The bill has been indorsed by the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the General Land Office, as indicated by the following letters: Hon. SCOTT LEAVITT, THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, Chairman Committee on Indian Affairs, Washington, June 23, 1930. House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: With further reference to your request of June 11 for a report on H. R. 12871, which would provide for the sale of isolated tracts in the former Crow Indian Reservation, Mont., there is transmitted herewith a memorandum from the Commissioner of the General Land Office. After a review of the proposed measure, I find no objection to its enactment. Very truly yours, RAY LYMAN WILBUR, Secretary. Memorandum for the Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Reference is had to a request from Hon. Scott Leavitt, chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, House of Representatives, for a report on H. R. 12871, "A bill providing for the sale of isolated tracts in the former Crow Indian Reservation, Mont." The bill provides that the provisions of section 2455 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, as amended by the act of March 9, 1928 (45 Stat. L. 253; U. S. C., 2d supp., title 43, ch. 28, sec. 1171), known as the isolated tract law, be extended and made applicable to lands within the portion of the Crow Indian Reservation, Mont., ceded by the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1040). By the terms of the act of March 3, 1891, supra, the United States purchased the lands outright from the Crow Indians. The act provided that the land so ceded should be disposed of to actual settlers only at $1.50 an acre, but the requirement as to price was removed by the free homestead act of May 17, 1900 (31 Stat. 179). The proposed bill, if enacted into law, will provide a method of disposition for small disconnected tracts which are not suitable for homestead entry. This office knows of no objection to the enactment of the proposed legislation. C. C. MOORE, Commissioner. AUTHORIZING SECRETARY OF WAR TO LOAN TENTS, ETC., TO GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA FOR USE AT ENCAMPMENT OF UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS TO BE HELD AT MONTGOMERY, ALA., IN JUNE, 1931 DECEMBER 10, 1930.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed Mr. HILL of Alabama, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 14266] The Committee on Military Affairs having duly considered the bill (H. R. 14266) authorizing and directing the Secretary of War to lend to the Governor of Alabama 250 pyramidal tents, complete; fifteen 16 by 80 by 40 foot assembly tents; thirty 11 by 50 by 15 foot hospitalward tents; 10,000 blankets, olive drab, No. 4; 5,000 pillowcases; 5,000 canvas cots; 5,000 cotton pillows; 5,000 bed sacks; 10,000 bed sheets; 20 field ranges, No. 1; 10 field bake ovens; 50 water bags (for ice water); to be used at the encampment of the United Confederate Veterans, to be held at Montgomery, Ala., in June, 1931, report thereon favorably to the House with the recommendation that it do pass without amendment. The bill is verbatim the same bill as that passed at the last session of Congress for the same purpose and follows the precedent set in the matter of loaning each year certain War Department property for the annual encampment of the United Confederate Veterans. ENABLE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY TO EXPEDITE WORK ON FEDERAL BUILDING PROGRAM DECEMBER 11, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. ELLIOTT, from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 14040] The Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, to which was referred the bill, H. R. 14040, having duly considered the same, hereby make report of it to the House with an amendment and with the recommendation that the bill, as amended, do pass. On page 2, strike out all of section 2. The following memorandum from the Treasury Department gives a history of the public building program and explains the need of this legislation. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Memorandum re the public building program. The present authorized public building program of $530,000,000 is the result of four acts of Congress, namely, act approved May 25, 1926, authorizing an expenditure of $15,000,000 in addition to approximately $10,000,000 previously authorized for the completion of 69 projects authorized prior to 1926, $100,000,000 for new projects outside of the District of Columbia and $50,000,000 for the District of Columbia; act approved January 13, 1928, authorizing an appropriation of $25,000,000 for the purchase of certain land bordering on the Mall in the District of Columbia; act approved February 24, 1928, increased the authorization for construction outside of the District of Columbia from $100,000,000 to $200,000,000; act approved March 31, 1930, amending the two prior acts by authorizing an increase in the District of Columbia from $50,000,000 to $150,000,000 and the program outside of the District from $200,000,000 to $315,000,000, and increasing the authorization for land in the District of Columbia from $25,000,000 to $40,000,000. Therefore, to date, this program may be segregated as follows: $315,000,000 for new construction for the country at large; $25,000,000 for the completion of projects authorized prior to 1926; $150,000,000 for land and construction in the District of Columbia; $40,000,000 for the purchase of sites and property adjoining the Mall in the District of Columbia. The basic act approved May 25, 1926 was not an appropriating act but an authorizing act and provided that before the submission of estimates for appropriations for new projects, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster General should report to Congress the allocation of the amounts authorized under the act. Report showing the allocation of the $100,000,000 authorized by this act was submitted to Congress February 14, 1927, House Document 710, Sixtyninth Congress, second session. On February 18, 1927, the President submitted to the Congress the first major installment under the public building program. Bill H. R. 17355, Sixty-ninth Congress, second session, carrying appropriation items for this first installment passed the House of Representatives February 28, 1927. This bill failed of passage and it was not until March 5, 1928, that appropriations were secured for the new projects submitted to Congress in the early part of the calendar year 1927. Since March 5, 1928, the Treasury Department has augmented the force of the Supervising Architect's office to a point consistent with the limitations of expenditures and the term of years required for the completion of the program. The technical personnel of the office in 1926 for both the office and field force totaled 136; in 1929 this force had been increased to 356 employees. When the KeyesElliott bill was approved on March 31, 1930 increasing the annual expenditures from $35,000,000 to $50,000,000, steps were taken to further augment this force and approximately 490 technical employees are now on the rolls of the Supervising Architect's Office. During the fiscal year 1929 which started three months after the passage of the first major appropriating act of March 5, 1928, the total expenditures under the $530,000,000 program amounted to $22,150,188.15. During the fiscal year 1930, expenditures were practically doubled, amounting to $41,483,141.27. It is estimated that the expenditures for the fiscal year 1931 will approximate $75,000,000, showing that since 1929 the expenditures under the program have been nearly doubled in each succeeding year. Excluding the $40,000,000 authorized for land in the District of Columbia, the status of the construction program of $490,000,000 on November 30, 1930, is as follows: Completed 94 buildings. Under contract 92 projects.. Bids in, on market or specification stage, 33 projects. -- Supervising Architect, 85 projects. Assigned to private architects, 24 projects... Sites acquired, drawings not yet taken up, 12 projects.. Sites or additional land under condemnation, 23 projects.. Data being collected, 1 project.. Held, 8 projects... Total limit.. Limit of cost $31, 661, 362. 04 69, 768, 948. 00 14, 518, 971. 00 45, 575, 647. 00 116, 592, 000, 00 4, 166, 741. 00 23, 081, 300. 00 23, 100, 100. 00 39, 788, 000. 00 7, 122, 800. 00 85, 000. 00 2, 320, 000. 00 377, 780, 869. 04 From the above, it is obvious that the Treasury Department will be able to complete the present authorized program by the end of 1935 or three years earlier than contemplated by present legislation. It is also possible to further expedite the program by the enactment of more liberal legislation, such as is contemplated by Senate bill 4791 introduced on December 2, 1930, by Senator Keyes, and House bill 14040 introduced by Congressman Elliott on the same date. |