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COMPENSATION FUND, CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS

Pursuant to the provisions of the act of June 19, 1934 (48 Stat., p. 5057), the Commission certified that the sum of $5,550,000 would be necessary for administrative expenses and for the payment of compensation to enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps. This estimate was approved by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget and this amount has been set aside from funds provided for Emergency Conservation Work in a special fund from which there shall be made available to the Commission annually for the purpose indicated above such amounts as may be specified therefor in the annual appropriation acts.

In view of the provisions of the act above referred to, the estimates of appropriations for the fiscal year 1936 include an authorization making $1,056,000 available from this special fund during that fiscal year. The Commission believes this amount will be necessary for administrative expenses and for compensation benefits.

This estimate provides $43,000 for the salaries of 28 employees on this particular work. Since it is estimated the number of cases arising out of injury to enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps the Commission will be required to handle will be relatively small as compared with the number of cases arising out of the Civil Works Administration, a separate administrative unit is not contemplated for this work. It will be possible to handle the work more efficiently by having it performed in the regular administrative divisions of the Commission, and the additional personnel employed on this work will supplement the present administrative staff. It is estimated that 12,400 cases from this employment will involve the payment of compensation. However, it is quite evident that an additional number of cases will be reported to the Commission and require examination.

Provision has been made for 1 supervising examiner, CAF-7, 5 compensation claims examiners, CAF-5, 3 medical claims examiners, CAF-3, and 19 employees for other clerical work incidental to the handling of these cases. A similar staff has been provided for the current fiscal year, and since the present conservation program will continue until March 31, 1935, it is not expected that there will be any appreciable decrease in the work during the fiscal year 1936. Enrollees may file claim at any time within 1 year from the date of injury, and no doubt many new claims will be received during the fiscal year 1936, particularly during the first part of that year.

In addition to the amount estimated for personnel services, the sum of $3,000 has been requested in the estimate for other administrative expenses. The estimate for other expenses does not include funds for traveling expenses, and it is not believed that field investigations will be required as frequently in connection with cases arising out of this employment as in the case of Civil Works employees. The employment is under the supervision and direction of a permanent branch of the Government and differs in this respect from the Civil Works Administration. Reports of injury are filed in better form and the Commission has been reasonably successful in securing detailed information concerning particular cases when requested from the authorities in charge of the Conservation Camps. Cases requiring investigation can probably be handled incidental to investigations that will be made in connection with injuries to employees of the Civil Works Administration and other beneficiaries under the Federal compensation law, provided the sums requested for travel expenses in the estimate of appropriations for "Salaries and expenses" and from the "Special fund for the Civil Works" program are made available.

The estimate of compensation benefits on account of enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps for the fiscal year 1936 is based on the following:

500 temporary disability cases, at $300.

2,100 permanent disability cases, at $300-

500 fatal cases, at $200 (including $5,000 burial expenses)

Medical expense.

Total....

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SALARIES AND EXPENSES

Mr. WOODRUM: The first item is:

For three Commissioners and other personal services in the District of Columbia, including not to exceed $1,000 for temporary experts and assistants in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, to be paid at a rate not exceeding $8 per day, and for personal services in the field, for furniture and other equipment and repairs thereto; law books, books of reference, periodicals; stationery and supplies; traveling expenses; fees and mileage of witnesses; contract stenographic reporting services; rent at the seat of government and elsewhere; and miscellaneous items; $464,000.

Your estimate for salaries and administrative expenses is increased from $361,510 to $464,000. Will you explain that, Mr. McCauley? Mr. MCCAULEY. That is due in part, of course, to the elimination from the estimates of the legislative reduction in salaries. Mr. WOODRUM. How much does that increase it? Mr. MCCAULEY. That amounts to $19,925. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. That is the restoration? Mr. MCCAULEY. The restoration; yes, sir.

ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEES REQUESTED

Mr. WOODRUM. What is the rest of it?

Mr. MCCAULEY. Then we have provided for an increase of 26 positions in the departmental service, new positions in the Commission's permanent organization.

I might state at this point that the administrative staff whose duties are in connection with the compensation laws applying to the C. W. A. and the C. C. C. is provided in a separate estimate.

Mr. WOODRUM. How many additional employees are you asking for in each class, and what is the character of their duties, and the necessity for them?

