FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION The bill contains an authorization for the use of funds of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for administrative expenses of the Corporation. Heretofore the Corporation has been operating without specific annual authorization by the Congress, but, since 1935, annual budgets have been cleared with the Bureau of the Budget. In appearing before the committee in connection with the authorization in the bill, Mr. Crowley, chairman of the board, stated that This year, to comply with the growing sentiment among congressional leaders that Congress should pass upon the administrative expenses of Government corporations, we voluntarily submitted our annual budget for such expenses for congressional approval. The committee recommends a total of $3,308,412 for administrative expenses, which is $1,588 less than the Budget estimate. A 10 percent reduction in the estimate for penalty-mail accounts for the cut in this item. FEDERAL POWER COMMISSION For this activity the committee recommends a total of $2,439,500, which is $331,533 less than the 1945 appropriation and $500 under the Budget estimates. Excluding overtime pay the aggregate amount recommended is substantially the same as the 1945 appropriation. The increase in the amount recommended for regular activities reflects the necessity for the resumption of certain statutory duties which have been curtailed in order to divert personnel to the Commission's war duties. These statutory duties consist of prosecution of electric and natural-gas rate cases, determination of the cost of licensed waterpower projects, prosecution of unlicensed water-power projects, and determination of the service areas of natural-gas companies. The increase in regulatory work is offset by a decrease in national defense activities of the Commission. Trained personnel now actively engaged in performing the defense activities of the Commission will, under the proposed shift of duties, be transferred to the regular activities appropriation, thus avoiding a demand for new or additional personnel. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION The bill includes $1,897,833 for salaries and expenses of this agency, which is $50,167 less than the Budget estimates. The reduction recommended is attributable to the denial of a proposed increase of $49,667 for administrative expenses and $500 for penalty mail. FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY Office of the Administrator.-In recommending a reduction of $87,600 in the item for salaries and expenses for this office the committee has allowed $250,000, which is $43,302 less than the 1945 appropriation with overtime excluded. In imposing this reduction the committee has taken into consideration the fact that three of the activities at one time supervised by this office have been transferred or substantially liquidated, leaving, in addition to "community facilities," which is an emergency function, only two highly efficient peacetime organizations requiring direction. Public works advance planning.-Title V of the War Mobilization and Reconversion Act of 1944 is to encourage States and other nonFederal public agencies to make advance plans for public works by providing loans or advances to aid in financing the preparation of such plans without commitment on the part of the Federal Government to supply funds for construction costs of such projects. For this purpose the committee has considered a supplemental estimate, in House Document No. 32, amounting to $77,680,000 of which $2,680,000 is intended for administrative expenses. The committee recommends an initial appropriation of $5,000,000 to start this program with a 4 percent limitation on funds available for administrative expenses. The committee is of the opinion that this project should be undertaken on a much smaller scale than is proposed in the Budget estimate and that progress should be made slowly until a fairly accurate picture can be obtained from the States as to what the demand will be for works of this type. While the committee is in favor of post-war planning it believes that every precaution should be taken to prevent the approval of "high pressure" projects and the initiation of projects which are not justified. It should also be pointed out that the State legislatures, which are practically all in session at the present time, undoubtedly will give consideration to the question and many of them will set up a program which will permit cooperation with the Federal Government. When these programs have crystallized and information is available as to just what they contemplate, the Federal Government will then be in a position to determine intelligently, and with some degree of accuracy, the additional funds necessary to carry the program forward. Virgin Islands public works.-Public Law 510, Seventy-eighth Congress, authorized a total appropriation of $10,028,420 for public-works projects in the Virgin Islands. The committee has considered a supplemental estimate, contained in House Document No. 32, of $435,000 to initiate the program. The estimate contemplates the making of surveys, plans, and specifications for projects and provides for the purchase of certain surplus construction equipment now stored in the islands. The committee has allowed a total of $150,000 for the initiation of this program. Of the amount recommended, $50,000 is provided for the acquisition of surplus equipment of other Federal agencies that will be available in the islands for use in this new construction and improvement program. Public Buildings Administration (transfer of activities formerly under Central Administrative Services).-The committee has included in the bill funds for the continuation of certain activities heretofore performed by the Division of Central Administrative Services which were transferred to the Public Buildings Administration on October 1, 1944, pursuant to the provisions of Executive Order No. 9471. The functions transferred include communications services in the District of Columbia and in the field, services with respect to space for field agencies, including the execution and clearance of contracts for maintenance and alterations, and the execution of public-utility contracts. The funds for these services included in appropriations for the Public Buildings Administration are as follows: Salaries and expenses, public buildings and grounds in the District of Salaries and expenses, public buildings and grounds outside the District of Columbia.......... Total.... -1, 800, 900 2,065, 000 For general administrative expenses the committee has allowed $1,347,890, which is a reduction of $26,110 in the Budget estimate, the cut being applied to personnel requested for the repair and preservation of Federal buildings and being in proportion to the reduction recommended in that item. For the repair and preservation of public buildings the committee recommends $6,500,000, an increase of $4,000,000 over the current appropriation and $1,000,000 less than the Budget estimate. While the amount recommended is about two and one-half times greater than the current appropriation the committee believes that