program.

During fiscal 1977, the Commission will continue

to carry out this program to promote competition and ensure that it is carried out in a fair, open and honest method that enables the consumer to help make it work with better informed buying decisions. To carry out its Congressional mandate, the Commission is requesting a total appropriation of $52,833,000 and 30 new positions for fiscal 1977.

Last, I should like to call the Committee's attention to two supplemental appropriation requests for fiscal 1976, and a budget amendment for fiscal 1977.

The first supplemental covers the Commission's fiscal 1976 pay raise. This request for a pay raise supplemental was granted in full by the Office of Management and Budget in recognition of the Commission's high priority programs. Congressional failure to approve the supplemental will severely curtail the Commission's enforcement activities during the remainder of fiscal 1976. The full House Appropriations Committee approved our pay supplemental intact on April 9, 1976. The Commission's new responsibilities under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 include promulgation of trade regulation rules providing for the attachment of energy efficiency labels to designated consumer products. Additionally, the Commission has monitoring and reporting responsibility to ensure that international voluntary agreements among petroleum companies to meet future possible embargos or boycotts do not violate the antitrust laws.

To carry out these responsibilities, we are requesting

a supplemental appropriation of 5 new positions and $130,000 for fiscal 1976, and $122,000 for the Transition Quarter. In addition, we are requesting a budget åmendment of $240,000 for fiscal 1977 to fund the new positions and carry out these mandated duties. We have provided the Committee with a detailed justification, and I would be glad to answer any questions on this subject.

HIGHLIGHTS OF STATEMENT

Mr. COLLIER. The Commission's basic mandate from Congress rests on the premise that restraints on free and fair competition deprive the consuming public of access to goods and services of optimum quality at minimum prices.

Implicit in our statutes is an entirely correct congressional determination that constraints on freedom generally produce waste, inefficiency, higher prices, and less choice for the consumer.

Where there are no mitigating social benefits, these constraints, whether public or private, rob consumers of the benefits of competition and should be eliminated. Accordingly, the Commission's activities are directed at removing obstacles to fair and honest competition from all sources-private and public.

A major emphasis of the FTC's maintaining competition mission during fiscal year 1977 will continue to be in the areas of food, energy, and health care. We currently plan that these programs will consume nearly 46 percent of the total resource request for the fiscal year 1977 budget for the Commission's antitrust activities.

In fiscal year 1977, pretrial activity in the Exxon, et al., litigation is expected to include discovery and analysis of millions of document pages. Most of the increase in funds to be allocated to the Exxon proceeding-some $3.5 million-is directly related to the personnel, travel, and support expenses associated with obtaining and analyzing this information.

In addition, work in the energy program includes preparing reports, mandated by the Congress, on significant energy industries. In the past year, three major staff energy reports have been published on: the Western States petroleum industry, Federal energy land policy, and mineral leasing on Indian lands.

Currently scheduled for publication during fiscal year 1976 are additional reports on the coal, nuclear, and solar energy industries, and on the competitive effects of the use of fuel adjustment clauses by utilities.

In fiscal year 1977, the Commission plans to increase the resources devoted to its inquiry into competition at the various states of food production and distribution. This last year, at the grower-producer level, the Commission staff issued a report regarding the CapperVolstead Act antitrust exemption for certain activities of agricultural cooperatives.

In food distribution the Commission plans to continue surveillance of the marketing practices of food wholesalers and distributors, including an analysis of the soybean and grain industries. The Commission is also continuing its investigation of the retail food sector.

We are planning to more than double resources devoted to our health care program in fiscal year 1977. This program is now concentrated on the three areas: drugs, hospital care, and physician services.

In fiscal year 1977, the Commission also plans to devote substantial resources to such law enforcement activities as scrutinizing mergers and horizontal and distributional restraints.

In addition, increased efforts are planned for identification and investigation of horizontal or price fixing restraints and other forms of collusion, including problems involving Government procurement.

To continue the Commission's antitrust activities and expand the mission into vital new areas, all 30 of the requested increase in positions are for our maintaining competition mission. The Commission's food, health care, and horizontal restraint programs in the Bureau of Competition will utilize 19 of the new positions.

In addition, seven new positions will be in the Bureau of Economics Economic Evidence Division, and four in the General Counsel's Office to support the Commission's antitrust enforcement investigations and litigation.

Of the $5.9 million increase in the Commission's maintaining competition mission, $2.5 million is due to uncontrollable expenses, for example, Federal pay raise, GSA rent, travel per diem, and the like. The remainder is almost all for support of the Commission's Exxon litigation.

CONSUMER PROTECTION MISSION

With respect to our consumer protection mission in fiscal year 1977, without increased personnel, we are planning increased efforts: to protect consumers by requiring fair and honest disclosure of information necessary to make an informed choice among competing products; to prevent unfair or deceptive trade practices; and, to provide redress to consumers who have been injured as a result of illegal Practices.

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act of 1974, significantly strengthened the Commission's hand in eliminating unfair or deceptive practices. During fiscal year 1976, the Commission redesigned a major part of its consumer protection mission to take advantage of the act's potential for more cost-effective law enforcement.

For example, the Commission has begun to place substantial reliance on trade regulation rulemaking and codification of prior law. As mandated by the Congress, the Commission has already proposed four warranty rules, three of which are final.

In addition, the Commission has plans to bring cases designed to restore the monetary loss suffered by consumers as a result of unfair or deceptive practices.

Lastly, the Commission has recently received responsibility for enforcing several new statutes such as the Fair Credit Billing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

Each of these laws requires a significant expenditure of Commission effort. Except for a supplemental and budget amendment that I will mention later, there is no increase in the number of permanent positions and work-years for the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES MISSION

The Commission's economic activities mission continues to have two principal thrusts. First, economic and financial data are collected and analyzed to publish reports on the performance of important sectors of the American economy.

Second, competitive conditions of selected industries are investigated and evaluated, and the analysis and conclusions are published in reports.