Mr. PRYSE. The Highway Act of 1944 authorizes $6,000,000 per year for the Indian Service road work during the first three postwar years. If this request for $800,000 is granted, plus what we are asking for next year in the regular Budget, it still will be less than the $6,000,000 authorized the Indian Service for road work annually for the three postwar years. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What did you ask the regular committee for? Mr. PRYSE. $4,700,000. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. In 1946? Mr. PRYSE. The Indian Service asked for $1,740,000, which would have covered the maintenance of roads and bridges. STATUS OF CURRENT APPROPRIATION Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What is the appropriation? Mr. CANNON. What is the status of the $900,000; how much have you on hand? Mr. PRYSE. $175,000 as of March 1st-approximately just enough to go along until the end of the year with only token maintenance. There are no funds for purchase of any materials, machinery repair, and so forth. We would like to repair these bridges, and have road repair work done on 14 reservations that now have many roads closed. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. HOW much have you spent? Mr. PRYSE. Of the $900,000? Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Yes. Mr. PRYSE. Approximately $175,000 as of March 1. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You do not know how much you have spent? Mr. PRYSE. I do not have the exact figure. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. I wish you would supply that for the record. It is hard for this committee to act on a deficiency request unless they know how much has been spent. I wish you would furnish the exact amount for the record, if you will. Mr. PRYSE. Yes, sir. (The information requested is as follows:) The amount is $101,822 which is totally encumbered. Mr. CANNON. You will have to do some planning before you take up construction. Mr. PRYSE. Yes; we already have many projects surveyed and approved by the Indian Service and the Public Roads Administration that are ready for construction. Mr. CANNON. You are ready to go right now? Mr. PRYSE. Yes, sir. Mr. CANNON. You could not make your plans now to start July 1, with $4,700,000? I think you should be planning for that. Why do you not make your plans and start with the new appropriation on July 1? Mr. PRYSE. Our plans are ready to begin construction July 1, but we need funds now for maintenance and bridge repair prior to July 1. Mr. CANNON. This is an emergency matter? Mr. PRYSE. Yes, sir; it certainly is. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. This is called deferred maintenance? Mr. PRYSE. That is true, because there has been practically no maintenance during five war years. This $800,000 is for maintenance only and it is an emergency matter. This $800,000 requested could be considered a portion of the $6,000,000 per year authorized for Indian Service road work in the Federal Air Highway Act of 1944. As I stated a moment ago-this request for $800,000 plus $4,700,000 asked for in the regular budget totals $5,500,000 or less than the $6,000,000 authorized the Indian Service per annum. THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1946. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE STATEMENT OF DR. IRA N. GABRIELSON, DIRECTOR Mr. CANNON. Dr. Gabrielson, I am sorry to know that you are leaving the Fish and Wildlife Service and are going to retire. You have done some great work. Dr. GABRIELSON. It was a difficult decision to make, Mr. Chairman, but I had to do it. Mr. CANNON. I will say after long sessions with you on this committee and on the subcommittee in charge of the Agricultural Department appropriation bill, that we appreciate your service. You have made a remarkable record in your development of the Fish and Wildlife Service, and we are very sorry to have you leave. INCREASED LIMITATION ON EXPENDITURES FOR PERSONAL SERVICES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Mr. CANNON. Doctor, you have a proposal before us to increase the limitation on expenditures for personal services in the District of Columbia from $704,828 to $729,000, or by $24,172. What is the occasion for that, Dr. Gabrielson? Dr. GABRIELSON. Mr. Chairman, there was a reduction in the 1946 limitation. We have had a number of positions that have become vacant since the 1st of July, and a few in the field during the war because we could not find people to take them. Since July 1, up to March 8, we have 12 service people come back and ask for their jobs, as a result of being discharged from the military service. There was another one in the office this morning who has asked to be restored to duty on Monday. He is an assistant division chief. We have others coming back, and they will be used largely to fill vacancies, because we have not filled some of these vacancies as we knew these furloughed employees would come back. Mr. CANNON. They do not displace anyone when they come back? Dr. GABRIELSON. No. Mr. CANNON. And it does not increase your total personnel? Dr. GABRIELSON. It does not increase either the appropriation or the personnel. Mr. CANNON. The Budget estimate on account of Public Law 106. on account of the Fish and Wildlife Service is $543,100. It is stated in a lump sum. How much of that is applicable to the force covered by the limitation? Dr. GABRIELSON. I cannot answer that, Mr. Chairman, but I will look it up and put a reply in the record. (NOTE.-The amount in question is $87,565.) Mr. CANNON. The budget for 1947 proposes to raise the limitation to $929,790. The approval of the pending request would leave a margin of $263,790. Would you not have sufficient on hand to take care of your needs? Dr. GABRIELSON. We do not have, Mr. Chairman. We are having to absorb a certain percentage of Public Law 106 this year both in the Department and in the field. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Was not the limitation fixed to cover your authorized personnel? Dr. GABRIELSON. For some reason it was cut below that. We have the appropriation for this personnel, but the limitation was not provided in the amount of the appropriation. If those people had not come back from the service, the limitation would have been sufficient. As soon as the war was over I commenced to hold vacancies for our furloughed employees, and now that they have come back we have put them in their old places. We did not put anybody in those places while the war was going on. THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1946. VETERANS' EMERGENCY HOUSING PROGRAM STATEMENTS OF WILSON W. WYATT, NATIONAL HOUSING ADMINISTRATOR AND HOUSING EXPEDITER; LYMAN S. MOORE, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL HOUSING AGENCY; LEON H. KEYSERLING, GENERAL COUNSEL, NATIONAL HOUSING AGENCY; R. E. O'HARA, BUDGET OFFICER, NATIONAL HOUSING AGENCY; PHILIP M. KLUTZNICK, COMMISSIONER, FEDERAL PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY; PHILIP F. MAGUIRE, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR, CIVILIAN PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATION; LYLE BELSLEY, EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CIVILIAN PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATION; HAROLD PRICE, GENERAL COUNSEL, CIVILIAN PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATION; JOHN