PARTICIPATION BY THE UNITED STATES IN THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY UNION FEBRUARY 19, 1932.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. LINTHICUM, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. J. Res. 275] The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to which was referred the resolution (H. J. Res. 275) to authorize participation by the United States in the Interparliamentary Union, having considered same reports thereon, without amendment, with the recommendation that the resolution do pass. The American group of the Interparliamentary Union has existed continuously since 1904. There are similar groups in the parliaments or congresses of many nations and delegates are sent by most of them to conferences held at such places as are designated by the proper authorities of the union. At the twenty-third conference which was held in the city of Washington in 1925, 41 parliaments were represented. The twenty-seventh conference was called to meet in Bucharest in October, 1931. The purpose of the union is a study of questions of an international character which are suitable for settlement by parliamentary action by delegates from practically every parliamentary body of the world. For many years the United States group has contributed annually toward the maintenance of the Bureau of the Interparliamentary Union the sum of $6,000. This has been carried each year as an item in the State Department appropriation bill. The contributions for the work of the bureau are from various national groups and range from a few hundred francs from the groups of some of the smaller nations to the amount mentioned from the American group. Under the new scale of contributions recommended in 1929 by the council of the Interparliamentary Union the amounts suggested for all groups were considerably increased. Many groups have accepted the new scale, others have increased their contributions without agreeing as yet to pay the full amount suggested. Under the new scale the share of the United States would be 63,000 francs, approximately $12,000. Pending the fuller participation of other governments under the new scale, however, and upon the unanimous recommendation of our delegates to the conferences of the commissions at Geneva in August, 1929, the bill making appropriations for the State Department for the fiscal year appropriated $10,000 for the contribution of the United States for the maintenance of the Bureau of the Interparliamentary Union for last year and the year before and your committee recommends that an appropriation of the same amount ($10,000) be authorized for the coming year. Your committee also recommends that an appropriation of $10,000 be authorized to assist in meeting the expenses of the American group during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1933. This amount is identical with the appropriation made in 1928 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1929, and in 1929 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1930, and in 1930 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931, and in 1931 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1932. O COOPERATION OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR FEBRUARY 19, 1932.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. CONNERY, from the Committee on Labor, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 8088] The Committee on Labor, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 8088), having considered the same reports favorably thereon, and recommends that the bill do pass with the following amendment: Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert, in lieu thereof, the following: That there is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $300,000,000, one-third of which shall be immediately available, for loans by the Secretary of the Treasury to the several States, in the manner hereinafter provided. Not more than $100,000,000 of this amount shall be loaned during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1932. SEC. 2. (a) Out of the amounts appropriated pursuant to section 1, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and empowered to make loans to the several Štates, in the manner hereinafter provided, and in such amounts as the Secretary shall determine. (b) Each application for a loan under the provisions of this act shall be made by the governor of the State. Loans to the States in the amount hereinbefore authorized shall be made by the Secretary of the Treasury, but no loans shall be made to any State until the governor has furnished the Secretary of the Treasury, under rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, notes, debentures, bonds, or other obligations of the State in an amount equal to the amount of the loan. Such loans shall bear interest at not more than 5 per cent and shall mature not more than 10 years from the date of the loan. (c) If any loan made to a State under the provisions of this act has not been repaid at the expiration of 10 years from the date of the loan, there shall be deducted in each year thereafter, and applied to the discharge of the principal and interest of such loan, an amount equal to one-tenth of the sum that would otherwise be paid to such State by virtue of allocations from any appropriation or appropriations that may be made pursuant to or to carry out the purposes of the Federal highway act, as amended. SEC. 3. (a) There is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $200,000,000, of which $75,000,000 shall be immediately available, for grants by the Secretary of the Treasury to the several States, in the manner hereinafter provided. Not more than $75,000,000 of this amount shall be advanced during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1932. HR-72-1-VOL 1-65 (b) The amount authorized by this section shall be available for grants to any State which by reason of the inhibition of its constitution can not, under its existing law or by an act of its legislature, authorize an application by the State