The Northwest Times

House Fund Unit Raps
Justice Dept. Handling
Of Claims Program

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 21 (ADC)—The House Committee on Appropriations severely criticized the handling of the evacuation claims program by the Department of Justice, the Washington office of the JACL Anti-Discrimination Committee announced this week.

In its report recommending an appropriation of $725,000 for the 1952 fiscal year for the evacuation claims project, the appropriations committee specifically pointed out many shortcomings in the Department of Justice's handling of the program.

The committee report said:

"An investigation requested by the committee revealed certain deficiencies in the administration of this program such as failure to devise proper forms for the filing of claims; failure to publish and distribute to claimants a statement as to the type of proof of ownership, value, and disposition required; failure to timely advise Congress of the need for remedial legislation; and improper assignment of personnel to the program. Correction of such deficiencies will permit the expeditious adjudication of these claims."

Mike Masaoka, national legislative director of the JACL ADC, hailed the committee's charges as being a repetition of the criticisms which the JACL ADC has made of the program from the very beginning.

"Now that a Congressional committee has pointed up their failures, perhaps, even at this late date, the Department of Justice will begin to handle this program as Congress intended when it passed the basic law in 1948," Masaoka said.

The $725,000 which the House Appropriations committee recommended to the House was $25,000 less than what the Bureau of the Budget had requested. This $25,000 reduction was made in the administrative requested by the Justice department, leaving $225,000 for this purpose and $500,000 for the payment of claims under $2,500.

For the fiscal year 1951, which ended last June 30, the Congress appropriated $1,300,000, of which $200,000 was for administrative purposes.

This means, as Masaoka pointed out, that the committee recommended only about half of the amount that Congress approved for the last fiscal year.

"We can place the blame for this drastic cut squarely on the Department of Justice," Masaoka said, "for in the past 12 months it has approved for payment far less than $200,000 in claims.

"We can hardly expect an economy-minded Congress to recommend even the same appropriations as last year for the evacuation claims program if the Department of Justice continually awards less than a quarter of the amount Congress allocates for the payment of claims every year. When Congress appropriates a million dollars to pay off claims, it expects that much or more in claims is to be paid off. But, when an executive department continues to pay off less than a quarter of the amount appropriated for that purpose, Congress naturally assumes that the department has inflated its estimates and, in this case, the evacuee-claimant is the innocent victim of this departmental inefficiency."

"With Congressional prodding symbolized by the report of the appropriations committee, perhaps the Justice department will at long last begin to streamline and liberalize its program so that those who suffered evacuation losses will receive their claims in the next few years," Masaoka hoped.