to the United States, the title in fee simple to any land which may be acquired by gift.

The act approved February 25, 1931, authorized the remodeling and reconstruction of the naval hospital, Washington, D. C., Congress at that time having found the present hospital buildings to have become obsolete and inadequate to fulfill their mission. As the construction of the naval hospital at Philadelphia was deemed more urgently necessary, however, the Navy Department at that time did not request an appropriation of funds for the Washington hospital, and prior to the completion of the Philadelphia hospital the urgent need for economy in governmental expenditures further delayed a request for such an appropriation.

The need for replacement of the Washington hospital facilities which existed 6 years ago has since become more acute. The present buildings are inadequate, obsolete, and have reached a point where expenditures for maintenance are large and uneconomical. Many of the buildings are of wartime construction. Such buildings are literally firetraps and have so deteriorated as to compel their abandonment as hospital spaces with the result that the bed capacity at the naval hospital has been reduced from 600 to 178. Buildings of permanent construction also have deteriorated to a point where special safety precautions have had to be installed. Estimated bare maintenance costs for the next 7 years are $276,753. Any appropriation toward the modernization of this plant would cost at least $1,000,000 and the facilities still would be inadequate.

The act approved February 25, 1931, restricted the replacement of hospital facilities to the present site. The present bill would authorize its relocation on another site to be obtained by purchase or otherwise in the District of Columbia or vicinity. This change of location is found necessary due to the fact that the present site of less than 10 acres of land available for building is inadequate even for the present needs and would be wholly insufficient for any emergency or wartime expansion. The proposed location of other governmental activities in immediate proximity to the present hospital site and the fact that approximately 6 acres of the present hospital reservation would be unutilizable for construction purposes under the plans of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, require such relocation. Both the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Park and Planning Commission strongly urge the removal of the naval hospital to another and more adequate site, the Commission of Fine Arts in particular pointing out that while the Commission had approved the plans submitted by the Navy Department for construction on the present site, such approval was given only under protest as to the inadequacy of that site. Moreover, the present location is noisy both because of its situation near arterial highways and because of airplane routes immediately overhead. The Navy Department plans, therefore, with the assistance of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts to select a site in as close proximity to naval activities in the District of Columbia as may be obtainable, considering cost, suitability of location, accessibility to District water, and the availability of suitable transportation facilities for patients and personnel.

The naval hospital, Washington, serves the personnel of a very large area, including the Navy Department, Washington Navy Yard, Naval Air Station, Anacostia, Naval Research Laboratory, Marine Barracks,

Quantico, Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Naval Powder Factory, Indian Head, Naval Observatory, Naval Radio Station, certain special cases from the Naval Academy, Annapolis, a large number of retired personnel living in Washington and vicinity, and certain officers and personnel of other governmental activities. Unusually extensive facilities for the hospitalization of officers under examination to determine their physical qualifications for retention in or retirement from the service are required. Provision also must be made at this hospital for the care of all Navy and Marine Corps mental cases pending final determination as to their disposition.

The proposed construction plans facilities not only for the naval hospital but for the entire medical center, including the Naval Medical School, Naval Dental School, technical schools for enlisted personnel, laboratory facilities, power plant, and quarters for Hospital Corps men, nurses, and a limited number of officers. The committee is particularly impressed by the importance of this project as an educational center for medical officers, dental officers, nurses, and enlisted technicians. Washington offers many advantages in accessible form for postgraduate education in medicine and dentistry and for the training of enlisted men in allied laboratory and technical procedures, while the Naval Medical Center, embracing the naval hospital, Naval Medical School, and Naval Dental School, brings the student officer or enlisted technician into actual and immediate contact with the clinical material required to supplement his academic instruction.

The Naval Medical Center, in making available to the sick and injured of the Navy the modern development of "group medicine," also provides that instruction and training essential in the professional and technical work of the officers and enlisted men of the Medical Department aboard ship and at isolated stations.

