vidual press representatives, distribution of press releases and other publications, and occasional press conferences. As time and circumstances permit, the Special Representative and senior staff members accept invitations to speak before groups with specific or general trade interests or to contribute articles to newspapers and other periodicals. Another channel of communication is the President's Annual Report on the Trade Agreements program. This report, which is required by the TEA, is prepared by STR with the assistance of other agencies, and is transmitted to the Congress after approval by the President. The "Report on Future Trade Policy", noted above, also recommends that this annual required report be expanded to include other related aspects of domestic and international economic policy. The STR staff is carefully considering means of making the 1968 report, which is now in preparation, more informative in this respect. However, within the present limitations of staff and budget, it would be difficult to improve the outward flow of information in any way requiring significant expenditure of funds and manpower.

As to the availability to the public of agency records, proceedings, and related material, this question is also not directly applicable since STR is not a regulatory agency. In discharging its function of advising the President on the administration of the trade agreements program. STR could not appropriately make internal documents and records available to the public.

F. The statements in Section E above on information activities are applicable to areas outside Washington as well as to the city itself. Among the steps that might conceivably be taken if more funds and manpower were available would be the scheduling of public hearings on important trade policy issues at several key locations throughout the country instead of in Washington only. Also, STR staff members could be given a greater opportunity to observe trade, production, and related conditions in other areas of the country and to exchange views with workers, producers, and consumers. This type of personal experience and investigatory activity is now held to a minimum for budgetary reasons.

II. PROCEDURES FOR PROMOTING MORE RESPONSIVE AGENCY DECISIONMAKING

A. It is believed that STR's decision-making procedures operate with reasonable speed, considering the importance of interests and issues involved and the nature of the functions and operations of the Office. Where major policy issues are involved, decision-making is necessarily slow because of the need to assure that all relevant information and views are obtained, both from official sources and from the public, and that this material is thoroughly analyzed and taken into account in arriving at a decision on recommendations to the President. In general, faster results could be achieved only at the risk of arriving at premature and inadequately based decisions, or through augmentation of the staff.

B. Since 1964, this Office has been responsible for the development, maintenance, and administration of an interagency automated data bank for tariffs and foreign trade. Despite its limited staff and finan

cial resources, STR undertook this effort to insure that the best possible data and data processing techniques were available as the basis for sound trade policy.

Due to personnel and budgetary limitations, the Office does not maintain its own data processing equipment or have any computer technicians on the staff. Most of the programming and other computer services are provided by the General Services Administration. An interagency task force chaired by STR develops plans for computer projects of general utility to all the agencies involved in the formulation of foreign trade policy STR develops the formats and specifications and provides the inputs for the projects, reviews and results for conformity with the specifications, and distributes the complete tabulations to the interested agencies.

This data bank was developed initially for the Kennedy Round to provide, for the first time through the use of data processing techniques, statistical information necessary for the formulation of U.S. negotiating positions and for a systematic analysis of the results for the major participating countries. The system has continue to provide all interested agencies with the detailed trade and tariff information for the United States and major foreign countries necessary to resolve current trade issues and to formulate the course of future trade policy. Certain other agencies also maintain or are developing data banks pertaining to foreign trade designed primarily for their specialized needs. Unless central coordination is provided, duplication of effort and additional cost may result from the existence of numerous programs for the collection, automation, and analysis of trade data.

An interagency effort should be undertaken, under centralized direction, to expand the existing trade and tariff bank to include information on nontariff barriers and other economic data, such as production and employment statistics, at a detailed level, thereby creating a central integrated system of data relevant to foreign trade for use by all interested agencies. This system would make it possible to test various formulas and possible techniques for a future trade negotiation and, for the first time, to estimate in advance the likely outcome of these various techniques for the domestic economy and for specific industries.

C. All of the agencies with principal responsibilities in the trade policy field participate in the interagency committees referred to in earlier sections. As stated, the role of the TIC is to gather information and views from the public. Each of them is chaired by STR, with the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Labor, State and Treasury as members. Also, the Tariff Commission is a nonvoting member of the staff-level Trade Staff Committee. The Trade Executive Committee is at the assistant secretary level, and the Trade Expansion Act Advisory Committee is at Cabinet level. In addition, STR consults on occasion with other agencies, such as the Office of Emergency Preparedness, on matters of direct concern to them.

D. STR does not have fixed or formal internal procedures for assessing the quality and efficiency of its performance. However, there is a continuing process of assessment and evaluation as the result of a number of factors. First, because the staff is very small-only 15 professional employees as of January 1, 1969-it is possible to keep

overall as well as individual activities under continuing review. Second, because of the close interrelationships between STR and the other agencies participating in the trade agreements organization, there is a direct stimulus to STR's continuing review of all factors relevant to its operations and structure. Third, the wide interest in the Congress and among the general public in trade policy matters is likewise a stimulus to continuing re-examination within STR. Most recently, the preparation of the "Report on Future Trade Policy" occasioned a thorough review of STR's role and performance, in which views were available from a variety of sources-from STR staff members, from the Public Advisory Committee, and from members of the public through the hearings held by the Trade Information Committee.

It does not appear at this time that modern techniques of costbenefit analysis and "P.P.B.S." would be helpful in assessing STR's operations. The benefits to be expected from trade policy decisions are frequently of a long-term nature and are difficult to assess in the concrete terms essential to modern analytical techniques or systems. This factor, as well as others, would introduce so many uncertainties into an analytical assessment as to make its value highly dubious.

