably presented the results of these endeavors and the need for and objective of this legislation. Untold savings in time and money will result for every citizen.

The catalog which the Government has been prodded into producing as a result of this effort, not only helps us in trying to help our constituents and our State and local governments in their attempts to receive assistance and services. The long-range result will be reorganization and realinement of Government functions to halt the incredibly wasteful duplication in the maize of Government. I am sure we have all been amazed by the information brought out by our colleague on the scope of Federal spending. It is imperative that we go forward with his objective-it will help us in fulfilling our legislative responsibilities. Foremost, we can obtain a better return on spending. It will help in solving our national problems and meeting the needs of our own localities.

I urge that immediate action be taken to approve this legislation.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. MARGARET M. HECKLER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS

Mr. Chairman, in the interest of better serving our constituents and simplifying the interaction of government at all levels I think the need is imperative for enactment of H.R. 17112, the Program Information Act.

I have cosponsored this legislation because I recognize, in particular, the plight of local elected officials who are often frustrated in their efforts to cut through red tape to secure Federal assistance in meeting urgent local needs. It is sometimes difficult to even find out where the red tape is which needs to be cut.

As Members of Congress, each of us is familiar with our own problems of cutting through a tangle of complex and overlapping Federal assistance programs to find the one most promising approach to solving the needs of constituents. None of this excess work is necessary if we take the simple step, as proposed in the bill, of regularly publishing an authoritative catalog of all Federal aid programs which provides up-to-date information on programs available, funding available, and how and where to apply for participation in these programs.

I can recall many recent incidents where the existence of such a catalog would have been most valuable to me and my constituents. For example, a city councilor of Fall River, Mass., the largest city in my district, inquired about existing Federal programs to help fund a proposed recreation area for the city. Developing this information required innumerable telephone calls to HUD and the Interior Department asking them to supply current information on matching grants programs and, after a time-consuming round robin search, eventual referral to a State agency which serves as liaison in these matters. I recall a recent letter from a private company seeking information on funds for private industry to install water pollution control equipment. Sometimes local officials come to Washington for meetings with Government agencies, but go back home just as bewildered as when they came.

Such information should be readily accessible in a widely circulated Federal catalog of domestic programs. I think that our colleague, the distinguished gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Roth), deserves the highest commendation for his exhaustive research which disclosed that more than $20 billion a year is spent on such programs-yet nobody knows what all the programs are or how to find out about them.

Such information must be kept current. I am pleased that the Bureau of the Budget, which would compile the catalog, has indorsed the objectives of the bill. However, I believe the subcommittee should reject any proposal to revise and update the catalog any less frequently than on a quarterly basis. Its data must necessarily be reliable and current

Such information will also be useful to civic organizations, which want to encourage action on local problems but do not know to which part of Government they should turn to launch a particular project.

Mr. Chairman, valuable time is lost by both the public generally and the Congress due to the lack of this source of factual information. We need to modernize Government and its procedures. I urge the passage of this bill.