In a time of crisis, the Seventy-eighth Congress charged this committee with the responsibility of investigating and reporting the policies and practices relating to civilian employment in the Govern ment. FINDINGS Hearings before the committee developed the fact that there is no operating head, or manager, in the executive branch of the Govern ment. The Constitution places executive authority in the office of the President. For practical purposes, however, it must be admitted, that the President has no time to devote to the problem of management. The departments operate as distinct organizations, as do the agencies not attached to any department. If one department or agency develops good management policies, or finds practices that save personnel and money, there is no one to see that such practices or policies are adopted in other departments or agencies. The Civil Service Commission is not empowered to deal with management problems. The Budget Bureau has a management division. It makes studies and often recommends procedures, but it has no authority to require any department or agency to adopt its suggestions. The General Accounting Office has power to investigate. It has power to suspend payments for illegal procedures, but it has no power to require the adoption of better management. Only the President has the power needed to bring about better management and he has no time for such questions. RECOMMENDATIONS It appears to the committee that the power to require the adoption of better management practices should rest with some agency or official with definite responsibility to deal with this subject. Some feel that this power should be lodged with the Budget Bureau. Some suggest that the power be given to the General Accounting Office. Some believe that a new agency should be created for this purpose. The committee urges that legislation be considered dealing with this problem; that power be placed with some official or agency by which the departments and agencies in the executive branch can be coordinated and controlled as to their housekeeping and management problems. We believe that if this is done millions of dollars can be saved each year through the adoption of better working procedure, the use of modern office equipment, and the application of modern methods found to be helpful in private business. 78TH CONGRESS 2d Session } HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES { REPORT No. 2085 FURTHER AMENDING SECTION 6 OF THE CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENT ACT, APPROVED MAY 29, 1930, AS AMENDED DECEMBER 16, 1944.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. RAMSPECK, from the Committee on the Civil Service, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 1481] The Committee on the Civil Service, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1481) to amend further the Civil Service Retirement Act, approved May 29, 1930, as amended, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill as amended do pass. The amendments are as follows: Strike out everything after the enacting clause and insert the following: That section 6 of the Civil Service Retirement Act, of May 29, 1930, as amended, is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following paragraph: "Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the right of any person entitled to an annuity under this Act shall not be affected because such person has received an award of compensation in a lump sum under section 14 of the Act entitled 'An Act to provide compensation for employees of the United States suffering injuries while in the performance of their duties, and for other purposes', approved September 7, 1916, as amended, except that where such annuity is payable on account of the same disability for which compensation under such section of such Act of September 7, 1916, has been paid, so much of such compensation as has been paid for any period extended beyond the date such annuity becomes effective, as determined by the United States Employees' Compensation Commission, shall be refunded to the United States Employees' Compensation Commission, to be covered into the Employees' Compensation Fund. Before such person shall receive such annuity he shall (1) refund to such Commission the amount representing such commuted payments for such extended period, or (2) authorize the deduction of such amount from the annuity payable to him under this Act, which amount shall be transmitted to such Commission for reimbursement to such fund. Deductions from such annuity may be made from accrued and accruing payments, or may be prorated against and paid from accruing payments in such manner as the United States Employees' Compensation Commission shall determine, whenever it finds that the financial circumstances of the annuitant are such as to warrant such deferred refunding," GENERAL STATEMENT The purpose of this bill is to permit persons who have received lump-sum benefits under the Employees' Compensation Act of September 7, 1916, to receive annuities under the Civil Service Retirement Act. Existing law prohibits the receipt of employees' disability compensation and civil-service retirement annuity by the same person for the same period of time (sec. 7 of the Employees' Compensation Act of September 7, 1916, and sec. 6, Civil Service Retirement Act of May 29, 1930). The Comptroller General has held that a former civilian employee of the Government who received a lump-sum award of disability compensation on the basis of life expectancy under the terms of the Employees' Compensation Act is prohibited from receiving disability retirement annuity under the terms of the Civil Service Retirement Act (13 Comp. Gen. 260). An employee who has received a lump-sum settlement under the Employees' Compensation Act may reenter the Federal service and make regular contributions to the retirement fund, but existing law prevents him from becoming an annuitant either for age or disability. Under this bill the right of a person entitled to annuity would not be affected because such person had received a lump-sum award under the Employees' Compensation Act. This bill has the approval of the Civil Service Commission and the Employees' Compensation