Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



83 



from jear to year. However, the Bureau of the Budget 

 has been distinctly undermanned even for its function 

 of preparing the Federal Budget and keeping itself 

 currently informed as to the financial requirements of 

 the several agencies. In addition to these functions, the 

 Bureau has become the agent of the President in ex- 

 aminining the advisability of proposals for changes 

 in the organization or function of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment by statute. Executive order, or otherwise that 

 would atfoct the financing requirements of the agencies 

 involved. As practically every change of function or 

 organization affects the Budget, and the recovery plans 

 have increased the number of sucli changes, the Bureau 

 of the Budget has found itself with little time for such 

 postponable activities as improving the presentation of 

 budgetary data. Hence an inquirer interested in a com- 

 prehensive view of Federal finances is not likely to 

 find all the information he desires readily available. 



Probably no one is more anxious to have these im- 

 provements take place than the Bureau of the Budget 

 itself. If the often proposed enlargement of the Bu- 

 reau is effected, informational improvements in the 

 Budget document would be possible, excepting as com- 

 parability of data and sufficient analytic detail might 

 be prevented at first by differences in administrative 

 accounting procedures. An interested citizen might 

 then be able to discover readily the total expenditures 

 of the Federal Government for many specific purposes 

 or functions, the amounts involved in using certain 

 techniques or methods, the purchases of the Govern- 

 ment by kinds of materials, the importance of different 

 categories of payees, the geographic distribution by 

 States of the initial payments for Government mate- 

 rials and services, etc. The remarkable technique de- 

 veloped under the Commissioner of Accounts and De- 

 posits for the I'eports of the President to the Congress 

 on the financial status of emergency relief funds sug- 

 gests that a similar method might be devised for 

 reporting the status of regular funds. 



Until the Bureau of the Budget is able to compile 

 information on a comprehensive plan, the various in- 

 formal and formal coordinating committees and boards 

 could well perform part of this service for the particu- 

 lar activities in which they are chiefly interested. Oc- 

 casional comprehensive interagency information on 

 expenditures for surveying and mapping of different 

 tyi:)es, or for libraries, or for statistical compilations, 

 would be of use not only for the summary results but 

 for the interagency relationships disclosed. In each of 

 these cases, as in others that suggest themselves at once, 

 the information to be of most use should be broken 

 down into distinct categories defined as rigidly as cir- 

 cumstances would permit. 



Absence of Research in Some Agencies 



It is rather startling to find that some governmental 

 agencies either do not have any research within their 

 organization or decline to admit that any research is 

 being carried on. Since research in some form is 

 essential to vitality and certainly to progress, it is dis- 

 quieting to have representatives of large and important 

 Federal agencies state by implication that their activi- 

 ties are confined to carrying out administrative detail 

 without thought of a long-time plan or the needs for 

 the services that the agency is supposed to supply. In 

 somes cases, of course, the lack of research is more 

 nominal than real, being due to a difference in interpre- 

 tation of the term "research." In other cases the 

 amount of research is reported as negligible, although 

 a minimum necessary to intelligent direction of the 

 agency's most pressing work is undoubtedly carried 

 on. Nevertheless there are agencies spending a consid- 

 erable amount of money in administering processes of 

 national significance in which information and experi- 

 ence obtained as a byproduct of the costly administra- 

 tive activities are neither surmnarized nor analyzed for 

 the benefit of policy making or the direction of the 

 agency's future activities. One large agency carrying 

 on a Nation-wide activity of major importance dis- 

 claims harboring any research within its huge organi- 

 zation, and when questioned in detail on its extensive 

 equii^ment needs, affirmed that such minimum research 

 activities as were essential were carried on informally 

 by a few persons after office hours. Another agency in 

 which research would presumably effect large econo- 

 mies rejjorts no research expenditures with the comment 

 that individual research or the compilation of statisti- 

 cal data would result in a duplication of effort and ex- 

 penditure that would be unwarranted under present 

 conditions. Still another agency having I'egulatory 

 functions, on which the lives of certain groups of citi- 

 zens depend, spends practically nothing for research 

 and some of its executives seem entirely complacent 

 that even these small expenditures for research are 

 transferred to another agency. By contrast, a similar 

 agency whose work also affects the physical safety of 

 citizens, put up a strong and now partially successful 

 fight to have restored an appropriation for research 

 that was taken away on the gi'ound that an outside 

 agency in a related field could determine safety stand- 

 ards. 



A table of research expenditures by agencies, there- 

 fore, is significant not only for the names of the agen- 

 cies that are included but also for the omissions. 

 Bequests for inadequate amounts for research are, of 

 course, only a step removed from requesting nothing. 

 While interagency comparisons are dangerous, as ex- 

 plamed at some length in the introduction to this re- 



