1 Buildings and facilities, Federal prison system (no year appropriation). Mr. ROONEY. It should be noted that a total of 773 additional positions are requested. We are pleased to have with us this morning the distinguished Attorney General of the United States, the Honorable Robert F. Kennedy, who I believe has a general statement with regard to this overall appropriations request. Will you please proceed, Mr. Attorney General. STATEMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The year since I last appeared before this committee has been one of growth for the Department of Justice, just as it has been for the Nation. There are more crimes, more legal problems, and more cases. The cost of finding and punishing criminals has gone up. There are more Federal judges, and the need for prosecutors and marshals for their courts has increased proportionately. Consequently, I must come before you to ask for an increased appropriation. In preparing the 1963 budget for the Department, Mr. White, Mr. Andretta, and I have given close and careful consideration to the needs of each of our divisions and bureaus, and have discussed them with the Director of the Bureau of the Budget. In accordance with our past attempts to be conservative, and particularly in accordance. with the President's program, we have held our requests to the minimums essential for meeting our responsibilities under the law. This budget exceeds those minimums only by providing for predictable emergencies. We are following the Department's past practice of asking now for funds only to cover essentials; should an unforeseen emergency occur, we would like to come back for a supplemental appropriation. Mr. ROONEY. That is the saving clause. Who put that in there? You [referring to Mr. Andretta]? Mr. KENNEDY. As a matter of fact, he did. Our total request for 1963 is $309,300,000, an increase of $13,825,000 over last year's appropriation of $295,475,000. There are four principal reasons which make it necessary for us to request this increase. 1. Approximately $3,494,000 will be needed to cover certain built-in mandatory and statutory increases in continuing the present level of employment and activity. These increases include within-grade raises, full year funds for increases in 1962 staffs, reclassifications, and the FBI promotion plan. 2. Approximately $2,125,000 is budgeted for increased construction. 3. A total of $2,328,000 is requested to cover the increased cost of doing business, including such matters as statutory increases in travel rates, higher prices for goods and services, increases in postage, rent, etc. 4. A total of $6,027,000 for 767 new positions and related costs: 230 of these new positions are needed in the offices of U.S. attorneys and marshals across the country, at a cost of $1,955,000. A total of 522 other new personnel are needed to meet increasing workloads, at a cost of $3,936,000, chiefly in the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons. We also are asking for the establishment of a group of 15 deputy marshals, at a cost of $136,000, for special emergencies. Broken down by divisions and bureaus, the total increases range from $142,000 requested for general administration to $5,336,000 for the prison system. The heads of the various divisions and bureaus will appear before you to explain their particular needs and justify their requests, but I would like to cover some of them briefly now. U.S. ATTORNEYS AND MARSHALS As you know, Congress last May authorized the appointment of 73 new Federal circuit and district judges. We have moved as rapidly as possible to fill these new positions so that the backlog of cases waiting to be tried will be reduced substantially. Of the 73 new positions, judges already are sitting in 54. Investigations of the profes sional competence of suggested appointees are underway in all districts where vacancies still exist. I would expect most of these vacancies will be filled within 60 days. The additional work stemming from a 19-percent increase in the number of district and circuit court judges places a considerable increase in the workloads of the U.S. atorneys and marshals. This clear manpower need accounts for the great part of the increase of $2,627,000 requested-$1,726,000 for U.S. attorneys' offices and $900,000 for marshals'. The bulk of this amount is budgeted for 245 additional positions. In the past the ratio of employment in these offices has been two assistants, one clerk, and one deputy marshal per judge. This year, however, the Bureau of the Budget has approved a ratio of only 112 assistants per judge. In the last 20 years while the Federal judiciary has expanded some 50 percent, the U.S. attorneys' and marshals' offices have grown by only 283 positions, or 13 percent. There are still fewer deputy marshals now than there were 20 years ago. For the new judges to be effective, we must be prepared to implement our staffs in order to service the cases heard before them. Since assistant U.S. attorneys are not under the Classification Act, we have never obtained funds equivalent to those covering withingrade promotions. Any promotions in the past have been paid for from savings resulting from turnover. We are asking $300,000 to carry out a promotion plan in order to stabilize this force. This is one of the most important problems in the Department of Justice. If we can encourage assistants to stay on longer, the Government will get better return on its investment in their training and experience. I would like to have permission to go into that a little more a bit later, Mr. Chairman. Rising and uncontrollable costs of litigation also have contributed to the increased amount we request in this area. Marshals, for example, not only are required to travel more now, but their travel costs are up because of the new rates approved in the last session. Except for personnel additions sought for these offices, we are asking for more help in only two of our litigating divisions, a substantial increase in the Criminal Division and a modest one in the Civil Rights Division. CRIMINAL DIVISION For the Criminal Division we are asking Congress to increase the appropriation for fiscal 1963 by $629,000. The purpose of this increase is to permit the continued expansion of the administration's coordinated drive against organized crime and racketeering and to meet anticipated increases in workload due to the recently enacted anticrime laws. I am happy to report substantial progress in this field. As you will recall, Congress last fall passed five new criminal statutes, which are