SENATOR ANDREWS: Please provide for the record a breakdown of fiscal year 1985 and 1986 "other expenses" for the NOTE: In preparing these budgets, the Commission did not collect GENERAL COUNSEL SENATOR ANDREWS: Why did the travel expenditures for the Office of the General Counsel actually increase by 67 percent between fiscal years 1984 and 1985 when the workload for this office declined significantly in that time period. ANSWER: The FY 1984 expenditure of $15,000 was unusually low because a large number of motor licensing cases appealed by the same carriers were consolidated and disposed of at one time. The FY 1985 allocation of $25,000 is based on an anticipated caseload requiring frequent travel to a number of different Circuit Courts. OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL COUNSEL SENATOR ANDREWS: The Office of Special Counsel has assisted protesters to more effectively present their positions to ICC during rail abandonment proceedings. Have requests for such assistance been increasing during the past few years? If so, by how much? ANSWER: Requests for assistance in rail abandonment proceedings increased significantly in the last few years and dramatically in the last few months. From fiscal 1983 to 1984, such requests for assistance increased approximately 50 percent, and in the second quarter of FY 1985, after publication of OSC's rail abandonment booklet in December 1984, requests have jumped over 100 percent. SENATOR ANDREWS: How effective is the assistance provided by the Special Counsel? Please provide a list of activities. ANSWER: The mission of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is to assist in developing a more complete public interest record in Commission proceedings. OSC does this by offering information and assistance to concerned consumer groups, small communities, State transportation regulatory agencies, small carriers, and public officials who are affected by Commission proceedings, but may not be familiar enough with Commission procedures to participate effectively. OSC publishes, updates, and widely distributes publications explaining Commission regulations, procedure, and precedent in rail abandonment and intrastate bus rate and service discontinuance cases. Thus, the effectiveness of OSC's assistance should be gauged by the satisfaction of these public groups that they have been enabled to understand and to participate fully in Commission proceedings. The Commission has received letters attesting to this satisfaction from State regulatory agencies, shipper organizations, small carrier organizations, private attorneys, and individuals. OSC's activities include counseling and assistance in the entire spectrum of the Commission caseload, but especially in: A. Rail abandonment cases including formation of new B. C. D. short lines. Attendance and active community assistance if scheduled for oral hearing. Rail construction cases. Attendance and active Intrastate bus rate and service discontinuance cases. OSC participates in certain rulemaking proceedings, such as the Bus Act implementation rulemakings and the rulemaking concerning regulation of intercity bus passenger service, in which the users of the service, the bus riding public, might otherwise have been unrepresented. In addition OSC publishes, updates and distributes several publications explaining public participation in Commission rail abandonment and intrastate bus rate and service discontinuance cases. SENATOR ANDREWS: Provide for the record a breakdown of Special Counsel "other expenses" for fiscal years 1985 and 1986. ANSWER: NOTE: In preparing these budgets, the Commission did not collect and project expense data by Bureau and Office for most items other than personnel, contracts and travel. Accordingly, "other expenses" were estimated for the agency as a whole. Therefore, in order to provide the information you have requested, we have distributed the "other expenses" to each office primarily on the basis of authorized staff-years. Overall, "other expenses" do not decline as rapidly as do OFFICE OF TRANSPORTATION ANALYSIS SENATOR ANDREWS: The justification states that the primary mission of the Office of Transportation Analysis "is to ensure that economic environmental, and energy concerns are assessed in Commission decisions". Provide a breakdown by the specializations, education and qualifications of the staff. ANSWER: Because of the diverse characteristics of the work performed in the Office, staff qualifications are presented by Section. Front Office The Director of the Office holds advanced degrees including the doctorate. In addition, he has had extensive industrial, academic and government experience. The Front Office staff also includes an attorney with private sector and Government experience. Section of Energy and Environment Six of the seven professional staff members of the Section of Energy and Environment hold degrees, including five with at least one advanced degree in environmental disciplines. Only one staff member, an Upward Mobility graduate, has yet to obtain a degree. This individual, however, is nearing completion of an undergraduate degree, attending college