the increase is fully justified and that a larger sum could be used to great advantage if an unlimited supply of manpower and materials were available. In supporting the estimate of $7,500,000 for this item Mr. Reynolds, the Commissioner of Public Buildings, advised the committee as follows: Before the war, our appropriations were running around $3,000,000 for repair and preservation. Then, each year we would get a lump-sum appropriation for the construction of Federal buildings, and out of that we would take additional money for making major repairs. Since the war we have done practically nothing in the way of repairs except the most urgent and emergency types of repairs, such as to boilers or elevators. I think we have been entirely too modest in our requests, because the money that has been received is so much below what the commercial operator pays to keep his buildings in repair that it is almost ridiculous. We have buildings that have not been painted for 10 years. I visited recently a post-office building the walls of the lobby of which were all cut up by people while waiting for their mail. We have been mildly criticized by the Budget itself for the improper way in which we keep the hospitals for the Public Health Service in repair. They say we have not spent enough money on them. Well we have to agree as we have been helpless for lack of funds. The committee has approved without change the Budget estimate of $26,495,000 for salaries and expenses in connection with the operation of public buildings and grounds in the District of Columbia, as well as the estimate of $12,160,000 for similar purposes in connection with buildings and grounds outside the District of Columbia. Approval also is given to the proposal that $50,000 be provided for the establishment of a working capital fund to finance a central blueprinting, photostating, and duplicating service now operated by the Public Buildings Administration and being financed from construction funds. The appropriation has been requested to meet the recommendation of the General Accounting Office that specific authority for the project be secured. The committee is advised that the proposed plan will save considerable paper work and accounting. Public Roads Administration.-The committee has approved the Budget estimates for this agency. The amounts proposed in the estimates and recommended by the committee and a comparison with the amounts appropriated for the same purposes for the current fiscal year are set forth below. FOREIGN SERVICE PAY ADJUSTMENT The bill includes $950,000 for this activity, which is $160,000 more than the 1945 appropriation and $50,000 less than the Budget estimate, the reduction being applied to the estimate of $80,408 as a reserve for contingencies, a sum which the committee believes is unnecessarily large for such purpose. During hearings with the Bureau of the Budget the Director was questioned as to whether consideration had been given to a recent report of the Acting Comptroller General in which it was stated that the "entire Exchange Loss Act might now be regarded as obsolescent." The reply of the Director is, in part, set forth, as follows: . We are preparing now, with the State Department, to go far more thoroughly into this and to study the whole background of the appropriation, the present use of it, its connection with cost-of-living allowances which are being granted to people abroad, to see whether there are changes that are necessary either in the regulations or in the law itself, and we will be glad to submit a report to the committee at a later date this year. We have just gotten into it. The committee endorses the proposed study referred' to by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget and will be glad to be advised of the results of the survey. GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE Aside from a reduction of $4,500 in the estimate for penalty mail, the committee has approved the total Budget estimate of $33,885,000 for the expenses of operating this Office during the fiscal year 1946. The total basic increase recommended for the fiscal year 1946, amounting to $1,690,253, provides for increases of $1,039,978 for salaries, and $655,275 for miscellaneous expenses. The committee is advised that during the fiscal year 1944 the General Accounting Office recovered $39,978,928.74 as a result of its work and that collections so far during the fiscal year 1945 indicate that approximately $70,000,000 of erroneous payments will be recovered. In view of this direct saving and the salutary effect of the audit upon the spending agencies, which cannot be estimated in specific amounts, the committee is of the opinion that approval of the appropriation recommended is fully justified. INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION The committee considered Budget estimates totaling $8,433,000 for the several activities carried on by this agency. The committee recommends a total of $7,890,529, which is $542,471 less than the Budget estimates and approximately $170,000 less than the 1945 appropriation with overtime deducted. In denying increases proposing new positions under the items for "General administrative expenses," "Motor-transport regulation," and "Valuation of property,' the committee was governed by the manpower shortage which prevents the expansion of so-called regular activities at this time. In connection with the item for general administrative expenses the committee was advised that there presently exist 138 vacancies and that there would be an estimated unexpended balance of $200,000 at the close of the fiscal year 1945. In view of this situation the committee has felt justified in recommending an additional reduction in that item. NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS The research activities of this committee have been expanded to meet the needs of the Army and the Navy into practically every field involving an aeronautical object. At the present time the work of the Committee is 100 percent devoted to projects of direct interest to the Army and Navy during the war. The Committee has three laboratories under its direct jurisdiction, one at Langley Field, Va., another at Moffett Field, Calif., and a third, an aircraft engine research laboratory, at Cleveland, Ohio. Aside from a reduction of $607 in the item for penalty mail, the committee has approved the entire estimate totaling $26,015,000. The estimate of $26,000,000 for salaries and expenses, which is a basic increase of $3,051,994 over the 1945 appropriation, will permit the employment on a full-year basis of all personnel including that provided for on a part year basis during the fiscal year 1945, and provides personnel necessary to staff the new construction installations heretofore provided. An indication of the high regard in which this agency is held by the Army and Navy is set forth on page 80 of the printed hearings wherein it is stated that the Army and Navy have turned over their own personnel to serve in the laboratories of this agency. NATIONAL ARCHIVES For salaries and expenses of The National Archives there is recommended $913,934, which is $83,066 less than the Budget estimate. |