TOTAL COST OF PROGRAM

Senator KILGORE. What has that cost us in the last year of which you have a complete accounting? Take 1954 fiscal year.

Mr. ESTES. The total personal services and the supporting costs? I would have to provide that figure for you.

Senator KILGORE. Will you provide that, please?

Mr. ESTES. Yes, sir.

Senator KILGORE. That would be the last complete year.

Mr. ESTES. Yes, sir.

(The information referred to follows:)

In fiscal year 1954, the total personal services and supporting costs for economic reporting activities is calculated at $8,025,664.

ANALYSIS OF REPORTING PROBLEM

Mr. HENDERSON. Would it be proper for me to present at this time Assistant Secretary Smith of the Department of Commerce? Senator KILGORE. Yes.

Mr. HENDERSON. He is right here.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to appear here in support of the State Department's request.

I have no prepared statement to make, but in answer to your request, I should like to file for the record our analysis of this reporting problem, prepared at the suggestion of the committee last year. Senator KILGORE. That will be put in the record. (The information referred to follows:)

END-USE OF FOREIGN SERVICE REPORTS SUBMITTED ON BEHALF of the Bureau
OF FOREIGN COMMERCE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
(Prepared in the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, U. S. Department of Commerce,
February 10, 1955)

SUMMARY OF BFC REPORT ON END-USE OF FOREIGN SERVICE MATERIALS

A. Reports requested by BFC from the Foreign Service, fiscal year 1954: 1. Scheduled reports (basic and analytical) _ _

2. "Spot" or single-time requests___

Total___

B. BFC uses of Foreign Service reports:

1. Services to business:

(a) Foreign trade inquiries answered 1954.......
(b) Publications:

Foreign Commerce Weekly subscriptions..
November 1954.

3, 342

16, 312

19, 654

Press releases, 1954.

Other publications, 1954--

Total publications sold....

Total services to business.

343, 480

10, 666

575

43, 272

1 54, 513

397, 993

25, 025

7,097

430, 115

2. Export control operations: Consignee reports used in export control operations__

3. Policy determination and other Government uses: Position papers, studies, and reports furnished other agencies..

Total uses.

I These publications provide information to a wide range of users through secondary publication in newspapers, trade journals and other periodicals.

C. Steps taken to reduce BFC demands on the Foreign Service:

1. Advisory groups apprised on problems of Foreign Service and asked to curb their demands.

2. Individual inquiries from United States businessmen which cannot be answered with information at hand are passed to the Foreign Service only if the need is urgent or if the information requested has general value to the business community.

3. Repetitive reporting schedules drastically curtailed.

4. Trade list requests reduced from 2,000 to 750 per year.

5. Commercial intelligence reporting discontinued in Canada. 6. Voluntary World Trade Directory reporting curtailed.

7. Agency surveys virtually discontinued.

8. End-use checking reduced by imposition of stricter criteria.

9. Foreign publications substituted to a maximum extent.

10. United States inquiries answered by reference to foreign sources of information.

D. One cumulative effect of the cutback of basic reporting has been that United States businessmen are writing in increasing numbers directly to the Foreign Service, as indicated by the following statistics:

END-USE OF FOREIGN SERVICE REPORTS SUBMITTED ON BEHALF OF THE BUREAU OF FOREIGN COMMERCE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

1. Purpose of this report

This study has been made in response to the request of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations that—

"the Bureau make an intensive study of all phases of these reports, particularly their end-use. Every effort must be made to reduce the current volume of reporting imposed on the State Department without reimbursement." 2

These findings are being made available to the Senate committee for its use.

2. Statistical summary of end-use

As will be apparent from a review of the following sections, any one report submitted by the Foreign Service may eventually be made available to the entire foreign trade community by publication, used to answer specific inquiries, used in export-control operations, or may figure in policy determination. A statistical summary therefore does not provide a complete picture of the ultimate end-use of the materials submitted by the Foreign Service, since an indeterminate number of users are reached through publication. A purely statistical presentation also tends to obscure the relative importance of certain reports, such as those used in policy determination, although the following will serve to illustrate the application of Foreign Service reports to kinds of operations or problems. Unless otherwise specified, these cover the calendar year 1954.

3. Publications

Another important-if not the most important-end-use of materials submitted by the Foreign Service to the BFC is its publication and dissemination to the business community. The following statistics will serve to demonstrate this end-use:

1. Foreign Commerce Weekly (appendix 1).—This magazine provides spot-news coverage on current economic and commercial developments abroad (see list of regular included sections below). FCW averages 80 pages per month, or approximately 1,040 pages annually. The following is a breakdown of news items by general subjects:

2 Senate report of the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce appropriation bill, 1955, p. 19.