Commission. The House amendment provides that no repayment of any part of the settlement made with the Employees' Compensation Commission will be necessary unless cause of retirement results from the same disability for which compensation was paid. The committee feel that if retirement results from age or from 8 disability which has no connection with that for which compensation was paid, there is no reason why an employee should be required to make repayment. For the information of the House, a letter from the Civil Service Commission is printed below: Hon. ROBERT RAMSPECK, UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, Chairman, Committee on the Civil Service, DEAR MR. RAMSPECK: The Commission desires to invite attention to a matter which arises frequently in the administration of the civil-service retirement is and which this office feels warrants correction. Section 7 of the Employees' Compensation Act of September 7, 1916, and section 6, Civil Service Retirement Act of May 29, 1930, as amended, prohibit the receipt of employees' disability compensation and civil-service retirement annuity by the same person for the same period of time. The first-mentioned statute specifically states that "as long as the employee is in receipt of compensation under this act, or if he has been paid a lump sum in commutation of instal ment payments, until the expiration of the period during which such installment payments would have continued, he shall not receive from the United States say salary, pay, or remuneration whatsoever except in return for services actually performed, and except pensions for service in the Army or Navy of the United States." No such exception to this bar is made regarding retirement annuity. In his decision of April 4, 1934 (13 Comp. Gen. 260), the Comptroller General of the United States held: "A former civilian employee of the Government who received a lump-sum award of disability compensation on the basis of life expectancy under the terms of the Employees' Compensation Act is prohibited from receiving disability retirement annuity under the terms of the Civil Service Retirement Act." The Commission feels that this works a hardship and an injustice in cases of this nature and should be the subject of corrective legislation. An employee who has received a lump-sum settlement under the Employees' Compensation Act at one time may reenter the Federal service and during the continuance of his employment make the regular contributions to the retirement fund. However, he may not, under existing law, ever become an annuitant either for age or for disability unrelated to that on account of which he received a lump-sum payment under the Employees' Compensation Act. The Employees' Compensation Commission was contacted on this subject and expressed concurrence with the views of this Commission and joins in recommending_corrective legislation. A draft of a proposed amendment to the Civil Service Retirement Act which will accomplish the desired purpose, prepared jointly by this Commission and members of the legal staff of the Employees' Compensation Commission, is submitted herewith. Under this draft the right of a person entitled to annuity would not be affected because the person had received a lump-sum award under the Employees' Compensation Act, except where the annuity is payable on account of the same disability for which the lump-sum award of compensation was paid. Where the cause for retirement and the basis upon which an award of compensation for, disability (paid in a lump sum) are the same, the annuitant would be required to refund that part of the lump-sum award which represents the compensation he has received for any period extended beyond the date the annuity becomes effective. Such refund should be returned to the compensation fund from which the payment was derived. Under this proposal an annuitant may accomplish the refund in one of three ways: (1) By refunding the amount directly to the Commission (in which event his annuity would commence on the date retirement is effective), (2) by authorizing deduction of the amount of the refund from accrued and accruing annuity payments (thus postponing the date the person would receive annuity payments until the amount to be refunded has accrued and been paid to the Commission), or (3) by authorizing deduction of the amount to be refunded the Commission from the annuity on a pro rata basis, the deduction to be made against accrued and accruing payments of annuity in such manner as the Employees' Compensation Commission may determine. In a draft submitted by the Employees' Compensation Commission, the determination to be made in clause (3) above would be by the Civil Service Commission. However, inasmuch as the refund is to be made to the appropriation of the Employees' Compensation Commission and the indebtedness would be owed to that Commission, it is believed that it should make the determination of the manner in which the refund would be paid. The Commission, therefore, recommends that this proposal be enacted into law. The Bureau of the Budget advises that if the draft of bill is revised to eliminate the words "where such annuity is payable on account of the same disability for which compensation under such section of such act of September 7, 1916, has been paid," there would be no objection to the submission of the proposed legislation to the Congress for its consideration. With kind regards, I am Very sincerely yours, HARRY B. MITCHELL, President. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW In compliance with paragraph 2a of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes made by the bill, as introduced, in existing law are shown as follows (new matter proposed to be inserted is printed in italics): SECTION 6 OF THE CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENT ACT SEC. 6. Any employee to whom this Act applies who shall have served for a total period of not less than five years, and who, before becoming eligible for retirement under the conditions defined in the preceeding sections hereof, becomes totally disabled for useful and efficient service in the grade or class of position Occupied by the employee, by reason of disease or injury not due to vicious |