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recruitment and retention incentive. Given that the quality of housing now is only fair, and that more than 50 percent of the housing exceeds thirty years in age, we can ill afford to neglect housing maintenance. This is doubly inperative because there are no plans to build new housing. The Commission must live with what we have, and it is impractical not to maintain the existing assets.
Mr. Chairman, we believe this Authorization Bill, if adjusted as we propose, reflects the most accurate estimate that can be made at this time of the expected net revenues and required operating costs of the Commission during fiscal year 1981.
Again, I appreciate the opportunity to appear here today and bring you up to date on events, and to speak to the proposed Authorization Bill.
With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I will be followed by Mr. D. P. McAuliffe, the Administrator of the Panama Canal Commission. I recommend you hear Mr. McAuliffe's statement at this time, and offer questions to the two of us upon completion of his statement. Thank you.
Senator LEVIN. General McAuliffe?
STATEMENT OF HON. DENNIS P. McAULIFFE, ADMINISTRATOR,
PANAMA CANAL COMMISSION, ACCOMPANIED BY MICHAEL RHODE, JR., SECRETARY, AND MYRON A. SCHROEDER, CHIEF,
FINANCIAL PLANNING DIVISION
Mr. McAULIFFE. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to appear this morning to request authorization for the fiscal year 1981 budget programs of the Panama Canal Commission.
Accompanying me are Michael Rhode, Jr., the Secretary of the Panama Canal Commission, and Myron A. Schroeder, Chief, Financial Planning Division.
With your permission, I would like to summarize very briefly my statement and have the full text placed in the record.
Senator LEVIN. It will be placed in the record.
OVERVIEW OF OPERATIONS UNDER THE TREATY
Mr. McAULIFFE. The treaty went into effect a little over 8 months ago. The Commission has gone through a period of significant adjustment to adapt to the changes. I am happy to report that, in spite of the traumatic impact of the entry into force of the treaties on our work force, our employees are coping well and the mission of transiting vessels through the canal is getting done as efficiently as in the past. This is not to say that all our problems are behind us. There is still much to be done, but we are receiving a great deal of cooperation, and the whole spirit of the enterprise is improving.
TREATY IMPACT ON WORK FORCE
Perhaps one of the most significant conditions of the entry into force of the treaties was the reduction that occurred in the work force of the Commission. Out of a work force in excess of 12,000 permanent employees, only 8,000 remained on October 1. Some of those were transferred to the Department of Defense activity, with the hospitals, the dependent schools, the postal system, and the retail stores. Others resigned and were employed immediately by Panama in the operation of the ports and the Panama Railroad. But there were others who were affected by reductions in force. Associated with it all was a traumatic impact on over a thousand of our employees who wound up
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