TREASURY-POST OFFICE DEPARTMENTS APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1957 HEARINGS BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS EIGHTY-FOURTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SUBCOMMITTEE ON TREASURY-POST OFFICE DEPARTMENTS J. VAUGHAN GARY, Virginia, Chairman GORDON CANFIELD, New Jersey OTTO E. PASSMAN, Louisiana BENJAMIN F. JAMES, Pennsylvania ROBERT L. MICHAELS, Staff Assistant to the Subcommittee DOCUMENTS COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS CLARENCE CANNON, Missouri, Chairman GEORGE H, MAHON, Texas ANTONIO M. FERNANDEZ, New Mexico OTTO E. PASSMAN, Louisiana LOUIS C. RABAUT, Michigan SIDNEY R. YATES, Illinois JOHN TABER, New York RICHARD B. WIGGLESWORTH, Massachusetts H. CARL ANDERSEN, Minnesota IVOR D. FENTON, Pennsylvania JOHN PHILLIPS, California ERRETT P. SCRIVNER, Kansas FREDERIC R. COUDERT, JR., New York EARL WILSON, Indiana GLENN R. DAVIS, Wisconsin BENJAMIN F. JAMES, Pennsylvania GERALD R. FORD, JR., Michigan EDWARD T. MILLER, Maryland HON. GEORGE M. HUMPHREY, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY W. RANDOLPH BURGESS, UNDER SECRETARY H. CHAPMAN ROSE, UNDER SECRETARY DAVID W. KENDALL, ASSISTANT SECRETARY LAURENCE B. ROBBINS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRED G. SCRIBNER, JR., GENERAL COUNSEL WILLIAM T. HEFFELFINGER, FISCAL ASSISTANT SECRETARY WILLIAM W. PARSONS, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT SECRETARY Mr. GARY. The committee will come to order. We will take up this morning the request of the Treasury Department. The appropriation for this Department for 1956 was $609,611,000. The appropriation for 1956, including proposed pay supplement, is $634,600,000. The estimate for 1957 is $648,507,000, an increase over the total appropriation for 1956 of $13,907,000. We are pleased to have with us this morning Secretary of the Treasury Humphrey, and we shall be very glad to hear from you at this time, Mr. Secretary. STATEMENT OF SECRETARY HUMPHREY Secretary HUMPHREY. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we are very glad to come back to this committee, it is so attentive to our affairs and is so helpful always in working out the necessary things we have to have to carry on and render the proper services to the Government. It is a real pleasure for us to have such a committee and our feeling is always one of the very greatest cooperation with the members of this committee. I hear other people talk of their committees, and I am always delighted that we have this committee. I think we get along very well indeed in a very helpful and cooperative spirit always. Mr. GARY. So far as I know this committee has never had any politics in it. We realize the Treasury is a very important arm of the Government and all we have ever tried to do is to see that it is operated efficiently and economically. Frankly, I must say I think the (1) 227 Treasury Department is one of the most economically operated departments, if not the most economically operated Department, in the entire Government. Secretary HUMPHREY. We appreciate your attitude about it and I am sure you realize that we present everything we know and the reasons for it and that we are doing our best to operate in as economical a way as we can and still serve the best interests of the Government. I have a prepared statement which I shall be glad to read if agreeable to you. Mr. GARY. Yes, you may proceed. Secretary HUMPHREY. Mr. Chairman and members of the Treasury Subcommittee on Appropriations, I am glad to have this opportunity to discuss with you the Treasury's appropriation requirements for the fiscal year 1957. It is the purpose of this committee and the Treasury alike to see to it that the public services required of the Department are provided with full adequacy at minimum cost. Our country is witnessing a period of phenomenal growth-growth in population, growth in the activity of established human enterprises of almost every sort, growth in the development of new enterprises, growth in confidence in our capabilities, growth in the material resources which nature and science make available to us. This growth is reflected in greater prosperity. It also is reflected in heavier demands on those many Government activities which play important parts in our day-to-day life. The best evidence that effective emphasis has been placed on economy of operation of the Government in the last 3 years is in the record of budgetary results. In these 3 years costs of the Government have been reduced more than $10 billion, and we now estimate that the budget will be in balance during the present and next fiscal year. Our progress toward getting the Government's financial affairs in order has reduced the danger of inflation, stopped upward flights in the cost of living, and fortified public confidence in the soundness of our currency. These gains require safeguarding. One important safeguard is to continue our common search for possible economies and for more efficient operating methods. This search is imperative, in view of the steady increases in the workloads of most if not all of our operating agencies. The search continues in the Treasury Department on an organized basis through our management improvement program, which we have discussed on previous occasions. Widespread interest of Treasury personnel in this program is indicated by the fact that during the fiscal year 1955 we received 4,600 specific employee suggestions for better ways of doing things, for many of which cash awards were paid. An example of advances in operating efficiency is the reduction by the Bureau of Customs by better than 60 percent of the big backlog of unliquidated entries that it had 3 years ago. This was accomplished despite an increase in current entries. Another example is a program which we have worked out with the General Accounting Office and the Bureau of the Budget for the use of electronic equipment in processing the payment of Government checks and reconciling them after payment. This new equipment when fully effective will save the Government approximately $134 million annually, and will bring possibly $500,000 additional a year into the Treasury from the Federal Reserve System as a result of decreased Federal Reserve costs on checks. The details of many more improvements will be given in the forthcoming annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury for the fiscal year 1955. APPROPRIATIONS, 1956 AND ESTIMATES, 1957 I would now like, with your permission, to insert in the record a summary table showing our estimated requirements for the fiscal year 1957, compared with appropriations for the fiscal year 1956 and then ask Under Secretary Burgess to present our discussion of the needs of the individual bureaus and offices. While Mr. Burgess will give you more details on these subjects, I should like to mention my strong endorsement of the continuance for fiscal 1957 of the Assistant Secretary designated to carry out the RFC liquidation and other work of the Office of Production and Defense Lending, and other important responsibilities assigned to him. The table is page 3 of the statement which appears before you. (The table referred to is as follows:) |