The facilities at the present naval hospital are entirely inadequate to fully and completely provide for the above activities and, too, the space for expansion is so limited that there is no room for the additional requirements that would be necessary in time of an emergency.

In view of all of the above, the committee considers that the authority provided in this bill should be granted and so recommends to the House.

The committee has added to the bill an amendment to limit the amount to be expended for the purchase of land to not exceeding 15 percent of the total authorized cost of the project, as it is believed that such an amount should be adequate and that the Congress should definitely limit the amount so to be expended.

The following letters indicate the views of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts: NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION, Washington, D. C., May 25, 1937.

The SECRETARY OF THE Navy,

Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY: I have been asked to express my views to the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives in re H. R. 6547, authorizing the acquirement of land by gift, purchase, or otherwise, for a naval hospital and naval medical center. I have long favored this idea and I shall be glad to report in favor of it, but I would like to make one suggestion which I think is quite important, because it applies not only to your request but to the requests of other bureaus and departments of the Government in Washington, to wit: That the advice of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission be required before the acquisition of property.

Let me call your attention to a purchase that you have recently made at Carderock on the Conduit Road for the purpose of developing a naval testing basin

In this case the assistance of our Commission was sought and I think your staff people will tell you that we were helpful to you in the acquisition of what you wished to purchase. The work of our Commission is such that we know a good deal about the value of property in different parts of the city, also know the property that is available, and I feel sure that we could be of help to you in making your selection.

Very sincerely yours,

FREDERIC A. DELANO, Chairman.

THE COMMISSION OF FINE ARTS,
Washington, May 18, 1987.

Rear Admiral PERCEVAL S. ROSSITER, U. S. N.,

Surgeon General of the United States Navy,
Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR ADMIRAL ROSSITER: Last evening I read in the Evening Star your testimony as to the naval hosptial site and noted what you said as to the approval of plans by the Commission of Fine Arts some years ago. This Commission is thoroughly in accord with you in urging a removal to a larger site. The matter is discussed in the Commission's twelfth report, a marked copy of which you will receive with this note. In looking over the proposed site of the new War Department with the President, Mr. Frederic A. Delano and I strongly urged a removal to an adequate site. While the Commission did approve the plans presented by Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams, the approval was given under protest as to the inadequacy of the site. You well know that a modern hospital is rarely both efficient and architecturally agreeable. To build a great mass of buildings on the hill towering above a War Department building would be such an unmistakable error that a mere sketch showing such a project would condemn it before the congressional committee.

The saving to be made by selecting an adequate site and putting lower buildings in brick instead of stone would go a long way toward paying for a new and larger site.

For the Commission of Fine Arts:

Very truly yours,

CHARLES MOORE, Chairman.

The following letter from the Secretary of the Navy addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives sets forth the views and recommendations of the Department thereon, and is hereby made a part of this report:

NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, April 20, 1937. Washington, D. C.

The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

MY DEAR MR. SPEAKER: There is transmitted herewith a draft of a proposed bill to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to proceed with the construction of certain public works in or in the vicinity of the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.

The purpose of the proposed legislation is to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to proceed with construction to replace the present naval hospital and other activities comprising the Naval Medical Center, Washington, D. C.

The act of February 25, 1931 (46 Stat. 1419), authorized the Secretary of the Navy to replace, remodel, or extend existing structures and to construct additional buildings, with the utilities, accessories, and appurtenances pertaining thereto, at the United States Naval Hospital, Washington, D. C.

It now appears that it may be more desirable to construct the new buildings and facilities on a new site elsewhere in or near Washington, instead of at the present site. The proposed legislation would, if enacted into law, authorize this change.

The proposed legislation would involve a cost to the Government of $4,850,000. However, as the bill is in amendment of the act of February 25, 1931, which authorizes the appropriation of $3,200,000 the net increased cost to the Government would be $1,650,000.

