83D CONGRESS 2d Session } SENATE { REPORT No. 1536 AUTHORIZING ADDITIONAL USE OF GOVERNMENT MOTOR VEHICLES AT ISOLATED GOVERNMENT INSTALLATIONS JUNE 9 (legislative day, MAY 13), 1954.-Ordered to be printed MR. MCCARTHY, from the Committee on Government Operations, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 3199] The Committee on Government Operations, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3199) to authorize additional use of Government motor vehicles at isolated Government installations, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon, without amendment, and recommend that the bill do pass. PURPOSE This bill proposes to amend the Administrative Expenses Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 810), to permit heads of departments and agencies to authorize employees stationed in remote areas and who have no other practical means of transportation available, to use Governmentowned motor vehicles for essential local transportation. At the present time Government employees stationed in Guam, Alaska, and other remote or isolated areas are not permitted to use cars assigned to them for official Government business for transporting their children to schools, the commissary, and to recreational facilities, or for other local transportation which is necessary for their health and well-being. This restriction imposes a serious handicap on employees and their families because in many areas there is no public transportation or other facilities available to transport them to the nearest school unless they utilize Government-owned cars in violation of law. This prohibition has resulted in such severe hardship that many of the agencies are having difficulty recruiting and retaining employees for assignment to remote areas in the United States and its possessions. The proposal contained in this bill is not new. The Congress has on several occasions recognized the need for making special exceptions to the general law limiting the use of Government vehicles for official purposes. For example, the Veterans' Administration (Public Law 473, 80th Cong.) was authorized to transport children of VA employees located at isolated stations, to and from school in available Government-owned automotive equipment. It is understood that the Department of Defense has similar authority to utilize Government equipment for transporting children of its personnel to school if and when they are located in isolated areas or areas in which public transportation is not accessible. SUMMARY OF AGENCY COMMENTS Before this bill was introduced in the Senate, a draft of the bill was submitted by the chairman to the Administrator of General Services and to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to ascertain whether the objective intended herein could be attained by amending a pending committee bill S. 1582, authorizing the establishment of centralized motor vehicle pools and systems. The committee, in executive session on March 31, 1954, held up action on S. 3199 pending hearing on S. 3155, a revised version of S. 1582, on the premise that it had some relation to that bill. These agencies held that there was no relationship between these two bills, and recommended approval of S. 3199 as a separate bill. The Secretary of Commerce, in requesting the introduction and passage of this proposed legislation, submitted the following statement in support of the bill: Present law prohibits the use of Government passenger motor vehicles for other than official purposes (sec. 5 (c) (2) of the act of July 16, 1914 (38 Stat. 508), as amended by sec. 16 of the act of August 2, 1946 (60 Stat. 810) (5 U. S. C. 78 (c) (2)). At certain installations operated by the Department of Commerce in isolated areas, where there are no other means of transportation available, this prohibition results in unnecessary hardship to employees and their families. In some locations employees' children are required to walk long distances to school in arctic weather; in others, employees and their families are unable to make necessary trips to commissaries and to the only recreational facilities available to the communities in which their jobs require them to live. In Alaska, for example, the children of employees of the Civil Aeronautics Administration of the Department of Commerce at Gulkena, Nenana, and Yakutat have extreme difficulty in getting to school. The Department of Education of the Territory of Alaska provides school bus transportation for children attending Territorial schools only for communities having 8 or more school-age children more than 2 miles from a school. The Civil Aeronautics Administration quarters at Nenana are 1.7 miles from the Territorial school. Since this settlement is less than 2 miles away, the Territory cannot furnish school bus transportation. There are 11 school children involved, ranging from 5 to 8 years of age. Because of the limited road mileage in the area, there are no private vehicles available to transport the children. There are no sidewalks; during 5 or 6 months of the year, temperatures between 40° and 65° below zero are not uncommon; mud and snow conditions are very severe. Were it not for the prohibition against other than official use of Government vehicles, it would be possible, with practically no expense to the Government, to transport the children in a Civil Aeronautics Administration automobile which makes a mail run each morning over the same route from the station to the village. At Yakutat, six Civil Aeronautics Administration quarters buildings are located 4 miles from a Territorial