DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND THE JUDICIARY AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1977 TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1976 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 2:10 p.m., in room S-126, the Capitol, Hon. John O. Pastore (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Pastore and Hruska. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION STATEMENT OF CALVIN J. COLLIER, CHAIRMAN ACCOMPANIED BY: R. T. MCNAMAR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ROBERT J. LEWIS, GENERAL COUNSEL DR. F. M. SCHERER, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF ECONOMICS JAMES M. FOLSOM, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF ECONOMICS OWEN M. JOHNSON, Jr., DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF COMPETITION OPENING REMARKS OF SENATOR PASTORE Senator PASTORE. The subcommittee will come to order. The principal witness today is Mr. Calvin J. Collier, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. This is Mr. Collier's first appearance before this subcommittee. So far for fiscal year 1976 the Congress has appropriated $45,927,000 for the Federal Trade Commission. The Commission also has pending before the subcommittee two further 1976 supplemental requests in the amount of $1,294,000 for increased pay raise costs and activities mandated by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. This brings the total anticipated funding for fiscal year 1976 to $47,221,000. For fiscal year 1977, the Commission is requesting a revised budget estimate of $53,073,000. The year-to-year increase of $5,852,000 consists of two items. The first is a program increase of 30 positions and $3,466,000 to provide a more vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws. The remaining amount of the increase, $2,386,000, is required to meet certain mandatory cost increases associated with such items as Federal employee life insurance premiums, employee health benefits, per diem travel rates and increases in GSA space rentals. We are pleased to have you with us, Mr. Collier. You have a written statement. You may make it at this time. PREPARED STATEMENT Mr. COLLIER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we are pleased to appear before you this afternoon to present the Federal Trade Commission's appropriation request for the fiscal year 1977. My prepared statement has been provided to the committee, and while I would like it to be a part of the record, I am prepared to present an oral statement which touches upon the highlights. Senator PASTORE. Without objection, it is so ordered. [The statement follows:] Calvin J. Collier was sworn in as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission on March 24, 1976. The Senate approved President Ford's nomination of Mr. Collier to the Commission on March 18, 1976, for a seven-year term ending September 25, 1982. Mr. Collier was General Counsel and later Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget from April, 1975, until he was named to the Federal Trade Commission. He was the FTC's General Counsel from July, 1973, to April, 1975. From 1969 until 1973, Mr. Collier served successively in various positions in the Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Collier was associated with the Chicago law firm of Kirkland & Ellis in 1968-69 and was a law clerk for Judge Harold Leventhal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1967-68. He received an A.B. degree from Grinnell College in 1964 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was graduated (with distinction) from the Duke University School of Law in 1967 with an LL.B. degree. His law school honors included Order of the Coif and article editor of the Duke Law Journal. Mr. Collier is married to the former Mary Evans. The Colliers have three children and live in McLean, Va. Mr. Chairman, Committee members, we are pleased to appear before you this afternoon to present the Federal Trade Commission's appropriation request for the fiscal year 1977. As you know, the Commission's activities are broadly described in five missions: Maintaining Competition, Consumer Protection, Economic Activities, Executive Direction and Within Policy Planning, and Administration and Management. each of these broad missions, the Commission has a number of specific programmatic efforts. As you recall, beginning last year the Commission structured its appropriation request by identifying the individual programs within each mission to facilitate Congressional, as well as Commission, review and evaluation. To date, the Commission's experience in using this programmatic method indicates that it provides a framework by which the Commission can make better resource allocation decisions and measure substantive progress against expenditures both at the end of the year, and during the year, with a formal review of each program. We hope that our programmatic budget will give the Congress a comprehensive and orderly presentation that will help it analyze our activities and appropriate resources. To that end, in this opening statement we shall outline the Commission's overall activities on a mission-by-mission basis, and leave to the Subcommittee the opportunity to ask questions about specific programs or other matters. A detailed breakdown of the Commission's FY 1977 proposals has been provided to the Subcommittee as part of the Commission's Congressional Program Budget Justification. FISCAL 1977 COMMISSION INITIATIVES Before reviewing each individual mission, let me turn to the Commission's overall emphasis for fiscal 1977, and attempt to provide the framework or background for our missions, and individual efforts. Our Congressional mandate is based 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. While the Commission will continue its enforcement of the antitrust and consumer protection laws in the private sector, we have become increasingly aware that anticompetitive market interference can also be caused by actions at all levels of government. We believe that actions which constrain economic freedom, whether of private or public origin, have similar economic effects: waste, inefficiency, and ultimately higher costs to the consumer. Hence, where there are no mitigating benefits from a public policy standpoint, public constraints that deprive consumers of the benefits of competition are just as insidious as private actions. Accordingly, the Commission plans to continue its efforts devoted to removing the threats to fair and honest competition from all sources, whether public or private. |