CONTENTS Page Weber, Arnold R., Associate Director, Office of Management and Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by- Blackburn, Hon. Ben, a Representative in Congress from the State of Green, Hon. Edith, a Representative in Congress from the State of 43 Hammerschmidt, Hon. John Paul, a Representative in Congress from the State of Arkansas: Statement.. Heckler, Hon. Margaret M., a Representative in Congress from the State of Massachusetts: Statement. McClure, Hon. James A., a Representative in Congress from the State Marchbanks, Jerry L., vice president, Computer & Business Manage- ment, Inc., director, FAIR (Federal Assistance Information Re- Pierce, W. J., communications director, the developing urban Detroit 63 Roth, Hon. William V., Jr., a Representative in Congress from the Tiernan, Hon. Robert O., a Representative in Congress from the State 21 (III) THE PROGRAM INFORMATION ACT THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1970 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10:15 a.m. in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. John A. Blatnik, (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives John A. Blatnik, Chet Holifield, Benjamin S. Rosenthal, and John N. Erlenborn. Also present: Representative Florence P. Dwyer, ranking minority member of the Committee on Government Operations. Staff members present; Elmer W. Henderson, subcommittee_counsel; James A. Lanigan, general counsel; and William H. Copenhaver, minority professional staff, Committee on Government Operations. Mr. BLATNIK. The Subcommittee on Executive and Legislative Reorganization will come to order. The Chair wants to express appreciation to our colleague and friend, Congressman Roth, for his patience in waiting for hearings on a bill that he introduced some time ago. He has had his testimony ready for quite some time. These hearings have been called to consider H.R. 17112, introduced by Congressman William V. Roth to create a catalog of Federal assistance programs. The bill directs the President to annually prepare, publish, and maintain such a catalog and make quarterly revisions thereof. The catalog shall be "the single authoritative, Government-wide compendium of Federal domestic assistance program information produced by a Federal agency or department." The President is to transmit it to Congress no later than May 1 of each regular session. The catalog "shall be designed to assist the potential beneficiary identify all existing Federal domestic assistance programs wherever administered, and shall supply information for each program so that the potential beneficiary can determine whether particular assistance or support might be available to him for the purposes he wishes." The bill lists seven categories of information the catalog shall contain for each Federal domestic assistance program and may include such other information as the President may consider necessary or desirable. The price of the catalog shall be "approximately equal to the cost in quantities adequate to meet public demands." Up to 10,000 copies may be distributed by Members of Congress and certain other Government officials without cost. (1) I want to make special note here that Congressman Roth has been interested in this subject for several years and, in 1969, he prepared an 1,100-page "Listing of Operating Federal Assistance Programs," which was printed as House Document 91-177. The Office of Economic Opportunity currently compiles a catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance for the Executive Office of the President, which is published in looseleaf form. These, I believe, were necessary due to the enormous volume of such domestic assistance programs. We feel that H.R. 17112 is certainly one which merits a formal hearing so that the record would be available to the Members of the Congress. We are now going to hear from the author of the bill, Mr. Roth; and later from our colleague and tremendously able leader in her field, Mrs. Edith Green. (The bill, H.R. 17112, follows:) 91ST CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 17112 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 20, 1970 Mr. Rorn introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Operations A BILL To create a catalog of Federal assistance programs, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 4 SHORT TITLE SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "Program 8 (a) The term "Federal domestic assistance program" 9 means any function of a Federal agency which provides 10 assistance or benefits, whether in the United States or abroad, 11 that can be requested or applied for by a State or States, ter I |