Mr. MCCAULEY. The estimate provides for an assistant to myself. I have none at the present time, and have not had. We have also provided for 6 additional compensation-claim examiners in grade CAF-6 and 1 field investigator in the same grade. We have also provided for 2 additional medical-claim examiners in grade CAF-5, 3 additional clerks in CAF-3, 6 additional stenographers in CAF-2, and 3 clerk-typists in CAF-1.

INCREASE IN WORK OF COMMISSION

In explanation of the necessity for this increase, I might state that the work of the Commission in handling cases reported from the regular establishments of the Government has increased to such a point that we can no longer keep the work current with our present staff. A fair indication of that, I think, is the increase in the carryover from month to month of the number of pending cases. On June 30, 1931, we had 1,958 cases in that classification. That is, cases in which final action has not been taken; or in which we have not made a final award of compensation, or which are awaiting investigation or information of one kind or another. In 1932 we had reduced these cases to 978, and in 1933 to 545. Beginning about April or May 1933, we first began to notice an increase in the number

of new cases reported, and on June 30, 1934, we had 4,524 cases in that classification that are awaiting action.

Mr. WOODRUM. How do you account for that?

Mr. MCCAULEY. We have been able to dispose of about 2,000 cases a month with our regular staff. Recently, cases have been coming in at the rate of over 3,000 a month, and the cumulative effect of that is reflected in the figure I have given.

Mr. WOODRUM. How do you account for that increase in the number of cases?

Mr. MCCAULEY. There has been a very material expansion in our Government activities. A number of new agencies have been created. The Tennessee Valley Authority is probably employing in the neighborhood between 6,000 and 10,000 men at this time. Allotments have been made to the regular Government establishments from emergency funds with which they have expanded their activities. I have some figures here showing a comparison of the injuries reported for the first half of the calendar year. We will take the War Department, for example. The number of injuries reported from the Engineer Department of the Army for the first 6 months of 1932 was 1,780; in 1933, 1,801; in 1934, 2,480.

The Post Office Department shows a slight increase from 4,500 in 1932 and 4,000 in 1933 to 4,848 in 1934.

The Interior Department shows an increase from 508 in 1932 and 482 in 1933 to 1,041 in 1934.

The Department of Agriculture reported 958 in 1932, 1,095 in 1933, and 3,177 in 1934.

So the increase has been spread generally throughout the service. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Do the figures given include the P. W. A., the C. W. A., and the C. C. C.?

Mr. MCCAULEY. They would include persons employed by the Department with money advanced from those appropriations, but not employees of the C. W. A. or enrollees in the C. C. C.

Mr. WOODRUM. It does not include the Civilian Conservation Corps?

Mr. MCCAULEY. No, sir; the Civilian Conservation Corps only reported 4,000 injuries during that 6-month period.

ADDITIONAL EMLPOYEES REQUESTED

Mr. WOODRUM. All right. You were telling us about the increases in personnel. What is the total increase in personnel?

Mr. MCCAULEY. It amounts to approximately $62,000 a year. Mr. WOODRUM. And in number of positions?

Mr. MCCAULEY. There are 29 all told, 26 in the departmental service and 3 in the field.

Mr. WOODRUM. Are they all in the classified service?

Mr. MCCAULEY They are all in the classified service; yes, sir. Of course, the three positions in the field are not classified, but we put them in the same category.

Mr. WOODRUM. Did you take those from civil-service registers? Mr. MCCAULEY. Yes, sir; all our permanent personnel are taken from civil-service registers. We did have a few, and do have now, a few employees appointed with the permission of the Civil Service Commission who are not civil service, but that was because a register

was not available from which we might draw the required personnel. Mr. WOODRUM. What is the character of those positions?

Mr. MCCAULEY. Examining positions. We also have a staff on temporary duty who were appointed on a Civil Works project at the time we first undertook to administer the informal compensation program that the Civil Works Administration adopted prior to February 15, 1934.

ALLOTMENT OF FUNDS FROM CIVIL WORKS

ADMINISTRATION AND

CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS

Mr. WOODRUM. Have you gotten any funds from any of these emergency organizations transferred to you?

Mr. MCCAULEY. From the Civil Works.

Mr. WOODRUM. How much?