important in our fight against organized crime and racketeering. Additionally, we have coordinated all antiracketeering efforts of the Federal law enforcement agencies. This cooperation is typified by our establishment of an intelligence unit within the Criminal Division to pool information from the approximately 25 Federal investigative agencies on more than 700 top racketeers and hoodlums. One result of the accelerated program is that attorneys have worked harder. In the first half of the current fiscal year our attorneys spent 179 man-days in court as compared to 61 in the same period of the prior year. They spent 2,470 man-days in the field as compared to 567 in 1960. And they spent 523 man-days before grand juries as compared to 97 in the year before. As a result, important indictments and convictions were obtained in the past year. These include the convictions of Mickey Cohen, Frankie Carbo, and others in Los Angeles, Kid Cann in Minneapolis, and Nicholas Stirone in Pittsburgh. Indictments have been returned against Carlos Marcello in New Orleans, Frank Andrews in Cincinnati, Gil Beckley and Sam Di Piazzo in New Orleans, all major racketeers. When Assistant Attorney General Miller appears before you to testify about the Criminal Division budget, he will be prepared to detail these indictments and convictions for you. However, this is going to be a long struggle which must continue unabated for several years if organized crime is to be brought under control. In order to continue the record that has been started and to build upon it, we will need additional manpower in the Criminal Division. I am anxious that the Criminal Division have sufficient manpower to pursue this task in every area of the country which has been seriously penetrated by racketeer elements. So far this has not been possible, although a major effort is being made where crime is the most dan gerous. The impact of the new statutes already has had a substantial effect upon our workload. The FBI has estimated that in 1962 we may have as many as 10.000 cases referred to the Criminal Division for analysis and determination as to prosecution just under the 5 new statutes. CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION In the field of civil rights the Department's basic policy is to seek effective guarantees and action from local officials and civic leaders, voluntarily and without court action where investigation has disclosed evidence of civil rights violations. This policy is proving successful and civil rights problems and difficulties generally are being resolved at the local level. Substantial progress has been made toward eliminating racial discrimination in interstate transportation-bus, rail, and air. Regulations issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission at our petition, required facilities in terminals used in interstate bus travel to be desegregated last November 1. Since then, the Department has filed six actions asking Federal courts to order compliance. On the other hand, informal conversations and correspondence between the Department and carriers as well as officials of communities involved, have resulted in the desegregation of hundreds of terminals without incident. In the voting field 15 new cases have been filed since January 1961, charging discrimination in the registration processes. Active investigations or negotiations are being made in connection with voting and registration in 61 other counties. These cases were filed pursuant to the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, requiring the Department to bring civil actions to prevent denial of the right to vote without distinction to race or color. Actions are being undertaken both in court and informally in school matters involving desegregation to preserve due administration of justice, to protect the integrity of court orders, and to encourage and assist local officials and community leaders charged with the responsibility in school desegregation. In addition, during the past year the Department has also filed amicus briefs in more than a dozen important cases at all stages of the proceedings, including the Supreme Court. The present strength of the Civil Rights Division is 78, of whom 40 are attorneys. We are asking only for three additional clerks in this division. Although this has been an equally productive year in the other litigating divisions, we are making no requests for increases aside from those required to meet built-in and mandatory statutory costs. ANTITRUST DIVISION Last year was most successful in the field of antitrust enforcement. A total of 62 cases were filed and 66 were terminated-of which 58 represented judgments for the Government. The focusing of public attention on the cases filed against members of the heavy electrical industry caused compliants of alleged antitrust violations to reach an alltime high of 1,326 compared with 1,116 during the prior year. At the end of the year there were 566 major investigations in various stages of progress. A total of 1,100 mergers were examined and 15 cases, challenging mergers, were filed. Especially noteworthy is the alltime record of fines imposed in a single year. The aggregate of $3,058,000 represents a return to the United States of approximately 60 percent of the Division's appropriation for that year. It should be noted, however, that nearly $2 million of this total resulted from the fines imposed in the electrical conspiracy cases. A program implementing the President's Executive order relating to the reporting of identical bids was initiated. State and local procurement officers are participating in the program which, of course, includes all Federal agencies. The purpose is to discourage rigged bidding and reduce costs of Government purchases. Efforts to promote effective cooperation in the antitrust field between the Federal Government and the several States have continued. To this end, a number of conferences on consumer protection were held with State attorneys general with mutually beneficial results. In addition, the Division is rendering assistance whenever possible to State and local governments desiring to file damage suits as a result of the pleas in the electrical cases. TAX DIVISION Tax litigation, both criminal and civil, is on the upsurge. In the first 6 months of the present fiscal year, new cases have increased 20 percent. In our budgetary planning, it has been assumed that there would be an increase of about 5 percent per year arising from the population increase, economic growth, and the growing complexity of the tax |