ous years, projected for the future, what they accomplished last year, and whether they are getting behind in certain areas or ahead. They have a Small Claims Court, too, and the law now allows them to go up to $5,000. It seemed he had everything you would be needing in preparing caseload statistics. Mr. BABCOCK. Our study concerns administrative law judges, and the tax judges are not administrative law judges. They are statutory judges. Mr. MILLER. Could they recommend that you do that for them? Mr. BABCOCK. It would really be outside our statutory mandate, because we are concerned with administrative, not judicial, procedures. There are statistics prepared for the Federal courts generally, by the Judicial Conference, which are similar to our caseload accounting system, but they are on the other side of this big fence. They are Federal statutory judges. Mr. MILLER. I am aware of some of these reports, and this looks like that which we have had before us. You are doing the same thing, but only for administrative law judges. Mr. BABCOCK. Yes, sir. A lot of their cases are very small and we thus have a vast amount of statistics, and that is why we have rented the HEW computer. We use it in minutes. We get billed for so many minutes of time. One of our staff attorneys taught mathematics at the college level before he decided to go to law school. He is our "interface" with the computer. Mr. MILLER. Thank you. Mr. STEED. We will be doing our best for you. Well, gentlemen, that has been a very nice presentation. We appreciate your presence and cooperation. Mr. BABCOCK. Mr. Chairman, we hope your retirement is as long and fruitful as your 32 years of honorable service have been. Mr. STEED. Thank you. I have mixed emotions about having to take off from here, but there comes a time in a man's life when a doctor's advice is too important to neglect. [Justifications follow:] February 26, 1980 ADMINISTRATIVE CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED STATES JUSTIFICATION OF THE FISCAL 1981 BUDGET ESTIMATES The Conference's FY 1981 budget request of $1,132,000 is $5,000 more than the appropriation (including the requested $48,000 FY 1980 pay increase supplemental) for the current year. Despite the effects of possible pay increases and general inflation, the Conference plans to maintain its existing programs, and will attempt to manage its funds carefully so as to fulfill its basic goals. The Conference must receive the entirety of its request, however, in order to do so: the request has already been "trimmed" to the leanness and austerity that all FY 1981 Federal budgeting requests are to reflect. The Conference will use its FY 1981 resources in the following five areas. The first, and most important, activity of the Conference is the research and development of recommended improvements. This activity, in which particular improvements are studied by consultants working with the staff under the aegis of one of the Conference's nine committees, is the Conference's core activity. While new projects for FY 1981 have not yet been selected, several of them are being considered for possible commissioning. The Conference proposes to devote 60% of its budget, amounting to $678,000, to its research activities. Especially in a year in which the Congress and the President are so deeply committed to the achievement of regulatory reforms, the recommendation-development activities of the Conference should receive this modest level of funding. The Conference's research activities are important not only for the recommendations that they produce but because the Conference's research activities are the primary input of data and principles on which the Conference relies in performing its advisory, clearinghouse, and consultative activities. The Conference intends to devote 15% of its resources, amounting to $170,000, to its advisory and consultative activities. These include commenting to Congress, OMB, and the agencies on the procedural aspects of proposed legislation, offering assistance to agencies with respect to proposed procedural changes that they may wish to adopt by regulation, and assisting in the implementation of the procedural aspects of new laws. Funding at the requested level will enable the Conference to continue to answer inquiries and requests for advice on a time-available basis. The third area of our activities consists of efforts to assure the implementation of our recommendations and to obtain and maintain comprehensive and current information pertaining to the implementation of the Conference's past recommendations. Funding at the requested level will permit the Conference to devote an additional 15%, equivalent to $170,000, of its budget to implementation activities. This will allow the Conference to continue its current activities in this area. The remaining two areas of the Conference's FY 1981 activities will consist of its statistical program and its clearinghouse and educational activities. The Conference anticipates that it will devote 5% of its resources, or $57,000, to continuing its current efforts to update and tabulate data for its Uniform Caseload Accounting System. Another 5%, an additional $57,000 of the Conference's budget, will be expended in continuing its clearinghouse and educational activities. Our efforts to increase the effectiveness of our financial resources will continue into FY 1981. The majority of our expenses are for salaries and benefits, space, payroll and administrative services, and other items which are not easily controllable. Indeed, our funds for retaining consultants to undertake research projects are the only significant discretionary funds within the Conference's budget. These research funds are included within item 25.0, "Other Services," on the attached "Object Classification." If we can hold our expenses to current levels, we will have about $180,000 available for consulting work during FY 1981. We are also requesting a pay raise supplemental for FY 1980 of $48,000, which is the approximate impact of the October 1, 1979 pay increase. The Conference is well aware of the fact that it may have been given new responsibilities by the time that FY 1981 commences. These budget estimates do not reflect any of the possible changes, however, since no particular proposal is sufficiently close to finalization to allow the Conference to begin estimating its effect on our budgetary needs. |