where the transfer was actually made for the benefit of the Government, and beginning with the act of December 22, 1927 (45 Stat. 50) the Congress has authorized the use of travel expense appropriations for the expense of such transfers but required as a condition precedent to such allowance that reimbursement of such expense must be "authorized by the head of the department or establishment concerned in the order directing such transfer: Provided, That such expenses shall not be allowed for any transfer effected for the convenience of any officer or employee." This statutory provision has been repeated each fiscal year as a section of the Treasury Department Appropriation Act. See section 2 of the act of May 14, 1937, Public, No. 77. Such provision vests a discretion in the head of the department or establishment which must be exercised personally by the head or by an assistant head authorized by law to act in his place, and the discretion may not be delegated to any other person. Accordingly, when the transfer order is issued by some one other than the head of the department or establishment, it does not satisfy the statutory requirement and this office must refuse to allow credit or claims for traveling expenses so incurred. The cases proposed to be relieved in the suggested legislation all involve transfers between duty stations which were not authorized by the head of the department or establishment but a subordinate official. The necessity for such relief arises from the failure to comply with the statutory requirements enacted by the Congress, but as these transfers occurred at a time when apparently the staturory requirements were not clearly understood by the emergency agencies concerned and the individual employees suffered due to no fault on their part, this office recommends favorable action upon the bill. Sincerely yours, R. N. ELLIOTT, Acting Comptroller General of the United States. О APRIL 11, 1938.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. DOCKWEILER, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 10216] The Committee on Appropriations submit the following report in explanation of the accompanying bill making appropriations for the legislative branch of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1939: SCOPE OF THE BILL The bill embraces regular annual appropriations for the Senate and House of Representatives and those joint services and activities which have heretofore by law or custom been considered as a part of the legislative establishment. The activities of the Government for which appropriations are made in the accompanying bill are as follows: (1) The Senate. (2) The House of Representatives. (3) The Capitol Police. (4) The Joint Committee on Printing. (5) The Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation. (6) The Offices of Legislative Counsel. (7) The Architect of the Capitol. (8) The Botanic Garden. (9) The Library of Congress. APPROPRIATIONS AND ESTIMATES The estimates upon which this bill is based were transmitted in the Budget for the fiscal year 1939 and will be found in detail in that document, pages 3 to 21, inclusive. These annual estimates have been supplemented by additional sums transmitted subsequently to the Budget. The duty of the President in transmitting the estimates for the legislative branch is purely a ministerial function, the estimates forwarded by him being in the same amount and form as they were presented to the Bureau of the Budget by the proper officers of the legislative branch. A detailed tabulation will be found at the end of this report giving for each appropriation in this bill the amount appropriated for the fiscal year 1938, the estimate for the fiscal year 1939, together with a statement of the increases or decreases in the appropriations and estimates as compared with the amounts carried in the bill. The total of the estimates considered by the committee in the preparation of this bill is $21,800,507.38. This sum is composed of $21,670,078 transmitted in the Budget in January last and $130,429.38 subsequently transmitted in House Documents Nos. 501, 516, 526, 538, and 531 of the present session. The amount recommended to be appropriated in the accompanying bill is $21,644,431. This sum, compared with the appropriations for 1938 and the total estimates for 1939, shows the following differences: It is $2,689,244.78 less than the total of the appropriations for 1938; and It is $156,076.38 less than the total of the Budget estimates. The following table shows in summary form the direct appropriations for 1938, the estimates for 1939, and the comparative increases and decreases: Appropriations totaling $3,412,084 are carried in the bill for expenses of the Senate. This compares with an aggregate of $3,380, 252.78 for the current year, an increase of $31,831.22. In accord with established practice, each estimate for the Senate has been approved in the amount submitted, with the exception of two increases, one an addition of $51,000 for mileage of Senators and the other, $12,000 for stationery, both for the current session of Congress. This action conforms to action taken on this same character of items under the House of Representatives designed to make these same allowances applicable to Members of the House. No salary increases not previously authorized or appropriated for are carried. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES A total of $8,543,288 is carried in the bill for expenses of the House, a sum in excess of the 1938 appropriations by $170,936, and an increase of $237,390 in the Budget estimates. The major portion of the increase indicated is explained in the insertion of $171,000 additional to pay for mileage of Members of the House and Delegates for the current session of Congress, and $54,750 for the customary allowance for stationery during this session. Salary schedules for all present House and committee employees remain the same with three minor exceptions. The compensation of the assistant chief telephone operator has been increased from $1,680 to $1,800, that of the assistant clerk of the Committee on Claims has been increased from $1,700 to $2,460, and the salary of the assistant clerk of the Judiciary has been raised from $2,160 to $2,460. Evidence before the committee indicated that the salary paid these employees was much out of line with remuneration for comparable positions in the legislative establishment. The changes recommended will correct the injustice. Ten new positions for the House are included in the bill. One a laborer in the office of the Clerk, $1,260 as authorized in House Resolution No. 404 signed January 21, 1938, and nine clerks at $1,800 each, one for each chairman of a subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee having jurisdiction over a regular annual appropriaton bill. Each such subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee has jurisdiction over appropriations for one or several separate departments, agencies, bureaus, or commissions of the Government. The enormous increase in governmental activities and units during the past several years has placed a considerable burden on the subcommittees. Chairmen of these subcommittees are being subjected to a constant stream of letters and callers seeking information on matters of appropriation and administration. The clerks indicated will assist in servicing this pressure of official business. One position carried in the current year at a salary rate of $3,060 as a special House employee has been eliminated from the bill. The position was created by special resolution and as it is not now filled, there does not appear to be valid reason for its continuance. For miscellaneous items, $96,500 is carried in the bill. This is an increase of $6,500 over the Budget figure and is required to meet operating expenses of the House restaurant for the balance of the current fiscal year. The amount carried under this heading will be sufficient. to allow some adjustments in the salary of certain employees of the House restaurant to make their compensation more nearly conform to the scale of wages paid employees of the restaurant on the Senate side of the Capitol. The committee approves the plan to make the new salary scale effective as of the last 2 months of the current session of Congress. The sum provided will allow $21,000 for the ordinary operating fund for the House restaurant in 1939, plus $2,300 to care for the continuation of the salary increases of restaurant employees during the next fiscal year. The only other changes of consequence are found in the items of appropriation for folding speeches and telephone and telegraph. In the case of the former, $5,000 has been added to the estimate of $20,000 and the entire sum made available immediately. At the present rate of expenditure the additional $5,000 will be required to supply necessary folding services. In the case of the telephone and telegraph appropriation, however, the committee has felt justified in reducing the estimate of $95,000 to $85,000 on the basis of the current rate of expenditure for these charges. Certain changes in telegraph rates has tended to reduce the total outlay for telegraphic expense. The enactement of the joint resolution to authorize an appropriation of $50,000 (of which $25,000 will come from House contingent funds) for the expenses of an inquiry into the Tennessee Valley Authority, makes necessary the appropriation of the $60,000 carried in the estimates for expenses of special and select committees and that sum appears in the bill. Since 1868 the stationery allowance for Members of the House has been $125 per session of Congress. It is a matter of common knowledge that the amount actually expended by Members for stationery and supplies is far in excess of that figure. Certainly, if $125 were justified in 1868 for this allowance an amount considerably greater than that sum is justified today when the business of government and demands on Members of Congress from their constituents is many times greater than it was 70 years ago. The committee is hopeful that the Committee on Accounts will give this matter its consideration with a view of bringing in a resolution authorizing a stationery allowance more in keeping with the actual expenditures necessarily incurred by Members of Congress for the work tools essential in providing service to and for their constituency. Appropriations for the Capitol Police and Joint Committee on Printing remain at their current figures, $110,080 and $11,860, respectively. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL An increase of $5,000 requested for the office of the Legislative Counsel has been disallowed by the committee. The purpose of the increase was to supply a "cushion" in order that salary increases could be extended to employees of the office who might be lured to accept other positions in the administrative arm of the Government or outside employment by the inducement of more substantial remuneration. On the present basis of expenditure there will be an unexpended balance of over $1,100 from the appropriation of $75,000 in the current year which amount will be available for increases in compensation to meet any of the above-described contingencies. The committee feel that this sum is sufficient for this purpose, but should it prove not to be, a deficiency request can be submitted and justified on the basis of the facts existing at the time. ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL The estimates for the Architect of the Capitol contemplated an appropriation of $1,949,406. The committee has reduced this figure to $1,762,639, a reduction of $186,767 in the estimates and less than |