In the case of probation officers, not only in the year 1955 have we had to struggle with this problem of an insufficient number of officers, but even the officers that we have had, for about 6 months of the year until the economies began to take effect and we were able to relax the restrictions in the last months, were absolutely unable to make the travel reasonably necessary to conduct presentence investigations and supervision. SITUATION ON PRINTING ALLOTMENT As far as office machines and law books are concerned, we have had to take a very Spartan attitude, and we are not able to meet requests, for law books which a lawyer would expect to have either in the way of new books or of continuations. Here is one illustration. The manual for jurors, which was issued more than 10 years ago as a result of a study of a committee of judges and finally approved by the Judicial Conference, has recently been revised. The work was completed under a committee of which Judge Harry Watkins of your State, Mr. Chairman, of West Virginia, is the chairman. We are absolutely unable with the funds that are provided, to print it during this fiscal year, and we have to hold it until we get. the new appropriation. Now, we are asking for an increase of $113,000, approximately 5 percent of the amount allowed by the House. If it is not granted, there will be an impoverishment of the impersonal facilities and facilities for travel which we can provide for the courts and it will tell against their efficiency. EXPENSES OF REFEREES, UNITED STATES COURTS AMOUNT REQUESTED RESTORED The last matter is an increase which we ask of $100,000 in the appropriation for expenses of referees in bankruptcy; that is, expenses as distinguished from salaries of the referees. Their salaries are provided for out of another appropriation. Senator KILGORE. Your amendment requests $100,000 to be restored to the House bill to provide the full budget estimate of $1,750,500. This sum represents $65,000 for the 23 positions cut out by the House and $35,000 for office expenses and equipment. Actually, this money really comes out of fees and service charges in the bankruptcy proceedings. Mr. CHANDLER. That is right. Senator KILGORE. The appropriation summary statement will be placed in the record at this point. I wonder if you could also file for the record a report covering fiscal 1954, which is the last complete fiscal year, of the receipts from the bankruptcy fees and the cost of operating the referees' office. Mr. CHANDLER. Mr. Covey, Chief of the Bankruptcy Division of the Administrative Office, has just handed me a complete statement of the receipts and disbursements in the funds from the beginning and continuing, of course, down to the latest time. I also have a statement showing a comparison of the bankruptcy cases filed, terminated, and pending during the fiscal years 1954 and 1955. Senator KILGORE. We will place them in the record. (The document referred to follows:) EXPENSES OF REFEREES, UNITED STATES COURTS Statement relating appropriation estimate to current appropriation The referees' expense fund is composed of payments by parties to bankruptcy litigation for the services of the referees' offices. These payments are covered into this special fund in the United States Treasury under the provisions of the Referees' Salary Act. However, before this fund can be used to pay expenses of referees' offices the statute (11 U. S. C. 68 (c) (4)) requires that annual appropriations therefrom be made by the Congress. GENERAL JUSTIFICATION These offices are self-supporting. No appropriation from the general funds of the Treasury is required for the expenses of the referees' offices. It is requested that an appropriation of $1,750,500 for referees' expenses for the fiscal year 1956 be made available out of the referees' expense fund which is composed entirely of filing fees and special charges paid by the parties to bankruptcy proceedings. The following items of increase are included in the estimate for 1956: Additional full-time personnel. Cost of within-grade promotions. Reclassifications.. Total increase for personal services.. Travel___ Transportation of things. $176, 700 15, 000 12, 000 203, 700 5,000 550 7,000 35, 000 10, 000 2,500 7,000 10, 000 26, 000 200 103, 250 Total expense items.. Total increase for 1956. 306, 950 1948. 1949. 1950. 1951. 1952. 1953. 1954. Receipts and disbursements from July 1, 1947, through Mar. 31, 1955 REFEREES' SALARY FUND 1955 (1st 9 months). 1 Deficit. Fiscal years 2 Total surplus, Mar. 31, 1955, $2,588,380. The two funds have a total surplus of $4,205,2031 as of March 31, 1955. Bankruptcy cases filed, terminated, and pending during the fiscal years 1954 and 1955 Present estimate of cases to be filed during the fiscal year 1956. 65, 300 1 62, 500 1 59, 487 1 Estimate is based on the assumption that the full amount requested in the 1956 budget estimate is granted. BASIS OF ESTIMATE ON BANKRUPTCY CASES Mr. CHANDLER. I might say that it is estimated that the special fund in the first half of this fiscal year 1955 has had a surplus of $165,000. If that is carried out, it indicates a surplus of over $300,000 in the year. Senator SALTONSTALL. Why do you estimate that there will be an increase of 10,000 cases in bankruptcy in 1956 or the highest number in the history of the country? That is the basis of the House report, as I understand it. Mr. CHANDLER. There is another basis of our estimate, but I will answer your question, Senator Saltonstall. There was a very large 1 Subject to audit and adjustment. increase in the number of bankruptcy cases filed in most of the months of the first half of the present fiscal year. The number of bankruptcy cases that is presently being filed is not showing so great an increase over the number the previous year, and it seems to me not likely that the number of cases will