Mr. MCCAULEY. Do you mean exclusive of the special fund created for that purpose?

Mr. WOODRUM. I mean in addition to your regular appropriation.. Mr. MCCAULEY. Under the act of February 15, 1934, extending the compensation to Civil Works employees, we were required to estimate the amount of money that would be required to cover that entire project, and with the approval of the Director of the Budget $25,000,000 was set aside for that purpose. That is available after the present fiscal year only in such amounts as Congress may provide for in the annual appropriation act.

Mr. WOODRUM. Does that cover administrative expenses as well as payments to beneficiaries?

Mr. MCCAULEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOODRUM. It is not reflected in this appropriation at all?
Mr. MCCAULEY. No, sir.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Did you say there were other funds in addition to that $25,000,000?

Mr. MCCAULEY. Yes, sir. The cost of compensation benefits for enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps is paid from a separate fund set aside from the appropriation for emergency conservation work, and the total of that fund is $5,550,000. That likewise must be made available annually by the Congress.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Aside from that, there are no additional funds from any emergency source?

Mr. MCCAULEY. That is the only source.

Mr. WOODRUM. Do the two items of personnel and salary restoration account for the difference in your appropriation?

Mr. MCCAULEY. For personal services; yes, sir. Then there is an increase, you will notice, of about $7,000 in the item for miscellaneous expenses carried in that appropriation. That includes $4,000 for travel and $2,000 for stenographic reporting service.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. These are the figures you submitted to the Budget?

Mr. MCCAULEY. Yes, sir.

PRINTING AND BINDING

Mr. WOODRUM. The next item is:

For all printing and binding for the Employees' Compensation Commission,. $5,000.

There is an increase of $1,000 there.

Mr. MCCAULEY. That is to cover the printing of additional forms, due to the larger number of employees subject to the act, and the increase in the number of injuries.

EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION FUND

Mr. WOODRUM. The next item is:

Employees' compensation fund: For the payment of compensation provided by "An act to provide compensation for employees of the United States suffering injuries while in the performance of their duties, and for other purposes", approved September 7, 1916 (U. S. C., title 5, sec. 785), including medical examinations traveling and other expenses, and loss of wages payable to employees under sections 21 and 22; all services, appliances, and supplies provided by section 9 as amended, including payments to Army and Navy hospitals; the transportation and burial expenses provided by sections 9 and 11; and advancement of costs for the enforcement of recoveries provided in sections 26 and 27 where necessary, accruing during the fiscal year 1936 or in prior fiscal years, $4,250,000.

There is a slight increase in your estimate for the compensation fund.

Mr. MCCAULEY. The fund for this fiscal year-that is, for the fiscal year 1935-may be in excess of our requirements, because we were able to carry over from the 1934 appropriation $280,000. We feel that we will probably be able to carry over a similar amount at the end of this year, although that is not certain, because we do not know how much compensation will be involved in the increasing number of new cases to which reference has been made. So the estimate for this year is substantially the same as the amount we expect to spend during the current year. Whether or not it will be adequate we have no way of knowing at this time.

Mr. WOODRUM. That amount, $4,250,000, is for payment of compensation for claims?

Mr. MCCAULEY. It is limited exclusively to that.

Mr. WOODRUM. There are no administrative expenses or anything like that?

Mr. MCCAULEY. None whatever; and, of course, the amount required for compensation depends entirely on the number of claims. to be paid.

I might state that compensation is being paid in some 2,000 permanent or long-continuing disability cases and in 2,387 fatal cases. Those figures are as of June 30, 1934. There is a cumulative increase in the number of that type of cases from year to year because compensation is payable for life in the case of permanent disability, and usually during the life of the widow in the case of death.

EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION FUND, CIVIL WORKS

Mr. WOODRUM. The next item is:

For administrative expenses and payment of compensation in connection with the administration of the benefits for employees of the Civil Works Administration in accordance with the provisions of the Act entitled "An Act making an additional appropriation to carry out the purposes of the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933, for continuation of the Civil Works program, and for other purposes", approved February 15, 1934 (48 Stat., p. 352), $2,081,000 of the special fund set up on the books of the Treasury pursuant to the provisions of said Act shall be available for expenditure during the fiscal year 1936.

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