Senator CAIN. That is a very worth-while statement, Mr. Brennan, and let me ask: Do I understand correctly that the statute under which you are able to operate limits the personnel you can employ? Mr. BRENNAN. No; it does not. Senator CAIN. I just misunderstood and I wanted to get that straight. 1. Outside of your purchasing problem, which confronts all of us in America, you have no difficult problems at the moment? Your appropriations, requested, which are generally larger than they were a year ago, and only for the reason of these pay increases, is your only problem? Mr. BRENNAN. Well, I do have one problem. It deals with a matter that the committee probably cannot help on. It has to do with certain reallocations. I have a new technical assistant who, before he came with us, was making around $7,000 a year. He was with a large manufacturer, and being a new man he was released. He took this position in my office and is doing remarkably well. His classification is CAF-9. I do not know how much longer I will be able to keep him. I did ask for a higher salary, but I was denied it by the Civil Service Commission. Senator CAIN. We have no way of helping there. Mr. BRENNAN. That is the only thing troubling me today. I would like to keep this man. Senator CAIN. I might ask a question there for a point of information. This man works for you? Mr. BRENNAN. He is the technical assistant. Senator CAIN. Technical assistant to you? Mr. BRENNAN. Yes, sir. Senator CAIN. He is your employee? Mr. BRENNAN. Yes, sir. Senator CAIN. How does it happen, therefore, that your Commissioners, if they saw fit, could not approve that? Mr. BRENNAN. The Commissioners did approve. Senator CAIN. And then where does it go from the Commissioners? Mr. BRENNAN. To the Civil Service Commission. Senator CAIN. I presume the reason for that is that this man fills a certain designation. You give him a number? Mr. BRENNAN. Technical assistant, CAF-9. Senator CAIN. And technical assistants, under the Civil Service, are paid a salary from a minimum to a maximum, and the figure you have requested is in excess of that maximum? Mr. BRENNAN. I had asked for a lifting of the grade CAF-9 to P-4, which would put him in the next salary range. Senator CAIN. Well, I still do not quite understand that. You do not, therefore, appear to have sufficient jurisdiction to determine what you want your employees to become. Mr. BRENNAN. Well, under the operation of the Classification Act, you file a form and describe the duties of the position and give the present classification and the recommended classification with justification therefore. Hearings are held by the District Personnel Board, and then the papers are transmitted through the Commissioners to the United States Civil Service Commission. Senator CAIN. And their determination was that the job did not justify the classification request? Mr. BRENNAN. Yes; after investigation by one of their investigators. Senator CAIN. Yes; well, I would have no comment to make in response to that, for that is not my responsibility. Mr. BRENNAN. Well, that is what I said. Senator CAIN. Yes. Mr. Jackson, do you care to ask any questions? Mr. Booch, representing Mr. Horan on the appropriations side? Thank you very much. Mr. BRENNAN. Thank you, sir. Senator CAIN. It now appears our hour of adjournment, within a minute, anyway. I am hopeful that Mr. Bates will be back tomorrow morning, for many reasons, only one of which is his desire to listen to the problems of the school system of the District. Commissioner MASON. I was going to ask, Mr. Chairman, do you want to start with the schools in the morning or the Engineering Department? Senator CAIN. I think it would be a favor to Mr. Bates were we to be able to start with the schools. Commissioner MASON. With the schools. Senator CAIN. And I should be delighted to apologize to the Engineers for a seeming discourtesy which was not intended. We had hoped to get to them today, but I think all of us recognize their testimoney is likely to take some time. Commissioner MASON. They are all battle soldiers, and they take that in stride. Senator CAIN. Thank you. If there are no comments from those in the chamber, we will stand adjourned until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. (Thereupon, at 11:45 a. m., an adjournment was taken until 10 a. m., Wednesday, March 26, 1947.) (Statement later received for the record from the Purchasing Division.) 1939: A decrease of one employee is occasioned by transfer of a position, CAF-3, multilith operator and cameraman, to the Division of Printing and Publications. 1943: An increase of two employees is accounted for by the addition of one CAF-3, requisition checker, and one CAF-2, purchase-order writer. 1944: A decrease of ove employee is occasioned by reduction of the number of employees, CAF-2, operating the purchase-record desk from two employees to one employee. 