Dr. MACE: I don’t see how. Public hearings would have to be carried out to a large extent at Commission expenses, although it would be possible to negotiate, for example, for free use of a building. For example, I believe the President of the Uk¬rainian Nationl Association has offered the use of certain of their offices should we wish to hold hearings in the New York area. Similar arrangements might be worked out with other organizations. Yes.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: But will we use a federal building, such as in Chicago?
Congressman GILMAN: I don’t believe there is any charge for using a courtroom, for example, that may be available in one of the federal buildings, as we do in New York City from time to time, and Chicago and elsewhere. But I don’t think we’ll be running into an expense for the use of space in a federal building except for personnel or any printing material that might be needed.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: I think that if we have a choice, I would personally prefer that we have it in a federal building. It lends a lot more legitimacy to the hearing than having it in a Ukrainian setting.
Dr. MACE: That makes very good sense.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Okay. I do want to remind the Commissioners that the proposed budget does suggest one specific project to undertake, and that is the oral history project, and I want to remind the Commissioners that this is specifically in the budget.
Personally I think it is one of the major, positive projects that the Commission should undertake, the oral history project, but I just wanted to remind the people that this is a specific project that’s in the budget.
Ms. MAZURKEVICH: Mr. Chairman, can you explain that?
Dr. MACE: May I refer you to the memorandum from Congressman Mica, Point 2, which is the beginning of page 2, which refers to the employment of contract workers to carry out an oral history project on the Ukraine Famine.

Beginning on June 1, personnel will be available to conduct in-depth taped inter¬views with Ukrainian famine survivors. A pilot project, which I directed in the sum¬mer of 1984, has already produced approximately 100 hours of taped testimony with 57 famine survivors.

Transcription can begin immediately after the hiring or after the organizational meeting if the Commission decides to approve the hiring of transcribers. Contractor work saves 15 percent over hiring staff, since benefits need not be paid to contractors.

This is a way we can watch our budget.

Mr. Leonid Heretz, the Harvard graduate student who actually conducted the inter¬views in the pilot project, which I directed in 1984, will be willing to train interviewers without pay, but we would have to pay to fly him down here from Boston.

This should have high priority, I would argue and the Chairman has argued, because while documentary sources of information will be available essentially forever, the ad¬vancing age of those who witnessed the events that took place over half a century ago means that their number is already diminishing-I estimate-at five percent a year.

We, therefore, have only a limited period of time in which we can learn from them by recording their impressions and memories before this source of information is ir-retrievablv lost.