SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON DONABLE PROPERTY

1. Excess Property-Tools-for-Freedom Program.

(a) Summary of investigation.-Tools for Freedom has recently become affiliated with the Pan American Development Foundation. It distributes tools and equipment to vocational and training schools in Latin America contributed by United States and Latin American manufacturers.

Like the Peace Corps and Partners of the Alliance, Tools for Freedom is the type of organization which could take advantage of excess property.

Officers of Tools for Freedom discussed this with the subcommittee staff in November 1966. Initial steps are being taken by Tools for Freedom to be certified as a voluntary agency under section 607 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and its officers have already begun to work with AID.

(b) Estimated monetary and other benefits.-Not estimable at this time.

2. Information on Alliance for Progress-Brazil.

Summary of investigation.-At the request of a Member of Congress a member of the staff compiled materials and drafted a letter concerning the Alliance for Progress in Brazil and the interest of the committee in the use of excess property by the U.S. foreign aid program in Latin America, a matter which has recently been treated in a committee report (H. Rept. 1466, 89th Cong.).

3. Donable Property-Procedures.

Summary of investigation.-At the request of a Member of Congress, additional information was developed regarding the procedure to follow in order for an educational institution to obtain certain surplus relocatable buildings for the purpose of improvising a student lounge-cafeteria and combination gym-auditorium.

SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVASION OF PRIVACY

1. Federally Sponsored Personality Tests and Questionnaires.

(a) Summary of investigation. This inquiry centered on three aspects: the use of intrusive personality tests by Federal agencies on public employees and job applicants; Federal financial support of research grants and contracts utilizing similar personality tests and questionnaires on schoolchildren; and a controversial section of the 1964 Farm Census which asked detailed questions about the outside income and background of all persons living in each farmhouse. Investigation showed that persons answering the written personality tests and questionnaires, both in Government and the schools, were asked intimate questions about their sex life, religious views, family relationships, personal values, and other subjects normally regarded as solely the private business of the individual.

(b) Estimated monetary and other benefits.-The curtailment and termination of a number of the above activities were reported to the subcommittee during the course of its investigation. Substantial savings should result but no reliable estimate is available. These actions can be summarized as follows:

(1) The U.S. Civil Service Commission has adopted for the first time a formal policy prohibiting the use of personality testing in all hiring, promotion, and firing decisions, except in those cases where a purely medical determination can be justified. The order applies to 86 percent of the Federal work force. In addition, Commission Chairman John W. Macy, Jr., at the President's direction, has ordered all Federal agencies to urge Government contractors to adopt the same policy.

(2) The Department of State has halted compulsory personality testing in its personnel program and adopted other safeguards to protect individual rights in psychiatric evaluations.

(3) The Department of Labor has abandoned its original personality test to select youth counselor trainees for the youth opportunities program. An order is in the process of being adopted which would ban the use of such tests in any cooperative FederalState program under the Department.

(4) The Bonneville Power Administration has dropped the use of personality tests for employee promotion purposes; and its parent agency, the Department of the Interior, has assured the subcommittee that the Civil Service Commission order shall be enforced.

(5) The Peace Corps has ordered major changes in its testing program. All of its personality tests are now strictly voluntary. It also eliminated 185 out of 566 questions, including many of those that members of the subcommittee found objectionable, for example, a number of items relating to religious beliefs. Test

forms also are being destroyed immediately after evaluation. Previously, they were kept in confidential files.

(6) The Export-Import Bank of Washington has adopted regulations prohibiting the use of personality tests on any employee or job applicant.

(7) The U.S. Office of Education, in response to the subcommittee's inquiry, embraced a new policy on personality testing which makes it clear to federally financed researchers that such tests should be strictly voluntary. In the case of personality tests ects involving personality tests, inventories, and questionnaires is now required.

(8) The U.S. Public Health Service, through Dr. Philip R. Lee, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, advised the subcommittee that it was endorsing as a formal policy "the principle that participation in research projects involving personality tests, inventories, and questionnaires is voluntary and, in those cases involving students below the college level, that the rights and responsibilities of the parents must be respected."

(9) The National Science Foundation is currently studying the adoption of guidelines for its research program similar to those put into effect by the U.S. Office of Education and the U.S. Public Health Service.

(10) The Bureau of the Budget is attempting to develop similar safeguards as part of its regular review of tests and questionnaires proposed for use by Federal agencies and those persons and institutions conducting research under their sponsorship.

