The responsibility for development and coordination of the Commission's reports and statistics program was centralized in the Office of Economics to correct a weakness that had slowed down program development. This reorganization will provide stronger direction, coordination, and control to a program which must be geared to provide better data and information on the natural gas and electric power industries to the public, State, and Federal agencies.

FEDERAL RADIATION COUNCIL

The Executive Director reported that the function and membership of the Federal Radiation Council remains unchanged since January 1, 1963. However, on September 4, 1963, the Council established a permanent staff headed by an executive director who would be responsible for the formulation of Council activities and for submission of proposals for the Council's review and approval. The function of the Council's working group as outlined in the Council's report dated January 23, 1961, has changed to that of an advisory group to the Executive Director. The office of Council Secretary was also abolished. The present staff, employed directly by the Council consists of two professional and two secretarial members.

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

The Chairman reported the following organizational changes which were effected during calendar year 1963:

The Bureau of Field Operations opened the Los Angeles field office, Los Angeles, Calif., February 1, 1963. This office is the second in the State of California, the first having been opened at San Francisco. The Los Angeles field office will carry a heavy share of the caseload resulting from this fast growing trade area. The major function of a field office is to conduct investigations into the possible violations of the laws which the Federal Trade Commission is empowered to enforce.

On March 26, 1963, the Division of Export Trade was created in the Office of the General Counsel. The work of this Division was previously carried on in the Bureau of Restraint of Trade. The Division administers the Webb-Pomerene Export Trade Act of 1918. The Export Trade Act provides exemptions from the Sherman Act of 1890 and the Federal Trade Commission and Clayton Acts of 1914 for cooperatively organized American exporters organized solely for the purpose of engaging in export trade. Such associations are required initially to file with the Commission documents descriptive of their organizational structure and manner of operation, and from time to time, thereafter, additional reports specifically directed to describing their current domestic and export activities. The Division of Export Trade is the medium through which the Commission formulates. its policy and performs the staff functions relative to its administration of the Webb-Pomerene Act. There are currently over 30 export trade associations registered with the Commission whose total dollar value of exports exceeds $1 billion.

The Office of Special Legal Assistants was abolished on December 18, 1963. The work of the Office of Special Legal Assistants was subsequently assigned to each of the five Commissioners.

On August 1, 1963, the Commission further extended its advisory opinion function. Under the revised procedures and rules of practice, any respondent subject to a Commission order may request advice from the Commission as to whether a proposed course of action, if pursued by it, will constitute compliance with such order. Early indications are that this new service will place increased demands upon the enforcement bureaus of the Commission.

FOREIGN CLAIMS SETTLEMENT COMMISSION

The chairman reported that the following organization and personnel changes were made during 1963:

A temporary field office was established in New York City in March 1963 to facilitate the development and adjudication of claims filed under the Polish claims program. This office, after completion of the function for which it was established, was closed on November 30, 1963.

In June 1963, a General War Claims Division was established. This Division will administer the largest claims program in the Commission's history. Sometime in 1964 a field office of this Division will be established in Europe to conduct investigations necessary for the development and adjudication of claims filed under this program. During the calendar year, overall employment in the Commission increased 72 with 33 of this increase occurring outside the United States and 39 in the Washington, D.C., office. The increase outside the United States reflects the employment of Philippine national employees by the Manila field office and the Washington, D.C., increase reflects staff required for the support of the Philippine and Lake Ontario claims programs, established at the end of calendar year 1962 and part of the staff required for the general war claims program.

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

The Assistant Administrator for Finance and Administration reported that total GSA employment increased from 32,001 on January 1, 1963, to 33,140 on January 1, 1964, an increase of 1,139 positions, of which 134 were in the central office and 1,005 in the 10 regional offices. The report also outlined the following changes in GSA organization effected during calendar year 1963:

Office of Finance and Administration

The Office of Procurement and Economic Policy, Office of Finance and Administration, was abolished and its functions assigned to the Office of General Counsel, Regulations and General Law Division. The Office of Finance and Administration was reorganized as follows: (1) The program objectives and evaluation staff was redesignated as the program review and analysis staff; (2) the emergency mobilization planning staff was abolished and its functions assigned to the new program review and analysis staff; and (3) the Manpower Utilization Division, Office of Manpower Resources, was redesignated the Manpower Utilization Staff and placed in the immediate office of the Assistant Administrator for Finance and Administration.

An organization and management policy staff and a data processing coordination staff were established in the immediate office of the Assistant Administrator for Finance and Administration.

The Office of Management Services was abolished.

The Office of Financial Management was redesignated as the Office of Data and Financial Management. The new office consists of the previously assigned Audit Division, the Accounting and Reports Division (formerly the Accounting and Reports Management Division), the Budget Division, the Credit and Finance Division, as well as a new field management staff and the Data Processing Division (formerly the Automatic Data Processing Division of the Office of Management Services).

The Office of Manpower Resources was redesignated as the Office of Manpower and Administration. The new office consists of the previously assigned fair employment staff, Personnel Division, GSA Institute Division (formerly the Educational Institutes Division), as well as the Compliance Division, the Printing and Publications Division, and the Administrative Services Division whose functions were previously performed in the Office of Management Services. Office of General Counsel

The Regulations and General Law Division was established.

The Finance, Administration, and Records Division was abolished and its functions reassigned to other divisions within the Office of General Counsel.

Federal Supply Service

The Office of Supply Operations was abolished, including its subordinate National Buying Division and Supply Distribution Division.