The Navy Department recommends that the proposed legislation be enacted. The proposed legislation is in accord with the program of the President.

Sincerely yours,

CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN PUBLIC WORKS IN, OR IN THE VICINITY OF, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

JUNE 22, 1937.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. VINSON of Georgia, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the following

SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 6547]

The Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6547) to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to proceed with the construction of certain public works in or in the vicinity of the District of Columbia, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report it to the House with amendments with the recommendation that it do pass.

In compliance with clause 2a of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, there is herewith printed in parallel columns (1) the text of the provisions of existing laws which it is proposed to repeal or amend, and (2) the parts of the bill making the repeal or amend

ment:

PRESENT LAW

PROPOSED LAW

That the Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorized to construct in the District of Columbia, or in the immediate vicinity thereof, on land already acquired or hereby authorized to be acquired therefor by purchase, gift, or otherwise, buildings to replace the

That the Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorized to replace, remodel, or extend existing structures and to construct additional buildings, with the utilities, accessories, and appurtenances pertaining thereto, at the United States Naval Hospital, Washington, District of Columbia, at a cost not to exceed present Naval Hospital and Naval $3,200,000, of which $100,000 shall be charged to the naval hospital fund: Provided, That the construction herein authorized shall be subject to the approval of the Public Building Commission under the authority of section 6 of the Public Buildings Act of May 25, 1926, to the same extent as other public building construction in the District of

Medical School at Washington, District of Columbia, with the utilities, accessories, and appurtenances pertaining thereto, including facilities for the Naval Medical Center and Naval Dental School: Provided, That the advice of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission be requested before the acquisition of property for

H. Repts., 75-1, vol. 2- -62

PRESENT LAW

Columbia, and the plans for such construction shall be submitted to the Fine Arts Commission for advice.

PROPOSED LAW

this purpose and before the construction herein authorized shall begin; if, located in the District of Columbia the construction herein authorized be subject to the approval of the National Park Service under authority of section 6 of the Public Buildings Act of May 25, 1926, as amended (U. S. C., title 40, sec. 346): Provided further, That the total cost of the land and of the construction hereby authorized shall not exceed $4,850,000, of which not more than 15 per centum may be expended for the purchase of the site.

gift.

SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Navy is SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Navy hereby authorized to employ, when is hereby authorized to accept on bedeemed by him desirable or advantage- half of the United States, free from ous, by contract or otherwise, outside encumbrances and without cost to the professional or technical services of per- United States, the title in fee simple sons, firms, or corporations, to such to any land which may be acquired by extent as he may require for the purposes of this Act, without reference to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, or to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in addition to employees otherwise authorized and expenditures for such purpose shall be made from the naval hospital fund.

[H. R. 6547, 75th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To authorize the Secretary of the Navy to proceed with the construction of certain public works in or in the vicinity of the District of Columbia, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Act approved February 25, 1931 (46 Stat. 1419), be and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:

"That the Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorized to construct in the District of Columbia, or in the immediate vicinity thereof, on land already acquired or hereby authorized to be acquired therefor by purchase, gift, or otherwise, buildings to replace the present Naval Hospital and Naval Medical School at Washington, District of Columbia, with the utilities, accessories, and appurtenances pertaining thereto, including facilities for the Naval Medical Center and Naval Dental School: Provided, That the advice of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission be requested before the acquisition of property for this purpose and before the construction herein authorized shall begin; if located in the District of Columbia, the construction herein authorized be subject to the approval of the National Park Service under authority of section 6 of the Public Buildings Act of May 25, 1926, as amended (U. S. C., title 40, sec. 346): Provided further, That the total cost of the land and of the construction hereby authorized shall not exceed $4,850,000, of which not more than 15 per centum may be expended for the purchase of the site.

"SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorized to accept on behalf of the United States, free from encumbrances and without cost to the United States, the title in fee simple to any land which may be acquired by gift."