(11) The Bureau of the Census has adopted new procedures to protect the privacy of farmers, members of their families, hired hands and lodgers in answering questions about outside income in the farm census. Previously, the farmer had to provide detailed information about outside income and other personal matters not only for himself but also for others. They may now file separate reports. The Bureau also is reducing the size of the census questionnaire by eliminating responses from persons who are not members of the farm operator's family, and is considering other steps.

(12) The Federal Aviation Agency now permits air traffic controllers, in taking a personality test as part of its medical examination program, to refuse to answer any question considered to be offensive. The Agency also has ordered a tightening of regulations safeguarding the confidentiality of test papers handled in the field. An employee also may choose a psychiatric interview, with the normal doctor-patient relationship, if he does not care to take the written personality test given by the Agency. (c) Hearings.-June 2, 3, 4, 7, and 23; September 23, 1965. Hearings printed.

2. Questions Relating to Invasion of Privacy in the Possible Establishment of a National Data Center.

(a) Summary of investigation.-The subcommittee examined various proposals now pending before the Bureau of the Budget to establish a National Data Center. Three separate groups of consultants

have submitted reports to the Bureau supporting the technical feasibility and desirability of such a plan. However, the subcommittee felt that none of these studies considered in depth the problems of invasion of privacy which would arise in the creation of a statistical data center drawing upon literally millions of Government forms and files from a long list of Federal agencies. These agencies maintain vast amounts of information on individual citizens and private businesses, much of which is confidential in nature. Although the subcommittee recognizes there might be increased economy and efficiency in having centralized statistics at the Government's "fingertips," there also would be many dangers. Individual information generally must be adequately safeguarded from improper exposure and laws requiring confidentiality of specific types of information, such as tax returns and census responses, must be complied with. A government which, through overzealousness or design, uses a data center for intelligence purposes rather than statistical purposes, could enslave a people. The Bureau of the Budget assured the subcommittee it had no desire or plan to use the center for anything but statistical purposes in Government research, planning, and problem solving. However, two points became obvious from the expert testimony received. First, it would be a simple thing to turn a statistical data center into an intelligence center. Second, no government can give assurances of what a future government might do. Thus, all of the necessary safeguards, whether they be laws, regulations, or technological controls, or a combination of all these, must be studied and adopted before such a data center becomes a reality.

(b) Estimated monetary and other benefits.-The Bureau of the Budget promised the subcommittee that congressional approval would be sought if the Government decides to establish a National Data Center.

(c) Hearings.-July 26, 27, and 28, 1966. Hearings printed.

II. Legislation

EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE REORGANIZATION SUBCOMMITTEE

A. H.R. 4623, To Further Amend the Reorganization Act of 1949. 1. Report number and date.-House Report 184, March 17, 1965. 2. Summary of measure.-H.R. 4623 was requested by the President. Its purpose was to eliminate the expiration date of (and thereby make permanent) the authority given him by the Reorganization Act of 1949 to transmit reorganization plans to the Congress. Such plans take effect unless a resolution of disapproval is passed by either the House or the Senate within 60 days from the date of transmittal. The authority under this act expired on June 1, 1965. 3. Legislative studies.-After hearings, the bill was approved by the subcommittee and subsequently reported by the full committee to the House. It was passed by the House with an amendment which, instead of eliminating the expiration date, extended the President's authority to December 31, 1968. Immediately afterward, S. 1135 was passed in lieu thereof and became Public Law 89-43.

4. Hearings.-March 3, 1965. Transcript printed.

B. H.R. 4653, To Authorize Checks To Be Drawn in Favor of Banking Organizations for the Credit of a Person's Account, Under Certain Conditions.

1. Report number and date.-House Report 703, August 2, 1965. 2. Summary of measure.-H.R. 4653 was introduced at the request of the Department of the Air Force, but would apply to all Government departments and agencies. The bill would permit Government agencies to send checks to banking organizations to be deposited to the credit of employees or other persons who regularly receive Government checks. If more than one person designates the same bank or institution, a single check may be drawn in favor of that bank or institution, supported by a list of the amounts to be credited to the individual accounts. The Comptroller General had ruled that a single check would not be permissible without legislative authorization.

3. Legislative status.-After hearings, the subcommittee approved the bill with a technical amendment and recommended its adoption by the full committee. It was reported by the full committee and passed the House, as amended. S. 1309, a similar measure, was immediately passed in lieu thereof and became Public Law 89-145. 4. Hearings. July 21, 1965. Transcript printed.