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[[underlined]] Surveys and Investigations Staff Report to the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives on the "Smithsonian Institution Accountability and Management Policies and Practices", December 1977 [[/underlined]]

The Investigative Staff recommends that the Committee consider:

1. "Legislation or specific appropriations language defining the status of the Smithsonian Institution as a Federal instrumentality with accountability, as a Federal agency, for all funds, both Federal and private, and defining the status of private-roll employees with respect to coverage by Federal employee benefit programs"

Action Taken. The Report No. 95-1251 of the House Committee on Appropriations in its action on the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Bill stated that "the Smithsonian Institution is unique in the Federal Establishment". The Committee went on to say that:

"In years past, the Committee appropriated funds in accordance with Smithsonian's request for Federal assistance without special inquiry; but as appropriations increased until they exceeded $100 million, the Committee decided it should look to the Smithsonian's position in the Federal Establishment to try to identify to what extent an institution which began as a private organization was accountable to the Congress.

"Three studies were undertaken on the question. The first by the GAO was deemed unsatisfactory. Two later investigations were made, one by the Smithsonian Board of Regents itself through a very able retired Federal employee, Phillip S. Hughes, the other by the very competent investigative staff of the Appropriations Committee. Both investigations agreed that the Smithsonian Institution is a unique Federal instrumentality all of whose funds, private and public, are subject to Congressional oversight and review, a finding which was accepted by the Smithsonian. It was acknowledged also that all Smithsonian funds, while accounted for separately and never comingled, must be devoted to a single purpose -- the fulfillment of the Smithsonian trust.

"The reports made clear that responsibility for conducting the affairs of the Smithsonian is primarily that of the Board of Regents"

The House Committee report went on to describe a number of maters of interest and concern to the Committee, such as the Institution's plans for developing its endowment and the Committee's desire that an increased