Mr. STEFAN. This committee has been criticized, Mr. Chandler, regarding your office, and if all your activities for which this committee. is appropriating money are authorized by law, then perhaps some of the criticisms directed toward this committee are not justified. I have been approached by numerous Members of the House who are wondering why the Coordinator's Office-they do not call it the Coordinator's Office any more; we used to call it the Coordinator's Office, but now it is the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, and you are the Director of the Administrative Office which we originally knew as the Coordinator's Office has increased. It was assumed we had to have a coordinator or administrator to help the courts catch up on the dockets. The courts were away back on their dockets, and it was thought that perhaps in some way you could help them catch up on their dockets, and it was though perhaps your office would be a modest office with perhaps 50 employees to help bring up the courts with their dockets. Now we find you have an office with 108 people and your appropriations are away up high. What has caused the increase in your work? Is it laws that we passed, recommended by the House Committee on the Judiciary, or what? Mr. CHANDLER. Absolutely. Mr. STEFAN. Suppose you put in the record at this point a list of the laws passed by Congress which have resulted in an increase in your work necessitating these appropriations. Mr. CHANDLER. Surely. (The information is as follows:) A number of laws have been passed since the Administrative Office was inaugurated on December 1, 1939, which have added to the volume of work. The laws which have made the major additions are the following: (1) The amendment of the Civil Service Retirement Act approved January 24, 1942 (56 Stat. 13) and particularly section 3 of the Retirement Act, as amended, (p. 15) which brought all the officers and employees of the Federal judiciary, except the judges, under the Retirement Act, whereas participation in the provisions of the act by the personnel of the judiciary had previously been voluntary. (2) The laws providing for the withholding of the major portion of the Federal income taxes upon the official personnel of the Federal judiciary and the payment of the proceeds into the Treasury by the Administrative Office. The first provision of this nature contained in part II of the Revenue Act of 1942 (56 Stat. 887, 892) applied to the so-called victory tax. The withholding procedure was extended to the entire salary above deductions by the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943, approved June 9, 1943 (secs. 1621-1627 of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended, pp. 126-138) and that policy has prevailed ever since. (3) A law providing for official court reporters for the Federal courts to be compensated in part by salary and in part by fees for transcript furnished litigants, their salaries to be paid out of an appropriation to the courts, approved January 20, 1944 (58 Stat. 5). (4) A law providing for the appointment of criers upon a salary and payment out of an appropriation to the courts, approved December 7, 1944 (58 Stat. 796). (5) A law changing the method of compensation of referees in bankruptcy from fees to salaries and providing for the payment of their salaries and expenses out of charges to be paid by the parties to bankruptcy proceedings, with advances to be made from the Treasury to the extent necessary and subsequently reimbursed from the proceeds of charges to the parties, the system to be administered by the Administrative Office, approved June 28, 1946 (60 Stat. 323). (6) Acts providing for payment of the fees of United States commissioners upon the audit of the Administrative Office, subject to the final audit of the General Accounting Office instead of only after the final audit as previously, approved July 10, 1946 (60 Stat. 526), and also for the furnishing of forms, dockets, and seals to commissioners by the Administrative Office, approved July 10, 1946 (60 Stat. 525). Although one of the principal reasons for the creation of the Administrative Office in 1939 shown in the hearings before the judiciary committees on the bill, was to furnish to the courts and the public reliable and complete information in regard to the volume of work of the courts and promote the prompt dispatch of the judicial business, this was by no means the only purpose provided for in the basic act (53 Stat. 1223 et seq., 28 U. S. C. 444-450). This places in the Director of the Administrative Office, in addition to securing and reporting information about the state of the dockets, responsibility for "all administrative matters relating to the offices of the clerks and other clerical and administrative personnel of the courts, the disbursement directly and through the several United States marshals * *,* of the moneys appropriated for * the courts, the purchase, exchange, transfer, and distribution of equipment and supplies, the examination and audit of vouchers and accounts of court officials and employees, the providing of accommodations for the use of the courts" and various of their officials and employees, and "such other matters as may be assigned to him by the Supreme Court and the Conference of the Senior Circuit Judges." Under the general provisions above cited, the general oversight of the Federal probation offices was undertaken by the Administrative Office by direction of the Judicial Conference of Senior Circuit Judges on July 1, 1940, acting through a Division of Probation which was then established. Subsequently in 1942, pursuant to a recommendation of the Attorney General's Committee on Bankruptcy Administration approved by the Judicial Conference of Senior Circuit Judges, a Bankruptcy Division was added. as To perform adequately these various duties, it was necessary to organize as rapidly as possible consistent with due care in the selection of personnel. a staff which, within 2 years, numbered approximately 100 persons. The first annual report of the Director issued in September 1940, approximately 10 months after the inauguration of the Office, showed that the staff had then been built up to 77 persons. The number of positions for the Office then classified by the Civil Service Commission was 92, and the increase of the persons in service to that number only awaited their selection. The number of members of the staff shown by the annual reports issued in the early fall in each of the succeeding calendar years to and including the present year 1947, was follows: 1941, 96; 1942, 104; 1943, 111; 1944, 100; 1945, 97; 1946, 109; 1947, 106. It thus appears that the present staff is not substantially