U.S. Congress.

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

House' COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

EIGHTIETH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON THE

CARD DIVISION

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR-FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY
APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1949

8

20

48

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

48-046883

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

JOHN TABER, New York, Chairman

RICHARD B. WIGGLESWORTH, Massachusetts CLARENCE CANNON, Missouri

HV8$ A5 1979 a

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101

INVESTIGATION OF THE FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY 68

HEARINGS CONDUCTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN CHARGE OF THE LABOR DEPARTMENT-FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY APPROPRIATION BILL FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1949

WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1948.

CONSOLIDATION AND OPERATION OF INFORMATION AND PUBLICATION ACTIVITIES

STATEMENT OF J. DONALD KINGSLEY, ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY

Mr. KEEFE. The committee has been called pursuant to the authority contained in House Resolution 50, which provides—

* * *

That the Committee on Appropriations, acting as a whole or by subcommittee or subcommittees thereof appointed by the chairman of such committee for the purposes of this resolution, is authorized to conduct such studies and examination of the organization and operation of any executive department or any other executive agency (including any agency the majority of the stock of which is owned by the Government of the United States) as the committee may deem necessary to assist it in connection with the determination of matters within its jurisdiction.

For the purposes of this resolution, such committee or any subcommittee thereof is hereby authorized to sit and act during the present Congress at such times and places within the United States, whether the House is in session, has recessed, or has adjourned, to hold such hearings, to require the attendance of such witnesses, and the production of such books or papers or documents or vouchers by subpena or otherwise, and to take such testimony and records as it deems necessary. * * * The chairman of the committee or subcommittee, or any member thereof, may administer oaths to witnesses.

The committee, as I have indicated, has been called pursuant to this authority for the purpose of examining into some of the activities of the Federal Security Agency in relation to the expenditure of appropriated funds and such dispositions of appropriated funds as have been made pursuant to the internal management and reorganization that has not been specifically called to the attention of the subcommittee, and for the purpose of investigating, under its powers of investigation, some of the allegations that have received wide publicity growing out of the letter from the former Commissioner of the Office of Education to the Federal Security Administrator, and the communication from the former Deputy Commissioner of Education to the Federal Security Administrator at the time of his resignation. The committee has determined, in connection with this investigation, that the testimony shall be taken under oath and that the testimony thus received shall not be subject to rewrite or correction.

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The committee has directed the clerk to ask the Acting Administrator of the Federal Security Agency, Mr. Kingsley, to appear before it this afternoon and has also requested the appearance of Mr. Leo Miller and a Mrs. Franklin, who the committee is advised is in charge of the consolidated Bureau of Publications and Information in the Administrator's office.

In response to that request, Mr. Kingsley, who is Acting Administrator in the absence of Mr. Ewing, whom the committee understands is on vacation and leave, is before the committee.

Before proceeding, Mr. Kingsley, I would like to ask that you stand and be sworn.

(Mr. Kingsley was sworn by Mr. Keefe.)

Mr. KEEFE. Mr. Kingsley, you are the Acting Administrator of the Federal Security Agency?

Mr. KINGSLEY. I am.

Mr. KEEFE. Your official position is what?

Mr. KINGSLEY. Assistant Administrator.

Mr. KEEFE. Mr. Ewing is not in the city, and the committee is advised that he is away on vacation, under leave.

Mr. KINGSLEY. That is correct. However, I should inform you, Mr. Chairman and the committee, that in view of certain publicity which has attended this particular subject, especially some of the discussion on the floor of the Senate yesterday, Mr. Ewing is now en route from Searsport, Maine, to Washington, and we expect him to arrive this evening.

Mr. ROONEY. He will be available for questioning?

Mr. KINGSLEY. I expect he will be.

Mr. KEEFE. We are glad to have that information and will be very glad to have Mr. Ewing appear before the committee at a suitable time.

I may also say in that connection I understand that the former Commissioner of Education, Mr. Studebaker, is in California, but I am also advised that he will be available to us here before this committee, if needed.

Now, Mr. Kingsley, you are aware, of course, of the fact that this committee and the Congress suggested and wrote into the law some changes in the internal functioning of the Administrator's office and the bureaus under the direction of the Federal Security Administrator. Mr. KINGSLEY. I am.

Mr. KEEFE. It will not be necessary to go into a discussion at this time of the consolidations that have taken place in the Administrator's office pursuant to the direction and authority of the Congress in relation to the bureaus that were affected as a result of the consolidation of the Employment Service and the Unemployment Compensation Division in the Social Security Administration. I think the committee is quite familiar with what has been done, and what has been done was approved by the committee and at its suggestion and was provided for in the law itself and in the report of the committee; also was given support by the conference report of the managers on the part of the House and the Senate at the time the supplemental appropriation bill was submitted and approved by both Houses.

Now, in that conference report on the supplemental appropriation bill with reference to H. R. 6355, Report No. 2246, amendment No. 31

is discussed by the managers on the part of the House and the Senate as follows:

Amendment No. 31 restores a section, proposed by the House, authorizing transfers among certain appropriations, and deletes a section, proposed by the Senate, authorizing the Administrator to make transfers related to consolidations of functions in the office of the Administrator. The section proposed by the Senate is identical with a section included in the 1948 appropriation act and sought to be included, but denied by the House, in the appropriation bill for 1949. The managers on the part of the Senate and the House will not look with favor upon any consolidations and transfers, undertaken under authority of the 1948 act, since the hearings in the House Committee on Appropriations on the 1949 bill, which are not in conformity with the 1949 appropriation act as finally passed by the Congress.

As Assistant Federal Security Administrator, I assume you are familiar with that statement on the part of the managers of both the House and the Senate.

Mr. KINGSLEY. Yes, sir; I am.

Mr. KEEFE. Now, it appears from the communication of Dr. Studebaker that certain consolidations and transfers were undertaken pursuant to the order issued under date of June 12, 1948, entitled 'Agency Office of Publications and Reports." That conference report is dated June 8, 1948, and the order which is referred to in Dr. Studebaker's letter is dated June 12, 4 days after this statement with respect to amendment No. 31 was issued by the managers on the part of the House and the Senate and adopted by both parties.

Now, have you a copy of that order of June 12?

Mr. KINGSLEY. I do not, sir. I think, perhaps, that Mrs. Franklin has one with her. If she does not, we will make it available.

Mr. KEEFE. You have examined Dr. Studebaker's communication to Mr. Ewing?

Mr. KINGSLEY. Yes; I have.

Mr. KEEFE. And does he correctly quote the provisions of that order in his letter?

Mr. KINGSLEY. I would need to have my memory refreshed on that. I cannot answer that, Mr. Chairman, because this is not the Administrator's order. (After a pause:) This is a memorandum, apparently, that went from the Director of the Office of Information and Reports to the information people in the constituent units and I am not certain that I ever saw it; so I am not certain that this is accurate. I would assume that it is. At least, it describes in substance what has been done, and it is accurate in substance. It may not be the precise memo.

Mr. KEEFE. Well, what has been done, then, was to transfer to the Administrator's office from the constituent bureaus those people in the bureaus who were carried on the bureaus' rolls as working in the field of publications and reports and information?

Mr. KINGSLEY. I could not agree with that statement as given; I should state it differently.

Mr. KEEFE. Well, state what it was intended to accomplish.

Mr. KINGSLEY. What we have attempted to do here was, in principle, the same thing that the committee attempted to do with the Audit and STAS staffs, that is, either to have them attached to the operating bureaus, which would bring them up to the Administrator's level, or to eliminate the intervening Commissioners' level.