FIRST DEFICIENCY APPROPRIATION BILL, FISCAL YEAR 1931

JANUARY 5, 1931.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. Wood, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 15592!

The Committee on Appropriations, in presenting the accompanying bill making appropriations to supply urgent deficencies in certain appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931, and in prior fiscal years, to provide urgent supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931, and for other purposes, submit the following explanation thereof:

The estimates upon which the bill is based were submitted in House Documents Nos. 673, 676, 677, 688, 689, 690, 691, 692, 693, 694, and 696, aggregating in all $92,310,485.37.

The amount recommended to be appropriated in the bill totals $92,393,328.15 which sum is $82,842.78 more than the total of the Budget estimates. The amount for the executive branch of the Government is $92,287,668.69, which is $10,000 less than Budget recommendations, and the amount for the legislative branch is $105,659.46, which is $92,842.78 more than the Budget estimates, and of this sum $90,000 is due to the insertion of amounts for payment of a year's salary to the beneficiaries of deceased Members of the House.

Aside from the appropriations for the payment of judgments, damage claims, audited claims, and other claims allowed by the General Accounting Office under law, which total $764,656.58, the remainder of the bill is found practically entirely in five items as follows: Veterans' Administration:

Military and naval compensation.

Army and navy pensions..

Federal aid highway system..

Losses for nonproduction of cotton, pink boll-worm control and

$36, 250, 000 19, 500, 000 34, 000, 000

eradication, Arizona.

Bureau of Prohibition, Department of Justice, salaries and expenses.

675,000 543, 370

3d Session

No. 2178

FIRST DEFICIENCY APPROPRIATION BILL, FISCAL YEAR

1931

JANUARY 5, 1931.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. Wood, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 155921

The Committee on Appropriations, in presenting the accompanying bill making appropriations to supply urgent deficencies in certain appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931, and in prior fiscal years, to provide urgent supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931, and for other purposes, submit the following explanation thereof:

The estimates upon which the bill is based were submitted in House Documents Nos. 673, 676, 677, 688, 689, 690, 691, 692, 693, 694, and 696, aggregating in all $92,310,485.37.

The amount recommended to be appropriated in the bill totals $92,393,328.15 which sum is $82,842.78 more than the total of the Budget estimates. The amount for the executive branch of the Government is $92,287,668.69, which is $10,000 less than Budget recommendations, and the amount for the legislative branch is $105,659.46, which is $92,842.78 more than the Budget estimates, and of this sum $90,000 is due to the insertion of amounts for payment of a year's salary to the beneficiaries of deceased Members of the House.

Aside from the appropriations for the payment of judgments, damage claims, audited claims, and other claims allowed by the General Accounting Office under law, which total $764,656.58, the remainder of the bill is found practically entirely in five items as follows: Veterans' Administration:

Military and naval compensation_

Army and navy pensions..

Federal aid highway system..

Losses for nonproduction of cotton, pink boll-worm control and

eradication, Arizona..

Bureau of Prohibition, Department of Justice, salaries and expenses.

$36, 250, 000

19, 500, 000

34, 000, 000

675, 000 543, 370

The appropriation for military and naval compensation for the current fiscal year is $196,000,000. This sum was allowed on the basis of laws in force at the time which contemplated the termination of filing of new claims for compensation and the submission of evidence on April 6, 1930. Congress, by the act of July 3, 1930, amending the World War veterans' act, removed the limiting date on the filing of new claims and the submission of evidence and also liberalized a number of features of the law. The principal change in the law authorized the payment of disability allowances to any honorably discharged ex-service man who entered the service prior to November 11, 1918, and served 90 days or more and who is suffering from a 25 per cent or more permanent disability not necessarily incident to or the result of his service during the war. In addition to the liberalizing features of the law there have been many claims filed due to the economic situation of the past year and also to the greater publicity given to the benefits veterans may apply for under the law. The main factor entering into the deficiency appropriation at this time is the new provision of law granting disability allowances. Experience during the first five months of the fiscal year indicates that the cost of this legislation during the fiscal year 1931 will be $23,267,685 as against an estimate of $25,281,000 when the legislation was under consideration. While this factor is the principal one entering into the deficiency appropriation of $36,250,000, the remainder of that amount is due to the greater number of claims submitted through the removal of the statutory limit on the filing of new claims and evidence, to the greater activity resulting from calling the attention of veterans to the benefits of veterans' legislation, and to small increases over the estimated expenditures on account of death compensation and the emergency officers' retirement pay.