larger than it was as soon as organization was completed to perform the duties cast upon the Office by the original act of 1939. Since that time the work resulting from the statutes above listed has been added and it is very substantial. To give a few instances: whereas as long as participation of the judicial personnel in the civil-service retirement system was voluntary, a comparatively small proportion elected to come under it, the number at present whose business in relation to the retirement system is being managed by the Administrative Office is 2,950. The number of persons from whom income taxes are being withheld and paid into the Treasury by the Administrative Office is 3.600, and the aggregate of the sums annually withheld is approximately $1,960,000. The law for official court reporters brought to the Administrative Office the management of the business of approximately 200 reporters and an appropriation of over $800,000 annually. The new law for compensation of referees calls for supervision by the Administrative Office of the payment of the salaries and expenses of the referees and procurement of their facilities, supplies and equipment. The personnel of the referees' offices, including referees and their clerks, numbers nearly 350, and their total anual budget, paid initially from two sources, in part from the Treasury subject to reimbursement, and in part from the special fund derived from payments by the litigants, exceeds $1,500,000 annually. Much work has been added to the Administrative Office by the requirement to provide forms and dockets for the numerous United States commissioners, in excess of 600. All of these changes have been considered by the Judicial Conference of Senior Circuit Judges in recommending them and by the Congress in enacting the laws to be in the public interest. They have met general commendation and are almost universally regarded as improvements. But it stands to reason that these added services call for some addition to the staff of the Administrative Office. Proper efficiency cannot be maintained without it. The additions requested are specified and the reasons shown in detail in the justifications in corporated in the record, supra. They are believed to be the minimum necessary to handle the work as it is today properly. Mr. CHANDLER. It may be said I was thought of as the Coordinator, but, if you, will look at the Administrative Office Act which was passed in 1939, it provides that the Director shall have charge, under the supervision and direction of the Judicial Conference, of all fiscal and business affairs of the courts and he shall succeed to the various functions of the Attorney General in reference to the business management. There has not been a single instance in which I have sought a statute enlarging my authority. The movement for the referee salary system, which has added greatly to the work of the Office, was not initiated by me; that was initiated by a report of the Attorney General. The creation of the system of official court reporters came from a recommendation of the Judicial Conference, which is an agency which the Congress has created. Mr. STEFAN. I want to say this, that over a period of years I have been going over the country and visiting the Federal courts, the Department of Justice, and other departments for which this subcommittee makes appropriations, and the Federal judges to whom I have talked have great admiration for the grand work your Office has been doing in helping them not only to catch up with their dockets, but in many other things. Mr. CHANDLER. I appreciate that. Mr. STEFAN. And I have heard no word derogatory of your Office. Mr. CHANDLER. If I am ever lacking in the virtue of modesty, I hope I shall be reprimanded; because I think, if there is anything this country needs at the present time, it is a sense of humility and willingness to do the best one can with what he has. And when I come before this committee and ask for appropriations, I know the committee understands it is not from any desire on my part to enlarge the Office over which I preside, but it is from a sincere desire to have the work done as it should be done. I really think, in view of all the functions that have been added in recent years and the fact that the personnel has stayed virtually stationary from a period of about 2 years after the Office was created, it is evident that there is no reaching out for power. You will realize it took a number of months to organize the Office and organize it effectively. If there is any one principle I have followed in my Office, it is to try to get the best men I could to put in charge of the various divisions of the Office. I took time to do it. So it is quite true, if you ask how many men the Office had within a few months after the Office was created, it was many less than it is now; but we built up to approximately 100 as soon as we could, because the work called for that number, and the work now calls for some additions. Mr. STEFAN. I am sincere in telling you what I have heretofore said. Mr. CHANDLER. I know. Mr. STEFAN. Because I have visited the courts all the way from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast and throughout the Middle West, and uniformly I have been told by the judges of the courts of the great service you are rendering. This committee is always jealous to maintain the dignity, honor, and respect that the Federal courts are entitled to, and, while we always endeavor to economize, we want an effective court system in the United States. Mr. CHANDLER. I appreciate that. Mr. STEFAN. This committee will stand adjourned until next January. This concludes the hearings on the appropriations for the Department of Justice and the Federal Judiciary for the fiscal year 1949. When we come back here in January we will take up the appropriations for the Department of Commerce. Meantime, I want to wish each of you, the members of the committee and the witnesses here today, a very merry Christmas and, I hope to the Almighty, a very happy and peaceful New Year. Mr. CHANDLER. Thank you. And may I say this, Mr. Chairman: I want to express my appreciation for the courtesy of the committee. I really should be very happy, if the exigencies of public life permitted, as I know they do not permit, if we could have a more extension discussion of our problems. I know it would be greatly to our common interest. But I do thank you for your courtesy and extend to you my best wishes for the New Year. District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia: S Supreme Court of the United States. Buildings and grounds, care of- Air conditioning on the ground floor- General repairs, paintings, snow removal, etc.. 25 29, 32 25 |