for a loan under section 2 of this act, or any State which has already borrowed to the full extent authorized by its constitution and laws and can not under its constitution increase the authorization by act of its legislature. Grants made to any State under this section shall be in such amounts as the Secretary of the Treasury shall determine. Requests for grants under this section shall be made by the governor of the State and shall be accompanied by a statement that the amount requested is necessary for emergency relief in such State and can not be obtained either from public or private sources. At the time of making any such request the governor shall agree that he will recommend to the legislature of his State and also to the people thereof such action as may be necessary and appropriate to insure the repayment to the United States of all amounts received by the State pursuant to such request. (c) If any grant made to a State under the provisions of this section has not been repaid at the expiration of 10 years from the date of the grant there shall be deducted in each year thereafter, an amount equal to one-tenth of the sum that would otherwise be paid to such State by virtue of allocations from any appropriation or appropriations that may be made pursuant to or to carry out the purposes of the Federal highway act, as amended. The amount so deducted shall be applied toward the discharge of the amount of such grants to the State. SEC. 4. There is also hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $200,000,000 for expenditure by the Secretary of the Treasury for the construction, enlarging, remodeling, or extension of public buildings under the control of the Treasury Department in cities for which allocations have heretofore been made, but for which estimates have not been submitted to Congress. Such amount may be expended without regard to the provisions of section 4 of the public buildings act of May 25, 1926, as amended, requiring the submission of estimates to the Bureau of the Budget, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to fix the limit of cost for each of such projects. Expenditures for professional services may be made from such amount without regard to any act limiting expenditures for outside professional services. Such amount shall be in addition to any amounts heretofore authorized under such act of May 25, 1926, as amended, and except as herein otherwise provided shall be expended in accordance with existing law. SEC. 5. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to make all rules and regulations necessary to carry out the provisions of this act. Section 4 of public building act of 1926 and amendments approved May 25, 1926, referred to in section 4 of the bill reads as follows: SEC. 4. The Secretary of the Treasury shall submit annually and from time to time as may be required estimates to the Bureau of the Budget, in accordance with the provisions of the Budget and Accounting Act, 1921, showing in complete detail the various amounts it is proposed to expend under the authority of this act during the fiscal year for which said estimates are submitted, which shall include a statement of the location of the buildings proposed to be erected, together with a limit of cost for the same: Provided, That in submitting such estimates the Secretary of the Treasury shall allocate the amounts proposed to be expended to the different States where buildings are found by him to be necessary, in such a manner as to distribute the same fairly on the basis of area, population, and postal receipts: Provided further, That unless specifically provided for in the act making appropriations for public buildings, which provision is hereby authorized, no contract for the construction, enlarging, remodeling, or extension of any building or for the purchase of land authorized by this act shall be entered into until moneys in the Treasury shall be made available for the payment of all obligations arising out of such contract, and unless the said act making appropriations for public buildings shall otherwise specifically provide, as hereinafter authorized, appropriations shall be made, and expended by the Secretary of the Treasury, in accordance with the estimates submitted by the Bureau of the Budget: Provided further, That the act making said appropriations may provide for any other buildings contained in the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury hereinafter provided for: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall also, in addition to submitting estimates to the Bureau of the Budget as herein provided, make an annual report to Congress containing a statement of the location of all public buildings which he and the Postmaster General (where his department is involved) deem necessary to be constructed under the provisions of this act together with a limit of cost for the same: Provided further, That the foregoing provisos shall not apply to buildings or their modification heretofore provided for by act of Congress: Provided further, That at least two buildings shall be estimated for during the period covered by this act in each State for post offices with receipts of more than $10,000 during the last preceding year, for which post offices no public buildings have been provided. The purpose of this bill is to grant emergency relief by cooperation of the Federal Government with the several States in relieving the hardship and suffering caused by unemployment and for other purposes. The majority of the members of the Committee on Labor felt that immediate action by Congress was necessary to prevent untold hardship and suffering among the people of the Nation, and that this bill allowing loans to the States by the Federal Government would be the most practical at this time to secure immediate and direct action for relief. Section 4 of the bill, providing for construction of public buildings by setting men to work immediately, would decrease greatly the unemployment situation and aid in the return of normal conditions of prosperity. O |