Recognizing that there is a gap in STR's statutory basis, the "Report on Future Trade Policy" recommends the enactment of legislation establishing STR as a statutory agency located within the Executive Office of the President and reporting directly to the

President.

E. (Reply is limited to applicable portion of the section.)

The present agency staff appears to have about the right amount of impact on agency decision-making processes. This is in part because it is readily possible for each member of the small STR staff to have an opportunity to make his views known, and for the staff to be adequately responsive to the needs of individual STR members.

There seems to be no need for rotation of agency staff to other government agencies. In fact, most of the staff have had prior experience with other agencies, in most cases the other agencies with major responsibilities in the trade policy field. The quality of present staff is adequate even though complex and sophisticated issues are presented to STR. However, STR's operations could be substantially improved if professional staff and funds were increased, as recommended in the "Report on Future Trade Policy."

Staff capabilities could be enhanced by greater opportunities to consult individually and collectively with private groups and with the Congress and its staff, as well as by greater opportunity to study problems at first-hand through field trips to installations of industries and, in some instances, the communities concerned with policy issues under consideration. Employees of affected industries have not been selected as agency staff members.

III. THIS QUESTIONNAIRE

Drafting of replies to Sections I and II required about 10 hours. In general, the questions relevant to the operations of STR raised useful issues. STR would not have been able to answer more freely

if the responses were anonymous. In fact, the whole exercise would seem somewhat meaningless unless replies were clearly related to the operations and responsibilities of specific agencies, whether or not having regulatory functions.

II. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS

Responses of the Department of Agriculture

A. Agricultural and Stabilization Service

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, AGRICULTURAL STABILIZATION AND CONSERVATION SERVICE, Washington, D.C., April 15, 1969.

DEAR SENATOR KENNEDY: This is in response to your letter of March 5, with which you enclosed a questionnaire having to do with (a) citizen involvement in the administrative process, and (b) procedures for promoting more responsive agency decisionmaking.

We are pleased to cooperate with the subcommittee in supplying answers to the several questions posed. Submitted herewith are our replies to the questionnaire. Rather detailed replies to some of the questions seemed to be necessary.

It is recognized that a personal response to the inquiry was requested; however, in view of the brief period since appointment to this office, the enclosed statements were prepared by career staff members throughout the agency. We believe this to be appropriate executive procedure to provide your committee with effective appraisals of the subject matter of the inquiry.

If you desire further discussion of any of this material, please let us know.

Sincerely yours,

KENNETH E. FRECK, Administrator.

REPLIES TO QUESTIONNAIRE OF SUBCOMMITTEE ON ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE, SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

I. CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS

A. For 35 years, the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS), United States Department of Agriculture, has had an organizational structure wherein many day-to-day decisions affecting individual citizens, farmers and ranchers are made by elected local committees. The ASC county committee is elected through a process that provides all agricultural producers in the county an opportunity to nominate and elect committeemen. The county committee in turn has statutory authority for making a number of decisions affecting individual producers, such as: Approval of yields, allotments, quotas, conservation cost-sharing amounts, and loans.

These county committee decisions are made by persons responsible to the constituency being served. The county committee is aided in its local decisionmaking role by elected community committeemen who represent every agricultural area in the county. In addition to the

above, the county committee and other local groups assist in certain program development responsibilities. Programs such as the agricultural conservation program (ACP) are thus directly adapted to the needs of the local community.

Subsequent ASCS authorities at the State and national levels also rely heavily on county committee information and recommendations in reaching their decisions.

ASCS national programs are either voluntary wherein the citizen makes his own decision concerning participation; or quota programs wherein citizens vote to establish the program. At least two-thirds of the directly affected producers in a quota program must vote in favor of the program before it can be established. Such a producer referendum in 1963 terminated the wheat marketing quota program and led to the establishment of the current voluntary program.

ASCS strongly encourages community committees and State committees to listen to and be responsive to local citizen information and recommendations. Special emphasis is placed on committee decisions rather than manager or director decisions. In most locations this method provides desirable "participative management" which is very well accepted by the public. With offices in nearly every county, we always have room for improvement. We provide leadership in annual orientation and training programs that are specifically addressed to training local committees to provide quality, responsive public service within legal limits. Such a training program of necessity must be continuous because of changing committee membership, changing programs, and changing agricultural conditions. Our emphasis continues to be placed on this effort to assure appropriate citizen involvement in decisionmaking.

B. There are four standing national public advisory committees, established under the previous Administration, which were chaired by ASCS. These are as follows:

a. Advisory Committee on Cotton

b. Stabilization Advisory Committee on Peanuts

c. National Tobacco Industry Advisory Committee

d. Advisory Committee on Grains--Wheat, Feed Grains and Soybeans

These committees were established to offer counsel and advice to the Secretary on problems encountered in the administration of the programs involved and the development of new or revised legislative proposals to promote economic stability for the applicable commodities.

Generally, committee membership includes farmers, members of cooperatives, members of farm organizations nad trade associations, merchants, shippers, warehousemen, and people in the academic field. The committees are purely advisory. Generally, because of their intimate knowledge of the commodities involved, committee members have been regarded as highly qualified to advise the Department in its formulation of programs and to suggest policy alternatives. Members appointed by the Department to national public advisory committees are limited to 2-year terms (unless otherwise provided by statute). Provision is made for rotation of membership and wide representation among the trade, industry, or clientele involved. In