school conductedi n a Civil Aeronautics Administration building in the hangar area of the airport. The five school children of CAA employees are less than the right minimum required to be eligible for Territorial school bus service. Although temperatures are not as extreme as at Nenana, rainfall is extremely heavy. Here, too, trips between the quarters area and the school could be coordinated with station business so that very few extra miles would be involved for the CAA vehicle available at that station. Conditions at Gulkena are similar to those at Yakutat. The station is located 6.4 miles from the school, and there are 5 children of school age. The location does not qualify for Territorial school bus service because it has fewer than eight children. Weather conditions are more severe than at Yakutat. The fact that Gulkena is located on the highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks is of no great advantage. Some of the employees do have private vehicles. However, it is very difficult to use them regularly, since winter temperatures range between 50° and 60° below zero, and heated garages are not available. Trips for school children at Gulkena could also be coordinated with official business trips so that additional cost would be minimal. Another problem is presented at certain Pacific island installations operated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. At Wake Island the commissary is over a mile away from the quarters occupied by CAA employees; swimming facilities are about 1 to 2 miles away; and there is a commercially operated canteen and a dock area with fishing facilities about 4 miles from the quarters. There is no public transportation. Because of high transportation costs and limited shipping facilities, there are very few vehicles personally owned by CAA employees on the island. Similar conditions prevail at the CAA installations at Canton and Guam. At all these Pacific island locations there are a number of Government vehicles which could be used to transport employees and their families to commissaries and recreational facilities at very little expense to the Government. The employees occupy the quarters described above because they are the only ones available, and not from choice. An employee cannot move to another location without giving up his job. The Civil Aeronautics Administration has had difficulty in obtaining and retaining qualified personnel for positions for isolated locations largely because of hardships which could be greatly mitigated by authorizing some additional use of Government vehicles. At all these locations, Gulkena, Nenana, Yakutat, Wake, Canton, Guam, and others, the strict statutory prohibition against employment of Government vehicles for other than official purposes prevents that additional use. An amendment to the statute is therefore required to grant discretion to Government department heads to relax the prohibition whenever it is clearly necessary. The attached draft bill would grant that discretion and, at the same time, provide sufficient safeguards against its indiscriminate exercise. The bill, as drafted, would authorize the Secretary of Commerce and the heads of the other departments to permit use of Government motor vehicles for other than strictly official purposes whenever they find (1) that the location is isolated and without other practical means of transportation, and (2) that the specific use of the vehicles which is authorized is necessary for the health and wellbeing of the employees or their dependents. In response to a request from the committee in regard to the cost involved under provisions of the pending bill, the Acting Secretary of Commerce advised the chairman under date of June 3, 1954, as follows: "In response to the telephone request of a member of your staff, we estimate that the cost of the additional use of Government vehicles which would be authorized under S. 3199 would be negligible. To a considerable extent, the additional use would consist of the carriage of additional passengers on trips now made for official purposes. In all other cases it would require only a very moderate increase in the use of existing vehicles. No additional vehicles would be required and no increase in appropriations would be necessary for this Department if S. 3199 is enacted." The Assistant Director of the Bureau of the Budget has reported favorably on the bill, and also recommended against its provisions being included in S. 3155, as follows: While it would be possible for the Congress to grant the needed relief to each agency on a piecemeal basis, we believe it would be preferable to deal with a general problem, like transporting employees and their dependents in isolated locations, on a general and uniform basis. Accordingly, we favor the enactment of general legislation along the lines proposed by the Secretary of Commerce. This problem of transportation in isolated areas is distinctly different from that of obtaining pooled use of motor vehicles by several Federal agencies in major metropolitan areas with which S. 1582 deals. There is no possibility of General Services Administration, or any other central service organization, being able to meet the isolated and remote transportation problem. Accordingly, we think it would not be appropriate to include the provisions of the proposed bill as an amendment to S. 1582. The Acting Administrator of General Services reported as follows: We do not anticipate that the limited relaxation of this ban as proposed by the draft bill would entail appreciable expense to the Government, or, with