The Office of Procurement was established consisting of a Procurement Operations Division and a Program Management Division. The Office of Supply Distribution was established consisting of a Distribution Programs Division and a Program Control and Evaluation Division.

Public Buildings Service

The Acquisition Division in the Office of Space Management was abolished and its functions reassigned to the Lease Acquisition Division and the Site Acquisition Division which were established in the Office of Space Management.

Transportation and communications service

The Systems Management Division and the Rates and Tariffs Division were established in the Office of Communications.

The Facilities and Services Division was abolished and its functions reassigned to the Operations Control Division and the Systems Management Division.

The Contractual Services Division was abolished and its functions reassigned to the Rates and Tariffs Division and the Systems Management Division.

The report stated that the foregoing reorganizations were designed to achieve maximum program effectiveness with minimum employment; increases reflect primarily the continued growth in Federal Supply Service sales activities, expansion of motor pool operations, and a movement from contract cleaning to Public Buildings Service force

account.

HOUSING AND HOME FINANCE AGENCY

The Administrator in his report stated that although there were a number of organizational changes during the year, none had an appreciable effect on the employment level. The report stated that the net increase of 368 in employment during 1963 is attributable largely to other factors, that the major increment was due to new workload generated by the Public Works Acceleration Act of 1962, and that nearly all the remainder of the increase was due to additional FHA workload related to the acquisition, maintenance, and sale of properties and mortgages acquired under insurance contracts and related to the processing of applications for mortgage insurance and the maintenance of insurance in force.

In the Office of the Administrator, the Office of General Counsel was reorganized into two major elements. A Legislation Division and an Operations Division were established to include all activities previously under four functional staffs. The Operations Division now contains a Legal Opinions and Administrative Law Branch, a Litigation Branch, and a Special Programs Branch.

The Urban Renewal Administration was reorganized to: (1) reduce the number of persons reporting to the Commissioner by providing a direct line of supervisory authority from the Deputy Commissioner to the Assistant Commissioner for Field Operations, the Assistant. Commissioner for Technical Standards, and the Director of Administrative Management, and elevating the rank of the remaining three Assistant Commissioners from heads of divisions to heads of offices; (2) establish a new Office of Relocation and Rehabilitation to combine the functions of the former Division of Relocation and Community Organization with the rehabilitation and codes functions, tranferred from the Division of Technical Standards: (3) transfer the statistics and data processing functions from the Division of Administrative Management to a new Program Data and Evaluation Branch in the Office of Program Planning; and (4) retitle various positions and organization units.

The central office of the Federal Housing Administration was also extensively reorganized, to provide unified coordination and direction. of field activities, closer coordination of central office staff and operating elements, and more efficient functioning of the agency. Both home and multifamily mortgage operations were placed under a new Associate Deputy Commissioner for Operations, together with the Assistant Commissioners for Technical Standards and Property Disposition. At the same time the fiscal, auditing, and administrative functions were grouped under a new Associate Deputy Commissioner for Management. A Latin America Division was established under the Assistant Commissioner for Programs, to process, on a reimbursable basis, cases under the housing investment guarantee program of the Agency for International Development.

In the Public Housing Administration, the only organizational change was the creation of a Machine Data Processing Branch in the Administration Division, utilizing personnel previously in the Office Services Branch. There were no organizational changes of significance in the Federal National Mortgage Association or in the Community Facilities Administration during the year.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION

The Chairman reported that, during the year 1963, the Commission completed a thorough study in depth of the whole fabric of its field organization, with the objective of eliminating for the future any shortcomings of the present organizational structure. It has now approved, effective January 1, 1964, an extensive realinement of its field establishment. Seven regions have been established, in lieu of the thirteen formerly in effect, to serve a basic geographical pattern for all ICC field activities. All field forces will be organized into a single staff and the field establishment will be one major organizational component for management purposes, including budget development and administration, personnel administration, program evaluation, manpower utilization, management improvement, and administrative supervision and support. This extensive field reorganization is the result of the Commission's constant review and evaluation of its operations and procedures and its internal organization, to assure that its workload is handled as effectively, efficiently, expeditiously, and economically as possible. While it is not possible, at this time, to evaluate the effectiveness of this field reorganization, it is expected to produce increased manpower productivity.

The Bureau of Rates and Practices was reorganized into four organizational sections instead of the former six sections. The purpose of the reorganization was to provide improved supervision and closer control over the increasing number of complex rate cases being presented to the Commission for resolution.

On October 31, 1963, a plan for reorganization of the Bureau of Accounts was approved. The purpose of the reorganization was to obtain more effective utilization of the manpower resources available. Savings resulting from the reorganization are estimated at $28,000 on an annual basis.

In recognition of the Commission's responsibility to fully utilize the rapidly developing advantages of data processing and related management sciences in carrying out its regular responsibilities to the public, a new organizational unit-the Section of Systems Development-was created in the Office of the Managing Director in April 1963, in order to place increased emphasis on these functions. The Section was established within the existing personnel ceiling by combining the staff of the automatic data processing study team with the staff of the Systems and Methods Branch. A major advantage expected to accrue from this merger is a closer coordination between development and improvement of management control systems and their practical application and operation.

The Commission's overall analysis of its data collection activities is continuing. During the past year, the Staff Committee on Reduction of Paperwork Burden which was created in 1959, has reviewed 98 reports. As a result, 20 reports were discontinued or consolidated with others: reporting incidence of 7 reports was changed from monthly to quarterly; and data content of 11 reports was reduced. The cumulative effect of the foregoing has resulted in carrier respondents being relieved from filing some 453,000 reports annually including elimination of more than 33.8 million reportable items.