Opinion ID: 305804
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Title V of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act of

Text: 1952
7 The Commission primarily bases its authority to impose the annual general charge upon Title V of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952, which provides in pertinent part: 8 It is the sense of the Congress that any work, service, publication, report, document, benefit, privilege, authority, use, franchise, license, permit, certificate, registration, or similar thing of value or utility performed, furnished, provided, granted, prepared, or issued by any Federal agency . . . to or for any person . . . shall be self-sustaining to the full extent possible, and the head of each Federal agency is authorized by regulation (which, in the case of agencies in the executive branch, shall be as uniform as practicable and subject to such policies as the President may prescribe) to prescribe therefor such fee, charge, or price, if any, as he shall determine . . . to be fair and equitable taking into consideration direct and indirect cost to the Government, value to the recipient, public policy or interest served, and other pertinent facts . . . . 9 The legislative history behind this proviso, a rider to the appropriations bill, is sparse, but its purpose was made quite clear by the Report of the House Committee on Appropriations which we now set forth: 8 10 The Committee is concerned that the Government is not receiving full return from many of the services which it renders to special beneficiaries. Many fees for such services are specifically fixed by law, and in some cases, it is specifically provided that no fees shall be charged. In other cases, however, no fees are charged even though the charging of fees is not prohibited; and in still others, fees are charged upon the basis of formulae prescribed in law, but the application of the formulae needs to be re-examined to bring the actual charges into line with present-day costs and other related considerations.