Evening star., 1951-08-27
Civil Service Chief
Won't Oppose Shift
OF Security Check

A proposal that the Civil Serv-
ice Commission take over from
the FBI the task Of making
routine security checks on. job ap-
plicants for II Federal agencies is
before Congress and indications
are that the commission will not
oppose the move.
The Justice Department has
asked Congress to make the
switch in order to ease the FBI's
routine investigative burden, and
to enable it to concentrate on spe-
cif1c probes involving crime and
disloyalty.
Civil Service Commission chair
man Robert Ramspeck said he
and representatives Of some of
the II agencies involved have at
tended conferences with the JUS
tice Department on the move, and
have agreed to leave the question
entirely up to Congress.
When he said he would prefer
not to have the commission take
on the extra burden, Mr.. Rams
peck said he would not oppose the
proposal if he is called to hearings
at the Capitol.
Prefers Not to Take 1t.
The chairman made clear that
he was considering our own af-
fairs and not the responsibilities
Of the FBI" in saying he would
prefer not to take on the job.
II can understand why Mr..
Hoover would like to get back to
the pimary job for which the FBI
was created" he added.
Justice Department officials
stressed that the proposal would
retain within the FBI the primary
responsibility for investigating
suspicious of disloyalty, espionage
or related matters. It would mere
ly provide that the Civil Service
Commission make the same rou-I
tine job application checks for the
II agencies that it now makes for
most other agencies. Congress has
specified that the FBT make such
checks for the II agencies.
If the commissions checks
turned up any suspicious, under
the proposal, the FBI would take
over. AS well. the FBI would con-
tinue to make routine investiga-
tions of names and fingerprints
of all Federal job applicants, to
see if there are any evidences of
past criminal records.
Aid Programs Included.
The II acts or programs COW
cred by the proposed legislation,
under which the FBI now must
make job applicant checks. in
clude the Atomic Energy Act,
Greece-Turkey Aid, Relief Assist
ance to War Devastated Countries,
Institute of Inter-American Af-
fairs Act, United States Informa-
ton and Educational Exchange
Act, Foreign Assistance Act of
1948, World Health Organization,
international Labor Organization,
National Science Foundation Act,
Foreign Economic Assistance ACT
Of 1850 and Office of District Civil
Defense.
In support of the proposal,
Justice officials said the FBI had
of investigative backlogs
from 58,671 on July !, 1850, to
,595 on January 1, 1851, and
to 125,276 on last July /. More
over, of the 344,599 investigative
matters turned over to the FBI
from July /, 1850, to January l,
1851, 40 per cent were of the ZAP
plication type" investigations COW
cred by the new proposal.
Attorney General McGrath sent
the proposals to the House and
Senate Civil Service Committees,
along with concurrence of FBI
Director j. Edgar Hoover.
Mr.. Ramspeck said approval of
the proposal would require sub
stantial increases in the size of
t he commissions investigative
service. and would require a lar
ger portion of the commissions
appropriation than any other &C
tivity. The loyalty program now
costs more than any other activity, |
he said.