rise so high as it appeared that it would when the estimate was made last fall or even when the hearing was had before the House committee in the first part of February. Senator SALTONSTALL. So that if the cases are not up to the extent estimated then, you do not need all of this $100,000. Mr. CHANDLER. Yes, Senator, we do, for a reason that I think is good. In the first place, the number of cases this year filed will be close to 60,000, even if the increase is not so great as it appeared in the fall, on the basis of the number filed in the early months. The number of cases in 1954 was 53,136. The number this year is going to be higher. Aside from that there is a cogent reason for meeting the request for funds for expenses of referees in full. The backlog of pending bankruptcy cases has been steadily going up in recent years. The number on July 1, 1954, was 48,428. On December 31, it had risen to 53,169, and on March 31, the number was 57,487, a higher number than at any previous time in the history of the Administrative Office. Senator ELLENDER. That is because of a greater number of cases. being filed? Mr. CHANDLER. That is because of the accumulation of a greater number. Senator ELLENDER. Was that accumulation caused by virtue of the fact that we have more cases concerned? Mr. CHANDLER. Exactly. Now, the production of the referees is not falling off. They are terminating more cases, but they are not able, with the present clerical force, to close cases with the dispatch that is desirable. This committee knows that it is very desirable that cases be closed as expeditiously as the conditions will permit, because if they are not closed, the proportion of the assets which goes for costs of administration rises and the proportion which is available for distribution to creditors declines. The whole case, Senator Saltonstall, if I may come back to it, for this increase is this: That the parties to bankruptcy proceedings, not the taxpayers, are paying money into a fund which is ample for what is asked in the way of provision for the referees and more. It is our judgment we can only give you our judgment-that because the closing of cases involves a very considerable amount of detailed clerical work, if the referees can be given more in the way of office staff, the present referees can handle the situation. But they are calling on us for clerks and we cannot give them. I do submit, in all earnestness, that inasmuch as the parties to bankruptcy cases are paying for prompt service, and it can be given without any drain on the General Treasury, the Government really owes it to them to provide the service. SUMMARY OF REQUEST Senator SALTONSTALL. May I ask the same question I asked before, which I think boiled down this whole problem of the judiciary as it is on this chart here. You are requesting the 64 new positions eliminated by the House to help the additional judges that we put on last year. Does that boil it down? Mr. BROWN. That is not quite the story, Senator. Senator SALTONSTALL. Except for the item of travel and miscellaneous expenses about which the judge has just talked. Mr. BROWN. That part is true. We are requesting you to restore $113,000 in that appropriation and of course no personnel costs are involved. Senator SALTONSTALL. But out of the $676,465 reduction, 64 new positions were eliminated over and above what the House gave you. Mr. BROWN. That is correct Senator, however, we are conceding $84,705 representing the salaries of 9 positions, 3 in the Court of Customs, and Patent Appeals and 6 in the item for "Supporting personnel". There was a difference of 64 positions and we are conceding 9 of those, making a net increase of $196,760 in salary costs for 55 positions, 30 deputy clerks at $102,413, 23 probation officers and clerical assistants at $86,975, and 2 miscellaneous employees at $7,372. Senator SALTONSTALL. With the fees of the jurors which is really an indefinite thing anyhow, and the travel and miscellaneous on which we have to judge, you can not tell. Then, as I say, there are these 23 additional clerks in bankruptcy. Mr. BROWN. That is correct. Mr. CHANDLER. Mr. Chairman, may I just say this word before I go, and it certainly will be my last word today. I endorse completely the appeal of Judge Laws as does the Judicial Conference. Nevertheless, I am, as is the Judicial Conference, a trustee in the matter of service for all of the courts throughout the country, the courts that, because of their geographical situation, cannot come here and be heard directly. For the opportunity of those courts to give the service that they want to give, and that they can give if they are properly supported, I would most earnestly ask for the increases in the appropriations as made by the House, which are set forth in my letter, and about which you have been good enough to hear us this morning. I think the efficiency of the courts is directly involved in the answer that is given to this question. Thank you. Senator KILGORE. Judge, do you have anything to say? Judge MARIS. No. I could say in just a word that I happen to be a member of the committee on supporting personnel of the courts of the Judicial Conference of which Judge Biggs is chairman, and I can endorse what Judge Laws said. We listened to him over a period of 4 years. We studied very thoroughly his request in the District of Columbia, and last year we recommended in conference, and I sat in the conference, that year, and the conference approved his request as presented here. I want to say one thing further, commenting on Senator Saltonstall's suggestion that all of this is as a result of the newly appointed judges. I don't think it is all as a result of that. It is in part as a result of that. Certainly the District of Columbia situation is an accumulation of the failure to give assistance over the years it was needed. |