1946: A decrease of one employee is occasioned by transfer of a position, CAF-9, Chief, Division of Printing and Publications, to the Executive Office. In increase of two employees is occasioned by the addition of one position, CAF-7, liaison officer, Surplus War Property, and one position, CAF-2, purchaseorder writer. BUDGET REQUIREMENTS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1947 JOINT SUBCOMMITTE ON FISCAL AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington. D. C. The joint subcommittee met at 10: 05 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, in the Senate District Committee Room, the Capitol, Washington, D. C., Senator Harry P. Cain (chairman of the joint subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senator Cain, Representatives Bates (cochairman of the joint subcommittee), and Klein. Present also: Parker L. Jackson, Special Adviser to the House Committee on the District of Columbia. Senator CAIN. Come to order, please, gentlemen. Mr. Bates has returned to act as cochairman with me, representing the House, on their fiscal subcommittee of the District Committee. We are privileged to have with us this morning, Mr. Walt Horan, who is chairman of the Fiscal Subcommittee of the District of Columbia Appropriations Committee of the House. He, through Mr. Booch, has been cooperating since the hearings began, for Mr. Booch has been with us every day, and we are delighted to have Mr. Horan this morning, and I think, Walt, you would like to make some comments prior to the time we begin. Mr. HORAN. Yes, I would: Senator CAIN. Would you be kind enough to come over and sit on this side of the table so that you may be seen by those who are here. STATEMENT OF HON. WALT HORAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WASHINGTON Mr. HORAN. Mr. Chairman, I have naturally been following your proceedings over here with a great deal of interest. I am very proud of the Nation's capital and want it adequately treated. I said in a news release last Sunday that I felt that a Federal budget of $100,000,000 or $200,000,000 for the Nation's capital running expenses was not out of order. I see here a statement on school teachers' salaries which, I think, are subject to adjustment. I have to drive through the District on my way to the Capitol every morning and I know that Engineer Commissioner Gordon Young's plans for the District have a good deal of merit in them. 99538-47——18 But I do not think that merely pulling a Jimmy Valentine on the Federal Treasury is the solution. I think that is a lazy man's approach to solving the problems of the District. We could give you $50,000,000 out of the Federal Treasury and it would not solve anything unless certain fundamental corrections are made first. Personally, I would like to vote for home rule for the District, but I do not think the District is ready for citizenship under the indeterminate political pattern existing. I do not think there is enough feeling of responsibility on the part of the people that live in the District of Columbia. I mean it. I think we have a conglomeration of authorities and prerogatives and conflicts here that have got to be looked at realistically and solved before we can have the kind of government we should have. In spite of what the Assessor said, I do not think property taxes are high enough. I do not think there is enough responsibility felt in the spending of money. I want to cite a little incident. It is very, very small, but it will illustrate what I mean. Several weeks ago we considered a deficiency appropriation. Among other things, there was an item for $3,500, to replace a floor in a sea food restaurant down on the wharf upon which the District collects rentals. The item was for $3,500, and, having had some experience in that sort of thing, I questioned the item immediately. I took a member of the Architect of the Capitol's staff with me down to the restaurant and looked at it. Following that, I asked the responsible member of the District government to send me a sketch of that restaurant so that we could figure out what a floor for that restaurant should cost, with a drain, so that it would pass the Health Department's specifications. When I called up the responsible office in the District government he did not have a sketch, and yet they had come up here and asked for a deficiency of $3,500. They did draw one, and I sent it down to the Architect of the Capitol and got a letter back from him stating that for $1,425 a 34-inch magnesite flooring could be laid in that district, and for $270 additional a coping around the edges could be laid, for a total cost of $1,695 to replace the floor in this property out of which the District government gets $1,800 a year rental. At my urging that item was allowed in the deficiency appropriation which we wrote up last Saturday morning. It was allowed with a provision that the history of the rentals of that property be reviewed. And the total cost of renovation of that property that had been done by the lessee should be listed, looking toward a readjustment of rentals on that and what other the District owns and collects rent. I think that should be done throughout the District. I think the solution of the District's problem, and I mean this, because I did read this little pamphlet here listing some of the teachers' problems as put out by the Superintendent of Schools, and I am sympathetic; I think these solutions will have to be had because it is going to cost more to run the District government. I think the lay-out of the District, as I have already indicated, may have been fine when L'Enfant, or whoever it was who laid out this town, planned Washington, but I think the age of the atomic bomb |