P. DOLAN, BUDGET OFFICER, CIVILIAN PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATION; AND JAMES E. DODSON, BUDGET OFFICER, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT Mr. CANNON. Mr. Wyatt, this is the first time you have been before this committee, but you are not a stranger to us. We have heard a good deal about you in Louisville and your administration down there. Our distinguished colleague from Kentucky, Mr. O'Neal, has frequently talked about the accomplishments of your administration down there and your administrative ability. We are glad to have you with us this morning. We have an estimate here in House Document 503 as follows: Veterans' housing: For an additional amount to enable the National Housing Administration to carry out the purposes of title V of the act of October 14, 1940, as amended, $253,727,000 to be available until expended. The committee has not had an opportunity to go into this except in a very cursory way, because most of the data just arrived this morning; but, as I understand it, the proposition here is to add 100,000 units to the housing available for veterans and it includes an allowance for administrative expenses for the program, administrative expenses of your office for the remainder of the fiscal year, and administrative expenses of all agencies that you call in to assist you in the administration of the act. As I understand it, this has no connection with the housing bill which the House passed on March 7. Mr. WYATT. That is right. Mr. CANNON. It is an enlargement and continuation of the program under title V of the Lanham Act and involves the panelization of war housing and its movement and reerection on more convenient sites, especially with reference to educational institutions, States, or political subdivisions thereof. I think this is a rather comprehensive statement we have here. It is quite brief and I suggest it be read at this time either by you or the clerk. GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. WYATT. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, first of all, I want to say I appreciate very much the opportunity to come before this committee for the first time in connection with the veterans' emergency housing program. Perhaps it would be better if I had not come before you. With Mr. O'Neal having pleaded my case before, I do not know but what it would have been better to let it stand on what he said. Just before I read this, I want to emphasize that the appropriation requested, approximately $250,000,000, is 98 percent plus for temporary reused war housing in a field that is very familiar to the committee because of its previous action with regard to the bill passed the latter part of December, and something less than 2 percent of it is actually for the administrative expenses of the AdministratorExpediter, and for the administrative expenses of CPA and the Labor Department. The work is obviously centralized in the AdministratorExpediter, but we are working it out on a single-staff basis, rather than a separate staff for the Expediter and a staff for the Administrator, feeling thereby we can accomplish economies and an efficiency which we could not have if we were to have two separate functioning organizations. And so both in the field and in Washington we are contemplating one staff for both the Expediter and the Administrator, rather than two. It contemplates an enlargement of the staff both here and in the field, particularly in the field, because we expect a great deal can be done through local community leadership in the accomplishment of the program which could not be done just from Washington alone. Both in our agency and CPA, great emphasis is being placed on what can be done in the field by representatives of our respective agencies and also by working in cooperation with local community committees, which we are arranging to set up in the various cities. Now, taking up the statement which is before you: The veterans emergency housing program and the critical housing need which it was designed to meet were set forth in a letter dated February 7, 1946, from the Housing Expediter to the President and, as the members of the committee know, was announced and signed by the President the following day, February 8, 1946. That program calls for the construction of 2,700,000 dwelling units by December 31, 1947, to house returning veterans and their families. Practically all of these dwelling units will be a permanent addition to the national housing supply. With the exception of approximately 200,000 emergency units to be obtained by conversion of publicly owned structures, they are to be privately financed construction at prices or rents within the means of the average veteran. I might explain here that while the program is emphatically for the veteran, arrangements are made for hardship cases. In order that hardship cases will receive attention along with the veterans-realizing, as we do, that this is essential-provision will be made for hardship cases; but the definition of hardship cases will probably be more stringent at the outset and will be liberalized as we move along and as the available supply of houses becomes greater. To achieve our national objective, private enterprise (the housing industry, the forces of labor) and the local community must be mobilized in somewhat the same way as during the war in support of this program. While legislative action has not been completed on vitally important recommendations, there are now authorized major parts of the powers for Federal action. This estimate which is based on program activities to June 30, 1946, would be increased only to a relatively minor extent by enactment in full of the legislation proposed by the President. And as the chairman has already commented, the presentation here made is for an appropriation under authority of existing legislation plus the Mead-Lanham bill which passed the Senate, and has been approved by the House committee and is before the House this afternoon for action. It does not include, as the chairman said, the other pending housing legislation. However, much of that part of the program to be performed directly by the Office of the Expediter-National Housing Administrator can be put in motion now. Other Government agencies whose participation is essential to the achievement of the program goal must be swung into action, as soon as funds are available, to exercise their presently authorized powers. The need for veterans housing grows daily more acute. Critical inroads in the existing supply of materials are being made by other types of construction, much of it clearly nonessential in a time of emergency. If the program goals for 1946 are not to be prejudiced beyond repair we must get into high gear on- (1) Expansion of the program for re-use of surplus war structures to produce temporary housing for veterans to tide over most serious shortages. (2) Immediate action, principally by CPA, to stimulate production of building materials, defer nonresidential construction-that is, defer nonresidential construction which is not immediately necessary either for employment or in the community facilities to serve housing that would be built under this program and channel, by priority and allocation, maximum proportions of available materials supply to privately financed production of permanent low-cost veterans housing. |