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Mr. LAWTON. No, sir; for this reason: The only major printing job that amounts to anything is the printing of the Budget, and no private concern could handle that in the time limitations. be handled only at the Government Printing Office.

It could

URGENCY OF ESTIMATES BEING CONSIDERED BY BUREAU OF THE BUDGET

Mr. LUDLOW. We have just had a hearing on the supplemental estimate for the Veterans' Administration, and one or two items are urgent. We wish to provide for them in a special measure. I wonder if among the items now pending before us and your bureau there are others in the urgency category?

Mr. LAWTON. There are some that will need money before the end. of March, some of the items included in this Pay Act, as a matter of fact. There is one further supplemental from the Veterans' Bureau that is coming up within the next day or two. I will be glad to check on that.

Mr. LUDLOW. You may report to Mr. Pugh, and it might be well to do so.

You spoke about the items in the Pay Act that are of an urgent

nature.

Mr. LAWTON. I said that they would be needed before the end of March.

Mr. LUDLOW. Could you segregate those?

Mr. LAWTON. Yes.

Mr. TABER. How could anybody be short before the end of March? Mr. LAWTON. You have to consider the overtime they paid in the first 2 months of the year when we were on a 48-hour-a-week basis, and some of them continued that schedule for 4 months. The Pay Act itself was an average of 15.9-percent increase, but the overtime payments that were made in the first 4 months will put some of them in the hole.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1946.

FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

STATEMENTS OF DR. P. B. DUNBAR, COMMISSIONER; GEORGE P. LARRICK, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER; FRED MUNCHMEYER, EXECUTIVE OFFICER; AND M. A. STEPHENS, BUDGET OFFICER, FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY

ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS

Mr. O'NEAL. I believe you are the Commissioner representing the Food and Drug Administration of the Federal Security Agency, and you are asking in House Document 436 for an additional amount of money in the sum of $136,000.

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes, sir.

Mr. O'NEAL. You had previously appropriated $2,794,400, and you also have pending on account of Public Law 106 an estimate of $433,000.

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes.

Mr. O'NEAL. The additional amount you are asking for includes an amount for personal services, 39 man-years, amounting to $116,154, and you are also asking for an additional amount for equipment of $19,846.

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes.

Mr. O'NEAL. A total of $136,000.

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes, sir.

Mr. O'NEAL. Do you care to make any statement as to the necessity for this amount and what are its constituents?

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. DUNBAR. I will not take more than a few minutes of the committee's time. All of the arguments supporting the present appropriation for the enforcement of the Food and Drug Act and the other laws we enforce were presented to the committee when our Budget estimates were considered a year ago.

If I may be permitted, I would like to read into the record several sentences in the committee's report which was submitted with the current appropriation bill.

That report stated:

This agency is doing some of the most important work performed by the Government for its citizens. In addition actually to removing from channels of commerce impure and contaminated food and drugs, much research has and is being done along lines most beneficial to improving the health of the Nation. The additional funds recommended should permit of a continued growth of this most important work.

In performing the duties imposed upon it by law, this agency has created much good will toward the Federal Government and, in addition to protecting the public health, performs an important service for the manufacturer and processor of foods and drugs.

I do not think, in view of that statement by the committee, Mr. Chairman, that I need elaborate on our activities in the enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act or the public necessity, not only from the consumers' point of view but also from that of reputable manufacturers, for adequate enforcement.

Our estimates were based originally on the assumption and the expectation that we would be working on a 48-hour-week basis during the current fiscal year.

The unexpected surrender of Japan and the reduction of working hours from a 6-day 48-hour workweek to a 5-day 40-hour workweek has not only increased the obligations placed upon us but has forced us to condense the work we are doing for the protection of the public into 5 days when we originally estimated for a 6-day week.

What we are asking for is reached by a simple mathematical calculation. When the President originally reduced the working hours from 48 to 44 hours, it was done with the injunction that no additional estimate should be asked to compensate for the reduced working hours.

But when the next reduction came from 44 hours to 40 hours, no similar injunction was placed upon us, and what we are now asking is that the 10-percent reduction in working hours based on the reduction from a 44-hour week to a 40-hour week be recognized and that a 10percent increase in our enforcement personnel for the balance of the fiscal year, which will amount to $136,000, be allotted to us in order

that we may carry on this work at the level that Congress expected when it made our original appropriation for this year.

NUMBER OF NEW PERSONNEL NEEDED AND BASIS FOR ESTIMATE

Mr. O'NEAL. Are you planning to put on 86 men?

Mr. DUNBAR. We plan to put on about 80 men, which will mean 40 man-years.

Mr. O'NEAL. This was an estimate based on your expenditures from January 1 to June 30?

Dr. DUNBAR. That is right.

Mr. O'NEAL. Have you put any of those on yet?

Mr. DUNBAR. We have put some on, because we have men in the military service returning, and we are reinstating them. We have a certain flexibility in the time in which we may spend our appropriation. We have, since the Budget message on this particular item was approved by the President, made some increases.

Mr. O'NEAL. Have you the right under the Budget system to increase the number of your employees?

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes, sir; we have authority from the Budget to do that.

Mr. O'NEAL. And to exceed the amount of your approprition?
Mr. DUNBAR. No, sir.

Mr. O'NEAL. You have already expended part of this money before it was authorized?

Dr. DUNBAR. We have not spent this money, but we have used funds appropriated in the original act for men to be reinstated, from the 1st of January.

Mr. O'NEAL. But funds have really been obligated above the original appropriation?

