CONTENTS McLain, Marvin L., Assistant Secretary for Agricultural Stabiliza- tion; Walter C. Berger, Administrator, and Clarence L. Miller, Associate Administrator, CSS; and Edward M. Shulman, Office of Miller, Clarence L., Associate Administrator, CSS: Charles E. Raeder, Staff members of the Office of General Sales Manager... PROGRAM OPERATIONS OF PUBLIC LAW 480 MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1958 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., in room 1310, New House Office Building, Washington, D. C., Hon. W. R. Poage (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. POAGE. The committee will please come to order. I believe we now have a quorum of the committee. We are met here today, gentlemen, to consider the operations of the Public Law 480 program. I have just been advised in the last few minutes we have been requested to appoint conferees on the bill to extend Public Law 480. The committee wanted to know a little more about the operations of Public Law 480 before leaving here and felt we might need to hold hearings after Congress adjourned. We want to explore the general situation this morning and make our program a little more intelligently in the future. We had hoped to have some of those charged with the operations of these programs. We find most of those who claim the responsibility are engaged somewhere else or unfortunately we find Mr. Daniels had a stroke Saturday night and could not be here. So we have a number of representatives from the Department here who I am sure can tell us about the operations of the program. We would like to know a little bit more about why they did some of these things. I have several representatives from the Department listed as being present. I presume, Mr. Miller, that you probably would be spokesman for the Department. Mr. MILLER. I certainly will for the Commodity Stabilization Service and Barter. Mr. COOLEY. Mr. Poage said we were interested in Public Law 480. We are always interested in cash sales and in the whole program of disposition of surplus commodities. We want to go into the overall operation. Mr. MILLER. We are prepared to do that, sir. STATEMENT OF CLARENCE L. MILLER, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, COMMODITY STABILIZATION SERVICE; CHARLES E. RAEDER, ASSISTANT TO THE GENERAL SALES MANAGER, COMMODITY STABILIZATION SERVICE; AND THOMAS R. RAWLINGS, DIRECTOR, BARTER AND STOCKPILING, COMMODITY STABILIZATION SERVICE Mr. POAGE. I suppose, Mr. Miller, you might as well open this up and give us an outline of your foreign operations and how you are disposing of these commodities. We will not want to go into the details at the moment. Mr. MILLER. I will be glad to. I have no formalized statement and I think Mr. Heimburger stated he did not expect us to have one this morning. Mr. COOLEY. Are you in a position now or can you furnish this information later? I would like to know something about the magnitude of the operations, how much money we now have in CCC inventories and how it is invested, commodity by commodity. Then I want to know what quantities of surplus commodities have been disposed of and how they have been disposed of. That is, whether by sale or barter and if by sale whether for dollars or foreign currencies. I am sure you have that information. Mr. MILLER. We have it, I believe. Mr. C. E. Raeder is here, Office of General Sales Manager. Mr. COOLEY. I think this is true. The Commodity Credit Corporation is the world's largest food and fiber merchant. Mr. MILLER. It is a safe statement to make. Mr. COOLEY. That being true, we want to know what sales force we have employed to dispose of these commodities and something about the techniques of salesmanship that are employed. We also want to know something about the difficulties the American businessmen have encountered in consummating transactions involving these surplus commodities. What I have in mind is this. A new businessman, let us say, who has not done any business with Commodity Credit Corporation in the past, what are the procedural steps he must take, who is the person with whom he may confer, how may he obtain information that can be passed on to prospective foreign buyers or businessmen in foreign countries? Mr. SIMPSON. If the chairman will yield, do you not think it would be a good idea for the committee to know something about the certificates of essentiality? Mr. COOLEY. Yes, sir; where they are required and if so, under what circumstances. Mr. SIMPSON. In other words, is some concern anywhere in the United States obtaining a certificate of essentiality Mr. COOLEY. Essentiality and additionality. Mr. SIMPSON. It is over and above the normal requirement? Mr. COOLEY. That is right. Mr. SIMPSON. They should know whether or not some firm anywhere in the United States has gotten hold of one of these certificates and sold it at a profit in my opinion. Mr. COOLEY. There is some evidence before this committee, on former occasions, to the effect that when a businessman obtains a certificate of additionality he is then in a position to make tremendous profits by a little effort on his part. I do not know enough about the transactions to know how important the certificate of additionality is, how often it is issued, or under what circumstances. Mr. MILLER. If I might start out, Mr. Chairman, in general conversation, and if you will direct me in the avenue you want followed, we will develop the subject matter as we go along and proceed in that manner. First of all, I think you want us to talk about the activities of the General Sales Manager's Office, that being one of the primary methods used by Commodity Credit Corporation in disposing of its accumulated surpluses. We will also from our side of the House be able to discuss the barter program. That is another very important method we have used in disposing of agricultural surpluses. We have Mr. O'Leary, who will talk about the Public Law 480 aspects of our disposal program handled by Foreign Agriculture Service in close cooperation with our Commodity Stabilization Service activity. We have created the Office of General Sales Manager, I think under an act of Congress, some 2 years ago. Mr. RAEDER. At the direction of Congress 3 years ago. Mr. MILLER. Frank Daniels was appointed as General Sales Manager. He has the complete staff at his disposal, people who have had knowledge of merchandising in the Department in years gone by. He has as his immediate assistant Mr. John Dean and then he has various others, including Mr. Raeder. Mr. COOLEY. May I interrupt to ask you to give us the names of members of his staff and some information concerning their experience? Mr. MILLER. Yes, sir. Mr. COOLEY. The reason I ask that is that I have been told by people in the cotton trade that the Department of Agriculture did not have a single man experienced in cotton in the whole Department, that is, associated with these programs we are talking about. Please give us the names and a little biographical sketch as to each and it will be helpful. Mr. MILLER. We will be glad to supply that, Mr. Cooley. (The data referred to above is as follows:) STAFF MEMBERS OF THE OFFICE OF GENERAL SALES MANAGER Francis C. Daniels, General Sales Manager Mr. Daniels has had many years of experience in the field of merchandising agricultural commodities. He served 2 years as a consultant to the CSS Administrator in the development of special programs to sell CCC commodities. Appointed General Sales Manager July 1, 1955. Before entering Government service, Mr. Daniels was secretary and general manager of a large agricultural supply distributing organization. Before that, he spent several years in the sales departments of agricultural product manuufacturers, including a period as assistant sales manager for one of the largest feed manufacturing companies in the eastern part of the country. He also served as a director and chairman of the feed rules committee of the National Grain and Feed Dealers Association. Mr. Daniels was born in Marquette, Mich., and graduated from high school and college in that city. He served with the 85th Division of the Army during World War I. |