the administrative restrictions set forth in the bill, would lead to abuse in operation. You ask whether the provisions of the draft bill might be appropriately included as an amendment to S. 1582 (S. 3155), now pending before your committee, the principal purposes of which are to amend the Federal Property and Administra tive Services Act of 1949 so as to authorize the Administrator of General Services to establish and operate motor vehicle pools and to regulate operators of Government-owned motor vehicles, and to direct the Administrator to report the unauthorized use of Government motor vehicles. While we perceive no objection to inserting such an amendment in S. 1582, we do not regard that action as at all necessary. The draft bill would amend a statutory provision which is distinct from the Federal Property and Adminis trative Services Act of 1949, and we anticipate no administrative conflicts or difficulties as a result of the separate enactment of the draft bill and of S. 1582. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW In compliance with subsection 4 of rule XXIX of the Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by the bill, as reported, except as hereinafter indicated, are shown as follows (matter omitted enclosed in brackets; new matter printed in italics, existing law in which no change is reported, shown in roman): 60 STAT. 810, APPROVED AUGUST 2, 1946 SEC. 5. (c) Unless otherwise specifically provided, no appropriation available for any department shall be expended (1) to purchase any passenger motor vehicle (exclusive of busses, ambulances, and station wagons), at a cost, completely equipped for operation, and including the value of any vehicle exchanged, in excess of the maximum price therefor, if any, established pursuant to law by a Government agency and in no event more than such amount as may be specified in an appropriation or other Act, which shall be in addition to the amount required for transportation; (2) for the maintenance, operation, and repair of any Government-owned passenger motor vehicle or aircraft not used exclusively for official purposes; and "official purposes" shall not include the transportation of officers and employees between their domiciles and places of employment, except in cases of medical officers on out-patient medical service and except in cases of officers and employees engaged in field work the character of whose duties makes such transportation necessary and then only as to such latter cases when the same is approved by the head of the department concerned. Any officer or employee of the Government who willfully uses or authorizes the use of any Government-owned passenger motor vehicle or aircraft, or of any passenger motor vehicle or aircraft leased by the Government, for other than official purposes or otherwise violates the provisions of this paragraph shall be suspended from duty by the head of the department concerned, without compensation, for not less than one month, and shall be suspended for a longer period or summarily removed from office if circumstances warrant. The limitations of this paragraph shall not apply to any motor vehicle or aircraft for official use of the President, the heads of the executive departments enumerated in 5 U. S. C. 1, ambassadors, ministers, chargés d'affaires, and other principal diplomatic and consular officials; nor shall the limitations of this paragraph apply, at locations found by the head of the department concerned to be isolated and without practical means of transportation, to motor vehicles used by officers and employees of the Government and their dependents, to the extent that the head of the department concerned finds such use necessary for the health and well-being of such officers, employees, and dependents. 83D CONGRESS 2d Session } SENATE { REPORT No. 1537 AMENDING THE FEDERAL PROPERTY AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES ACT OF 1949, AS AMENDED JUNE 9 (legislative day, MAY 13), 1954.-Ordered to be printed Mr. MCCARTHY, from the Committee on Government Operations, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 3243] The Committee on Government Operations, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3243) to amend further the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended, to extend until June 30, 1955, the period during which the Administrator of General Services may conduct negotiated sales of surplus property, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. PURPOSE This bill extends until June 30, 1955, the authority of the Administrator of General Services to dispose of surplus property by negotiation, rather than by advertising, when it is determined that advertising will not facilitate disposal, and that disposal by negotiation will further the public interest. This authority originally was contained in the Surplus Property Act of 1944, as amended, and continued under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, until December 31, 1950. At the request of the Administrator of General Services, this authority was extended to June 30, 1953, by Public Law 522, approved on July 12, 1952, and to June 30, 1954, by Public Law 245, approved August 8, 1953, on previous recommendations of this committee. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY Experience has proven that in many instances representatives of the Federal Government who are engaged in the disposal of surplus property frequently reach a point where advertising will serve no useful purpose, and therefore the authority to negotiate with interested |