The additional appropriation of $19,500,000 for Army and Navy pensions is due to the acts of June 2, 1930, and June 9, 1930, liberalizing, respectively, the pensions on account of the Spanish War and the Civil War. On the basis of experience to date it is estimated that the total expenditure for pensions for the current fiscal year will be $232,000,000. The appropriation previously made is $212,500,000, which accounts for the present item of $19,500,000.

In connection with the appropriations for military and naval compensation the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs informed the committee that further sums for that purpose and for expenses of administration resulting from the new features of the law would be submitted for consideration in connection with the second deficiency bill when better data will be available from the longer experience of operation under the amended act.

The appropriation of $34,000,000 for the Federal-aid highway system results from the increased authorization under the act of April 4, 1930, which raised the annual amount of Federal aid from $75,000,000 to $125,000,000. This appropriation is based upon the need for funds to complete the fiscal year 1931 for use as the Federal Government's payment on Federal-aid projects whether matched by the States with their own revenues or by funds advanced to them under the $80,000,000 appropriated in the emergency construction appropriation act approved December 20, 1930.

The appropriation of $675,000 for compensation to farmers in the State of Arizona for losses sustained because of the enforced nonproduction of cotton for the crop season of 1930 arises under the provisions of the act approved February 8, 1930, in connection with the eradication and control of the spread of the pink bollworm of cotton. The estimate is based upon consideration of approximately 300 claims and under the provisions of the act referred to the losses for nonproduction will be paid by the Federal Government and one-half of the gross amount is to be reimbursed to the United States by the guarantors whom the Secretary of Agriculture accepted under the act for that purpose. In connection with the appropriation a paragraph is recommended excepting from repayment by or on behalf of the State of Arizona one-half of any losses on account of Indians farming land on Indian reservations located within an established noncotton zone. This proviso will exempt repayments on approximately 1,800 acres of land in the Pima Indian Reservation where the compensation is estimated not to exceed $20,000, the full amount to be borne by the Government.

The appropriation of $543,370 for the Bureau of Prohibition for the remainder of the fiscal year 1931 is made up of $351,870 for 257 additional persons in the field service, $25,000 for stationery and office supplies, $142,500 for traveling expenses, $10,000 for collection and dissemination of information and appeal for law observance and law enforcement, and $14,000 for furniture and office equipment. The additional personnel requested comprises the following at the stated annual rates of compensation: Two assistant administrators, at $4,600 each; 1 assistant administrator, at $3,800; 4 deputy administrators, at $3,200 each; 24 investigators, at $2,900 each; 24 investigators, at $2,600 each; 24 instructors, at $3,800 each; 12 chiefs of permit sections, at $3,200 each; 130 prohibition agents, at $2,300 each; 1 senior clerk, at $2,000; 23 assistant clerks, at $1,620 each; and 12 junior clerks, at $1,440 each.

A part of the appropriation recommended herein is directly due to the act passed at the last session dividing the Bureau of Prohibition in the Treasury Department into two separate organizations, namely, Bureau of Prohibition in the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Industrial Alcohol in the Treasury Department, each with separate and distinct duties to perform, which duties formerly were assigned to the one agency. As the result of this division of duty and the establishment of two bureaus, a realignment of organization in each was necessary. Two directors are necessary instead of one, two assistant directors instead of one, and the organization all along the line in the department and in the field in each bureau has felt this added cost of readjustment and reassignment of duties and this necessarily resulted in additional personnel in each bureau in the performance of its duties without regard to any increased activity. A part of the increase is due to increased activities of the Bureau of Prohibition under the Department of Justice. The committee has received from the department a break-up of the details of the appropriation for the 6-month period based upon the additional cost due to reorganization and the additional cost due to increased activities, as follows: