Mr. HUNT. Well, we have to take care of telephone bills and other items for the rest of the year.

Mr. LUDLOW. Your current appropriation, as I stated before, is $427,988; the pay increase will add to that amount $45,400, making a total of $473,388. How much of that amount has been definitely obligated to date?

Mr. HUNT. Here are the figures as of February 27. Under personal services, there was a deficit of $10,566. That deficit would be removed, of course, by the receipt of the $45,400 under the Public Law 106 deficiency bill.

Mr. TABER. How much is that deficiency estimate that is hanging in that bill?

Mr. HUNT. $45,400 for extra pay. And as of February 27, we had a deficit in that item of $10,566. That would bring down the balance to about $35,000; $32,000 of those dollars are required for obligations for personal services for replacing people who are leaving the office, mostly stenographers whose husbands have returned from the war. There is a lapse of 2 or 3 weeks before replacements are made. We calculated that $32,000 would be required to take care of these replacements, including lump-sum payments for accumulated leave. Mr. LUDLOW. How much have you spent during the first 7 months of this fiscal year for general administrative expenses under the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation?

Mr.. HUNT. As of January 31, our obligations were $398,880.02. That does not include, of course, the $45,400 included in the Public Law 106 bill.

Mr. LUDLOW. Are these additional positions you are asking for here included in your 1947 budget?

Mr. SHORTLEY. We have included in the 1947 budget money for the payment to the United States Public Health Service for services to be provided by specialists, and we would be in a much better position if we could take those specialists on earlier with this appropriation.

Mr. LUDLOW. How much is included in the 1947 budget for specialists?

Mr. SHORTLEY. I think three on a full-year basis, $24,000.

Mr. LUDLOW. Would that be these three positions you are asking for?

Mr. SHORTLEY. We would continue those on.

Mr. O'NEAL. What about the percentage of women trainees?

Mr. SHORTLEY. I think we would have to supply that figure. It would be a guess right now.

(After discussion off the record:)

Mr. LUDLOW. Supplementing Mr. O'Neal's question, is this program open to women?

Mr. SHORTLEY. Yes, sir; it is.

Mr. LUDLOW. And are they applying in any considerable numbers for its benefits?

Mr. SHORTLEY. I would hesitate to guess at the number.

(The figure requested is as follows:)

Twenty percent of the 41,925 disabled persons rehabilitated in 1945 were

women.

Mr. O'NEAL. What about children?

Mr. SHORTLEY. We cannot take them unless they are of an employable age.

Mr. O'NEAL. Is there any program looking to the rehabilitation of children?

Mr. SHORTLEY. Well, there is the Crippled Children's Division in the Department of Labor. We have a working arrangement with them whereby those cases-for which they have provided physical restoration as they become of age are turned over to the State rehabilitation agencies for vocational rehabilitation. (After discussion off the record:)

OBLIGATIONS DURING CURRENT FISCAL YEAR

Mr. TABER. How much did you spend through the latest date you can give me? You have $427,988 available, excluding $45,400 estimated for Public Law 106; how much did you spend, say, through January 31? I do not assume you can give me anything later than that; I would not expect it.

Mr. LUDLOW. That figure is already in the record.

Mr. HUNT. Here are the January 31 figures.

Mr. TABER. Give me the total.

Mr. HUNT. The obligations as of January 31 were $398,880.02. Mr. TABER. Was that a considerable of obligations for other than personal services?

Mr. HUNT. That included everything that comes under general administrative expenses.

Mr. TABER. Did that include all salaries to the end of the year? Mr. HUNT. All the salaries of those on the job on January 31. Mr. TABER. To the end of the year.

Mr. HUNT. To the end of the year. I can give you the obligations for personal services-$372,129.08, and the difference between that figure and $398,880.02

Mr. TABER. $26,000.

Mr. HUNT. That is right.

Mr. TABER. That leaves you an unobligated balance as of January 31 of $75,000; you will have $473,788 available if you get the additional amount of $45,400 for Public Law 106.