Dr. DUNBAR. I would like to say this, Mr. Chairman: We have an appropriation for our entire operations of $2,794,400.

Mr. O'NEAL. You have obligated prior to securing appropriations some of that money which has not been used?

Dr. DUNBAR. In a sense; yes. But if this appropriation is not granted we will drop war-service appointees so as to end the year without a deficit.

Mr. O'NEAL. How many new people have you put on in anticipation of this amount in your estimate?

Mr. MUNCHMEYER. We put on about 20 people.

Mr. O'NEAL. You expect to put on 40?

Dr. DUNBAR. Forty man-years, which means 80 positions.

Mr. O'NEAL. How many people have you put on now, anticipating the approval of the estimate?

Dr. DUNBAR. Twenty.

Mr. O'NEAL. And you plan to put on another 60 between now and the first of the year?

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes.

Mr. O'NEAL. And you want to retain those for the following fiscal year?

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes.

Mr. O'NEAL. They will not be on until the latter part of April or in May. How many more will you have on at that time?

Dr. DUNBAR. Unless this bill is acted upon favorably, we will not appoint additional people.

Mr. O'NEAL. If you have 20 now when you do not expect to have any more until the bill is passed, that would mean some reduction in.

the amount.

Dr. DUNBAR. That would change the figure some.

Mr. O'NEAL. Could you give us some estimate of what that might be? You can put that in the record.

Dr. DUNBAR. I have been optimistic enough to hope that the bill would be acted upon sometime during the month of March and that we would have some indication of the committee's intention with respect to our estimates in advance. If the bill is not passed until April, probably we will not be able to use more than two-thirds of the amount.

Mr. O'NEAL. If this bill is passed by the middle or latter part of April, you would think that you might not require more than twothirds of the $116,000?

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes, sir; that is, for salaries.

Mr. O'NEAL. If we do not enact it by that time, it would be reduced still more.

COMPARISON, FISCAL YEARS 1946 AND 1947

This will give you a force of how many men, comparing 1946 with 1947?

Dr. DUNBAR. There would be 890.

Mr. MUNCHMEYER. We would contemplate about 835.6 man-years. altogether with the original appropriation.

Mr. O'NEAL. That is what you had in this fiscal year?

Mr. MUNCHMEYER. That is for law enforcement.

Mr. O'NEAL. I rean under this item, with this increase, you expect to need 1,005.6 inan-years?

Dr. DUNBAR. That is for the enforcement operations of the Food and Drug Administration in the 1947 budget.

Mr. O'NEAL. That is the comparable figure with the 835.6 manyears?

Dr. DUNBAR. Yes.

Mr. O'NEAL. What would be the total comparable figure?

Dr. DUNBAR. That would be 890.

Mr. O'NEAL. The increase would be solely due to the 40-hour week?

Dr. DUNBAR. That is right.

Mr. O'NEAL. That would not contemplate any increase in the actual work?

Dr. DUNBAR. That is right.

Mr. O'NEAL. What did you have before-how many people?

Dr. DUNBAR. I do not think I have the figures going back that far, but I can supply that.

Mr. O'NEAL. Nearly every agency that has come before us here during the war asked for increases due to the war, and now they say they need increases because the war is over. I do not quite understand that.

INCREASED WORK LOAD

Dr. DUNBAR. I think that is a very pertinent question. May I make a statement about that?

Mr. O'NEAL. Yes.

Dr. DUNBAR. As a matter of fact, the Food and Drug Administration did not ask for appropriation increases during the period of the war until last year. We recognized the enormous drain on the Federal Treasury. We reorganized our program so as to direct our most intensive consideration to conditions in the food and drug industries due to such things as the shortage of skilled employees, lack of materials, and the break-down of manufacturing equipment. We diverted a great deal of our force to the examination of drugs purchased by the Army. We analyzed for them samples of drugs and medical supplies at the rate of a thousand per month.

During the early part of the war we were able to do that, for this reason: Our import work dropped off in the immediate period after Pearl Harbor to almost nothing, because there was no exportation from oriental or European countries. In the second and third years of the war South American countries began to ship in, in an effort to get a market.

Then we found a considerable increase in importations, and a great deal of material was offered which did not meet our legal requirements. because of adulteration of one kind or another.

When Germany collapsed we anticipated and presented to the committee our expectation that there would be more importations from Europe; that Europe would immediately begin to ship foods, drugs, and cosmetics; that in many cases these would come from war-damaged industries incapable of meeting our requirements as to purity and freedom from adulteration. That proved to be the case. Also, we are now receiving material importations of food products from oriental sources. We import most of our spice supplies from the Orient, and there are certain of these stocks that have been attacked by rodents and insects, that are thoroughly contaminated with insects and animal excreta; and that has increased to a great degree the import control problem.

Mr. O'NEAL. What percentage of your work is that?
Dr. DUNBAR. Fifty percent.

Mr. TABER. What do you do rule that stuff out?

Dr. DUNBAR. We require it either to be destroyed or reexported; or in cases where the condition permits, require it to be put through a drastic sorting and cleaning process.

PERSONNEL

Mr. TABER. How many people did you have on July 1?

Mr. MUNCHMEYER. I have not the figure on that here.

Mr. TABER. Your estimate was based upon the total for 1946, and your original estimate was for an over-all average of 835 mɛn-years. Dr. DUNBAR. That is the figure.

Mr. TABER. I do not know how many jobs that means-perhaps 875 or 900, or something like that?

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