494 



General Groves. Sir, essentially, we have had a steady drain or a 

 steady decrease in our overall strength, due primarily to productivity 

 increases, increased efficiency of our operations, and planning. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Is it due to that, or to costs in appropriations ? 



General Groves. No, sir; our appropriations are running fairly 

 constant. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Are they running up to the increase in the costs of 

 labor and salaries and wages and so forth? 



General Groves. Not entirely; no, sir. 



ISIr. DiNGELL. So actually, this is just a cutback forced in part by 

 budgetary strings. Am I correct ? 



General Groves. No, sir; I wouldn't really say so. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Well, in any event, what I am trying to find out is 

 what were the functions of these people who have vanished from the 

 corps' rolls. 



In other words, what activities were they engaged in? Were they 

 engaged, for example, in the issuance of permits ? Were they engaged 

 in writing 102(2) (c) statements? What were they doing? I am curi- 

 ous to know whether or not maybe this gain that appears is not really 

 a gain, but a shifting of personnel from one place to another. 



General Groves. Essentiall}^, sir, it is shifting around to meet our 

 changing missions. If you care to, I could elaborate for the record and 

 be very specific. I am unable to right now. 



Mr. DiNGELL. I think that would be fine. 



General Groves. We are prepared to do so. 



(The information follows :) 



Establishment of the Issuance of Permits Pkogeam 



The President's budget for FY 1971 contained an increase of 365 civilian posi- 

 tions to meet the requirements for the FY 1971 program. In view of the uncer- 

 tainties of the FY 1971 program pending a r'esolution by the President of the 

 FY 1972 budget, the increased spaces were not allocated to our field installations 

 as early as they normally would be. It was against this increase personnel hire 

 ceiling that the Corps temporarily borrowed the 200 positions required to 

 implement the permit program in view of the high priority of that program. The 

 200 positions are included in the personnel ceiling in our FY 1972 budget now 

 being considered by the Congress. Since the necessary permit spaces (200) 

 are included in the FY 1972 figure, the borrowed spaces will be reallocated for 

 program support. 



Mr. Rogers Well, it is interesting you can handle this in 200, and 

 EPA, I think, said they added 300 or 400. I wonder why. 



General Groves. I am unable to comment, sir. We have evaluated 

 our position very carefully, and 



Mr. Rogers. Have you estimated tlie time it will take to approve 

 these permits ? 



General Groves. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Rogers. "What is that time ? 



General Groves. It depends on how controversial it becomes, but 

 I would guess that on the average, one that is not controversial could 

 be processed within 6 montlis. 



Mr. Rogers. It will take 6 months ? 



General Groves. I would think so, yes, sir. By the time it is fully 

 coordinated that is so. And in an extreme, where there is a total lack 

 of controversy, it should move much faster. For the ones that are more 

 controversial, it will take considerably longer. 



