We have entrusted to the procuring agencies complete responsibility for the placement of contracts for war supplies. United States munition production has recently been running at a rate between five and six billion dollars per month. Expenditures for completed munitions of war will exceed by many times the amounts which will be involved in termination settlements. The termination of a procurement contract involves essentially the making of a new contract calling for a smaller quantity of the product and a lesser expenditure of money than the original agreement. Those whom we have trusted to do the larger job can certainly be trusted also with the smaller one. What the Baruch report recommends is not a radical change in our established system of settling terminated contracts, but rather the improvement and perfection of the way in which the job has always been done. The contracting agencies have always exercised authority to settle the contracts that they have made. Since this war began, the War Department alone has terminated more than 19,500 prime contracts and settled 14,000 of them. The uncompleted value of the settled contracts was about $3,900,000,000, and the amount expended in settlement was about $85,000,000.

In the making of these settlements, a vast fund of experience has been accumulated; and procedures are being developed, under the recommendations of the Baruch report, for the speedy and satisfactory handling of termination claims. A uniform termination article has been announced which has for some time been required in all new contracts and which provides for the making of final negotiated settlements.

The provisions of H. R. 3022 would cut across and completely confuse existing procedures. They would cast doubt on the rights under existing contracts containing the uniform termination article; they would probably require that a different termination article be used in the future; and they introduce into the picture a new board in the General Accounting Office, whose staff, even if it could be recruited at all under existing conditions, would be completely without knowledge of the problems involved.

For the reasons given the undersigned members of the Committee cannot approve H. R. 3022 in its present form and propose to offer amendments which will effectuate the recommendations of the Baruch report.

MATTHEW J. MERRITT,
JOHN M. COSTELLO,
JOHN J. SPARKMAN,

PAUL J. KILDAY,
CLIFFORD DAVIS,

JOHN EDWARD SHERIDAN,
W. G. ANDREWS,
L. C. ARENDS,
CHARLES R. CLASON,

J. PARNELL THOMAS,
THOS. E. MARTIN,
J. LEROY JOHNSON,
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE.

78TH CONGRESS 2d Session

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

REPORT No. 1269

PLACING POSTMASTERS AT FOURTH-CLASS POST OFFICES ON AN ANNUAL-SALARY BASIS, AND FIXING THEIR RATE OF PAY; AND PROVIDING ALLOWANCES FOR RENT, FUEL, LIGHT, AND EQUIPMENT, AND FIXING THE RATES THEREOF

MARCH 20, 1944.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. BURCH, from the committee of conference, submitted the following

CONFERENCE REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 324]

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendments of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 324) to place postmasters at fourth-class post offices on an annual-salary basis, and fix their rate of pay; and provide allowances for rent, fuel, light, and equipment, and fix the rates thereof, having met, after full and free conference, have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows:

That the House recede from its disagreement to the amendments of the Senate numbered (2), and agree to the same.

Amendment numbered 1:

That the House recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the Senate numbered 1, and agree to the same with an amendment, as follows:

In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted by the Senate amendment, insert the following:

STATEMENT OF THE MANAGERS ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

The managers on the part of the House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 324) to place postmasters at fourth-class post offices on an annual-salary basis, and fix their rate of pay; and provide allowances for rent, fuel, light, and equipment, and fix the rates thereof, submit the following statement in explanation of the effect of the action agreed upon by the conferees and recommended in the accompanying conference report as to each of such amendments, namely:

Amendment No. 1: This amendment strikes out the scale of rates of compensation of postmasters of the fourth-class and inserts in lieu thereof a new scale. The agreement reached in conference on this amendment is in the nature of a compromise and has the effect of reinstating the rates contained in the first nine grades in the bill as passed by the House, and adopting a new scale of pay with respect to all remaining grades but the last, which remains unchanged, and is arrived at by subtracting $12 from each of such grades with the exception mentioned.

Amendment No. 2: This is a perfecting amendment and merely changes the effective date from July 1, 1943, to July 1, 1944.