Mr. HUNT. That is right.

Mr. TABER. And that leaves you $75,000 available and unobligated for additional personal services, travel expense, and all that kind of obligation in the rest of the year.

Mr. HUNT. Yes.

Mr. TABER. Besides taking care of the help you have on the roll, does it not?

Mr. HUNT. That is right.

Mr. TABER. Is not that $75,000 enough to take care of you and take care of those people you want to put on? You must be putting on a lot of people besides the ones that are currently on the roll if you are going to use all that money and not have a very considerable balance left. Why won't that money take care of what you need? Mr. HUNT. Practically all of our vacancies

Mr. TABER. What are you going to do with the $75,000 that seems to be in the clear; for what is that going to be spent?

Mr. HUNT. There is an unobligated balance of $27,907.98 with $45,400 coming in from Public Law 106, which would be added to that.

Mr. TABER. Which makes $75,000.

Mr. HUNT. Yes.

Mr. SHORTLEY. That would be available only for the purpose for which it was appropriated, namely, to take care of those obligations that occurred from the first of the year.

Mr. TABER. I know; but your obligations to the 31st of January, including your salaries for the whole year' were $398,880. Now, when you add this $45,000 to your appropriation, we get a total availability of $473,788, which leaves you $75,000 for your miscellaneous expenses and your additional help that you are going to put on. Now, I just do not see why you could not take care of whatever you have out of that.

Mr. HUNT. I have the break-down here.

Mr. TABER. What are you going to do with that money; where is it? Is it in this justification submitted to us?

Mr. HUNT. No; because at that time the figures were calculated as of January 2. We have more recent figures here now.

We received authority in the last appropriation act for the making of a film. The obligation for that is now being set up.

Mr. TABER. For the making of what?

Mr. HUNT. Of a film-$30,000.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What kind of a film?

Mr. SHORTLEY. That is for the purpose of providing copies of a film to the States to be used for public information concerning the program, so as to encourage employers to use disabled individuals in their establishments; for the purpose of having the welfare agencies that are paying out public funds to maintain disabled people out of employment refer disabled persons to the rehabilitation services so that they will be made fit to earn a living, and then calling to the attention of the disabled themselves that these services are available for the purpose of getting done for them a better and more economical job. The earlier a man is served by rehabilitation following his disability, the less costly the job of rehabilitating him is and the better chances of successful rehabilitation.

Mr. HUNT. In addition to that, we need $32,000 for personnel replacements up to the end of the year.

Mr. TABER. For what?

Mr. HUNT. Mostly clerical position replacements. Our stenographers' husbands come back from the war and the girls move back to their home towns. It takes 2 to 3 weeks to get replacements in.

Mr. TABER. Why would you have to have more money for replacements than you would for this help you already have?

Mr. HUNT. The vacancies have to be filled.

Mr. TABER. I know; but you would not have to pay these girls that quit if they go off the roll.

Mr. HUNT. No; but the salary of a person who was going to leave the job would not be calculated in these figures to the end of the year; it would not be counted twice.

Mr. TABER. Well, you have everybody in there who is on the roll now, have you not, calculated to the end of the year?

Mr. HUNT. As of January 31.

Mr. TABER. Surely. I just do not see why that would be an extra charge.

Mr. LUDLOW. Would not there be some savings through lapses? Mr. HUNT. The savings were picked up by the Bureau of the Budget as of the 1st of January, at the time they put this item in under Public Law 106. They not only estimated the lapses at that time but what they thought would develop in the way of lapses.

Mr. TABER. What else do you have that you are going to use this money for?

Mr. SHORTLEY. Just for the tabulating services. That is the only other item.

Mr. HUNT. Then obligations for miscellaneous items were not calculated in those obligations I gave you for the balance of the year, because you have your monthly telephone bills and things of that sort. Mr. TABER. They run about a couple thousand dollars a month? Mr. HUNT. Yes, sir. And you have equipment items, of course. Mr. TABER. I guess that is all.

Mr. LUDLOW. Thank
you, gentlemen.
Mr. SHORTLEY. Thank you, sir.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1946.

FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY

PUBLIC BUILDINGS ADMINISTRATION

STATEMENTS OF R. O. JENNINGS, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, PUBLIC BUILDINGS ADMINISTRATION, AND J. E. STRAWSER, BUDGET OFFICER.

RETURN OF DEPARTMENTAL FUNCTIONS TO SEAT OF GOVERNMENT

Mr. LUDLOW. We have before us a new item of appropriation in House Document 457 in the amount of $883,000 which as I understand is to be applied to the return of departmental functions to the seat of government.

Mr. JENNINGS. Yes. Mr. Chairman, I would like to state that Commissioner Reynolds wanted to appear before you on this item but he is ill today. He could not attend the hearing.

Mr. LUDLOW. We are very sorry to hear about that.

Mr. JENNINGS. I am representing the Public Buildings Administration on this item. We have included in the justification before the committee the three activities which we understand have been tentatively approved for return to Washington. Outside of those three we have no information as to which activities may be involved. Mr. LUDLOW. You say "tentatively" approved to be returned to Washington. Are you not jumping the gun a bit?

AGENCIES BEING RETURNED TO WASHINGTON

Mr. JENNINGS. Sir, the Patent Office has moved to the extent of about 50 percent of its personnel already. We understand that the Rural Electrification Administration has moved a majority of its employees?

Mr. LUDLOW. From St. Louis?

Mr. JENNINGS. Yes, sir.

Mr. LUDLOw. And what is the third?

Mr. JENNINGS. The Farm Credit Administration from Kansas City, Mo.

Mr. LUDLOW. Who determines when these activities shall be moved back to the seat of government?

Mr. JENNINGS. I believe that is a determination made after studies by the Bureau of the Budget of the conditions surrounding the activities.

Mr. LUDLOW. Do you have space available to which these three branches can be moved?

Mr. JENNINGS. That is an item that you do have to be very careful about, of course. The space situation as you know is very critical in Washington. The Patent Office is going into the Commerce Building into space that the Commerce Department squeezed out for them.

Mr. LUDLOW. Will the entire Patent Office be reassembled here in Washington?

Mr. JENNINGS. I believe it will, eventually.

Mr. LUDLOW. Will it be located in the Department of Commerce Building?

Mr. JENNINGS. Yes, sir. The space situation is studied very thoroughly by the Bureau of the Budget before they decide that an activity should be returned.

For the information of the committee, when we started working with the Budget Bureau on this item there was a list of about 15 activities that were under consideration for return. That was pared down to those included in the estimate before you.

Mr. LUDLOW. If my memory serves me correctly, the then President, Mr. Roosevelt, was the deciding factor in sending these activities out to different sections of the country.

Mr. JENNINGS. I believe that is correct.

Mr. LUDLOW. I wonder if this is a matter that is attracting the interest of President Truman.

Mr. JENNINGS. I am sure that the President is quite interested in this matter.

Mr. LUDLOW. When you say the "Budget," I think you really mean the President.

Mr. JENNINGS. That is correct, sir.

DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENSES OF TRANSFER

Mr. LUDLOW. Now the Commerce Department proposes to bear part of the cost and you will bear the rest?

Mr. JENNINGS. The Commerce Department did bear part of the cost. We had absolutely no funds for that purpose. There was a strong desire to move the Patent Office. After discussion with the Bureau of the Budget, the Patent Office found certain funds that could be made available to meet part of the expense.

Mr. LUDLOW. I understand you at present have no funds available, unless you get it out of this appropriation.

Mr. JENNINGS. That is correct.

Mr. LUDLOW. Would the Department of Commerce be left holding the bag and pay the whole bill if we did not appropriate any money?