Whoever shall knowingly deposit or cause to be deposited for mailing or delivery, or shall knowingly cause to be delivered by mail, according to the direction thereon, or at any place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, anything declared by this section to be nonmailable, unless in accordance with the rules and regulations hereby authorized to be prescribed by the Postmaster General, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both; and whoever shall knowingly deposit or cause to be deposited for mailing or delivery, or shall knowingly cause to be delivered by mail, according to the direction thereon or at any place to which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, anything declared by this section to be nonmailable, whether transmitted in accordance with the rules and regulations authorized to be prescribed by the Postmaster General or not, with the design, intent, or purpose to kill or in any wise hurt, harm, or injure another, or damage, deface, or otherwise injure the mails or other property, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

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75TH CONGRESS 3d Session

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

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REPORT No. 1830

DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND LABOR APPROPRIATION BILL, FISCAL YEAR 1939

FEBRUARY 17, 1938.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. MCMILLAN, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 9544]

The Committee on Appropriations submit the following report in explanation of the accompanying bill making appropriations for the Departments of State and Justice and for the judiciary and for the Departments of Commerce and Labor for the fiscal year 1939.

SCOPE OF THE BILL

The bill embraces regular annual appropriations for the various branches of the Government service under the jurisdiction of the Departments of State and Justice and the judiciary and the Departments of Commerce and Labor.

APPROPRIATIONS AND ESTIMATES

The estimates of appropriations upon which this bill is based were submitted by the President in the Budget for the fiscal year 1939 and will be found in detail in that document as follows:

Department of State: Pages 557 to 579, inclusive;

Department of Justice and the judiciary: Pages 481 to 508, inclusive;

Department of Commerce: Pages 303 to 344, inclusive.

Department of Labor: Pages 509 to 526, inclusive.

The following table shows for each Department the appropriations for the fiscal year 1938; the estimates for the fiscal year 1939; the amount recommended by the committee for 1939; the increase or decrease in the amount recommended by the committee for 1939 as compared with the 1938 appropriation; and the decrease in the amount recommended by the committee as compared with the 1939 estimates:

For comparative purposes the following table has been inserted in order that the membership of the House may be apprised of the manner in which the total appropriations carried under each of the four Departments compare with the previous-year appropriations and with the Budget estimates:

It thus appears that the total savings under the Budget estimates reflected in the appropriations recommended amount to $1,838,546.73, and are in excess of the comparable appropriations for the current year by $2,172,546.73.

Nearly the entire increase over the 1938 appropriations is encompassed in one contract authorization approved by the last Congressthat of $2,000,000 inserted in the appropriations for the Bureau of Air Commerce under the Department of Commerce in order that that Bureau might proceed to contract for the installation of additional air-navigation aids. It may be accurately stated then, that save for the necessity of carrying funds in the current bill to provide for payment of obligations under the contracts made pursuant to that authorization, the total amount appropriated for 1939, if the committee recommendations are adhered to, would be only $172,000 in excess of the sums carried for 1938 for the activities of these four departments during the current fiscal year.

The following table indicates the receipts accruing to the Treasury during the fiscal year 1937 as a result of the activities of the four departments covered by the bill:

Offsetting, therefore, the total receipts detailed above against the total appropriations, it appears that the net cost of operating all four of the departments is approximately $96,000,000. Considering the numerous services rendered by these governmental agencies, it would appear that the total cost is not unreasonable.

PURCHASE OF AUTOMOBILES for Cabinet OFFICERS

It has been the custom in the past in carrying appropriations in the various appropriation bills for the purchase of automobiles for the official use of the Cabinet officers to limit the amount that may be expended (including exchange of the old car) to $2,500. In the past few years there have been substantial reductions in the cost of automobiles in the higher-price range. Today, any number of cars of recognized standing can be purchased in the models required for the purposes of Cabinet members for prices ranging from $1,500 to $1,800. It is with this thought that the committee has placed a limitation of $1,800 on the amount that may be expended out of the appropriations in the accompanying bill for the new cars provided for the Secretaries of Commerce and Labor and the Attorney General. It is to be understood that the same limitation will be carried in other appropriations bills which contain funds for the purchase of automobiles for members of the Cabinet.

TRAVELING EXPENSES

In the report on the bill for the current fiscal year the committee indicated that certain consolidations were being made in appropriations for traveling expenses which were designed to place the control of all travel under the immediate supervision of the head of the department. This same method of consolidating all funds for certain objects of expenditure has been employed with respect to printing and binding in all departmental appropriations for many years. The committee action last year was in the nature of an experiment.

While the committee was able to have the benefit of the experience gained during only the first 6 months of the current year, it would appear from the evidence available that this consolidation has worked with a minimum of administrative difficulty and a total saving in travel costs of approximately $200,000 in all three of the departments in which it was tried. In addition to this saving, travel regulations are being standardized and further economies may be expected to accrue as a result thereof.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

In the fiscal year 1938, $19,340,713 was appropriated for the State Department. For the next fiscal year the committee recommends an appropriation of $16,608,750, a reduction of $2,731,963.34 under the previous year appropriation and $409,220.73 under the Budget estimates. All save approximately $900,000 of this decrease in the comparable appropriations for 1938 is accounted for by a diminution in the requirements for public works in progress funds under the jurisdiction of the Mexican Boundary Commission. The balance of the $900,000 reduction represents certain nonrecurring items, the chief of which were an appropriation of $500,000 for certain emergency expenses connected with the protection of Americans in China and aggregate appropriations for miscellaneous international conferences and commissions.

The statement of the Secretary of State, manifest in its interesting and enlightening observations on matters under State Department jurisdiction, would commend reading by all Members of Congress.