at night while working full time. The educational backgrounds represented include biology, geology, wildlife ecology, regional planning, economics, and social sciences. The level of educational attainment, however, is generally less critical than practical knowledge in the development of environmental studies. The staff, collectively, has more than 50 years of experience in assessing environmental impacts associated with the regulation of the surface transportation industry. On the average, the staff members have four years of industry experience and 10 years of Government experience. Section of Rail Services Planning The Rail Services Planning Section has seven staff members. Many have extensive experience in the rail industry. All have had some experience in the private sector, with an average of 6 years per employee. Five of the eight staff members have degrees, including two with advanced degrees. Educational backgrounds include economics, accounting, finance, urban affairs, and conservation and resource development. The staff has a combined total of 118 years of Government service, with an average of 14 years per employee. Section of Research and Analysis The Section of Research and Analysis has sixteen professional staff members. Their backgrounds in education and work experience are primarily in the areas of economics, transportation operations, mathematics, statistics, and computer science. Of the sixteen, three have Ph. D.'s in economics, seven have M.S. or M.B.A. degrees in economics or transportation, and six have bachelor degrees. Several staff members holding master's degrees have completed most of the work toward the doctorate. Four have twenty or more years of industry experience with railroads, motor carriers, shippers, or consultants. The average experience outside the Federal Government is 7 years. Average Government experience for this staff is sixteen years. In addition, half of the staff has university level teaching experience in their fields, ranging from two to fifteen years. SENATOR ANDREWS: Please provide for the record a listing of the 24 Office of Transportation Analysis studies and analyses for Fiscal Year 1985. How many of these are statutorily required? Which ones? ANSWER: Workload numbers included in the Commission's 1986 budget submission were estimates based on the projected FY 1985 level of activity. Therefore, the actual number of projects may vary from these estimates. Eighteen of these are statutorily required. Those which are statutorily mandated are asterisked. Motor Studies and Analyses 1. Food and Grocery Transportation Study as Required by Section 8 of the Motor Carrier Act. 2. A study of Replacement Bus Service in Communities Losing Bus Service. 3. Report on Female and Minority Owned Motor Carriers. * 4. Intercity Bus Terminal Study. 5. A study of the Effects of Eliminating the Bulk Commodity Restriction in Specific and General Motor Carrier Authority Applications. 6. Impact of the Household Goods Act on Shippers and Household Goods Carriers. Rail Studies and Analyses 1. Impact of the TOFC/COFC Exemption. 2. Study of the Effects of the Cancellation of Joint Rate and Reciprocal Switching Agreements. 3. Identification of Manufactured Commodities for Possible Rail Exemption. 4. Analyzing Approaches Toward Implementing the Evidentiary Guidelines for Market Dominance Cases. * 5. Periodic Summary of Railroad Contracts. * 6. Analysis of Freight Subsidy Standards for Bath and Hammonsport Railroad. * 7. Summary of the Impact of Railroad Surcharges. * 8. Norfolk Southern Corporation--Control--North American Van Lines, Inc. * 9. Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp.--Control--Southern Pacific Transportation Co.; Merger - The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Ry. Co. and Southern Pacific Transportation Co. 10. Informal Monitoring Reports on the Impact of the Boxcar and Export Coal Exemptions. 11. Analysis and Release of Certain Confidential Rail Contract Rate Information to United States Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and other Federal agencies. #12. Report on Abandonment and System Diagram Mileage submitted to the Department of Transportation for use in the allocation of funds under the State Assistance Program. *13. Environmental Impact Statement of the North Western Pacific Railroad abandoment in California. *14. Expanded Environmental Assessment of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad abandonment in Utah. *15. Environmental Impact Statement of the Coal Rate Guildelines Nationwide. *16. Expanded Environmental Assessment of the Florida West Coast Rail Line construction. *17. Environmental Impact Statement of the C&NW Rail Line construction in Powder River Basin. *18. Environmental Impact Statement of the ICAST & Western Rail Line construction in Colorado. *19. Environmental Impact Statement of the Tongue River Railroad construction in Montana. *20. Expanded Environmental Assessment of the Norfolk Southern/NAVL merger. *21. Expanded Environmental Assessment of the Santa Fe/Southern Pacific merger. *22. Environmental Assessment of the Southern Pacific (toxic waste) abandonment in California. |