HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SIXTY-FIFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H. R. 5901 A BILL TO AUTHORIZE AN ADDITIONAL ISSUE OF BONDS TO MEET AUGUST 28 AND 29, 1917 WASHINGTON 1917 us.C., 726. 13-18 SECOND EMERGENCY BOND ISSUE. COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., August 28, 1917. Pursuant to notice, the Committee on Ways and Means met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Claude Kitchin, chairman, presiding. Present: The chairman and Messrs. Rainey, Dixon, Hull, Garner, Collier, Dickinson, Oldfield, Crisp, Helvering, O'Shaunessy, Carew, White, Fordney, Moore, Green, Sloan, Fairchild, Sterling, and Martin. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. Mr. Secretary, the committee would like your views with reference to the necessary bond legislation at this time. STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM G. McADOO, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Secretary McADOO. First of all, gentlemen, I shall refer to the estimated expenditures for the fiscal year 1918, which are based upon the latest returns I have been able to secure from the various departments. It is not necessary for me to say to you that the Treasury Department has no control over expenditures or estimates except in the Treasury Department itself, the function of the Treasury Department being restricted by law to mere transmission from time to time of the estimates of appropriations submitted by the different departments after they have had the approval of the President. The estimated expenditures according to the latest reports we have received from all of the departments for the fiscal year 1918 aggregate $11,782,371,000. The estimated receipts for the fiscal year 1918, based upon existing laws, which, of course, does not take into account the new revenue legislation which is under consideration now, amount to $1,333,500,000, leaving $10,448,871,000 excess of estimated expenditures over estimated receipts for the fiscal year 1918. Of the bonds authorized by the first section of the act of April 24, 1917, there are available for the expenditures of our own Government $2,000,000,000. That would leave a deficiency of $8,448,871,000. The expenditures in 1917 and the estimated expenditures in 1918, which are reimbursable by bond issues, and which relate to the Mexican situation, the Alaskan Railroad, the armor-plate plant, the nitrate plant, the Shipping Board, the Danish West Indies, and the naval emergency, amount to $393,000,000. If we deduct the special authorizations of bonds for those particular accounts we then have an estimated deficiency of $8,055,371,000. I shall leave this tabulated statement here so that you may insert it in the record. 3 |