Editing 78-06-A6 (section)

=== Transcript ===
It was just before mid-February that a Senate Subcommittee heard testimony
by two representatives of the Civil Service commission. Alan Campbell, chairman
of the commission, and Robert J. Drummond Jr., director of Personnel Investigations,
told the committee what some had suspected was indeed true; known members of 
terrorist organizations and even Communist party members can not only become civil
servants in government but can rise to the most sensitive of government positions.
Their subversive connections and associations are deliberately left out of the
Commissions files.

Mr. Campbell said that membership in any kind of organization is protected by
the Privacy Act. The Civil Service Commission does about 25,000 full field
investigations every year and, he added, it is increasingly difficult to obtain
pertinent information about potential government employees. You see, investigators
are instructed to inform each source of information that the information and the
identity of the informant will be given to the person being investigated upon
request. This does not exactly inspire an informant to tell all.

It seems ridiculous, but it is even difficult to get reports of criminal
records of prospective employees. Local law enforcement agencies balk at
revealing conviction and arrest records. This is true of large states such as
California , New York and Illinois and at least 90 cities in other states. In their
words, there is a near collapse of the Federal government's personnel security
program.

It boggles the mind when you consider that this lack of ability to investigate
involves prospective employees in the Pentagon, Foreign service officers and many
who are being hired for other sensitive positions.

The Senate committee well remembers the "cold war" days in the decade
following World War II when communists in a great many critical agencies created
a massive subversion problem in our government.

Senator Strom Thurmond asked Mr. Campbell: --QUOTE--"You have to have some
kind of criteria that enables you to make determinations as to what kind of activity
constitutes proper cause for believing the applicant in question may not be
loyal to the United States. Would you agree to that?" --UNQUOTE--. Campbell
replied there should be such criteria but when he was asked, "Do you have such
criteria today?" He answered "No sir, we do not". Then he was asked if it weren't
true that the commission itself had ruled that applicants for Federal employment
could not be asked whether they were committed to the violent overthrow of our
government or whether their sympathies lay with another government. The answer
was that legal counsel had advised the commission such questions would violate
the Privacy Act.

Senators pressed for answers on specific terrorist groups and whether
membership in them would bar an individual from government service. The answer
was always no, in addition to which the Director admitted the Commission intended
to destroy its files on 2200 questionable organizations.

It makes you wonder if the inmates aren't running the asylum. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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