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materials, including the cost of supervision, transportation, and handling, to be reimbursed to appropriations current at the time additional supplies and materials are procured for warehouse stocks from the appropriations chargeable with the cost of stock issued;

On page 90, line 24 of the bill, pertaining to the apportionment for forest highways in Alaska:

Provided further, That during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1933, the expenditures on forest highways in Alaska from the amount herein appropriated or from similar appropriations heretofore made shall not exceed $350,000, and the apportionment for forest highways in Alaska from the sum of $12,500,000 authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year 1933 shall be $350,000.

At the end of the bill, sections 2 and 3, restricting salary increases and the filling of vacancies:

SEC. 2. No appropriation under the Department of Agriculture available during the fiscal years 1932 and/or 1933 shall be used after the date of the approval of this act (1) to increase the compensation of any position within the grade to which such position has been allocated under the classification act of 1923, as amended, (2) to increase the compensation of any position in the field service the pay of which is adjustable to correspond so far as may be practicable to the rates established by such act as amended for the departmental service in the District of Columbia, (3) to increase the compensation of any position under such act through reallocation, (4) to increase the compensation of any person in any grade under such act through advancement to another position in the same grade or to a position in a higher grade at a rate in excess of the minimum rate of such higher grade unless such minimum rate would require an actual reduction in compensation, or (5) to increase the compensation of any other position of the Federal Government under such department. The appropriations or portions of appropriations unexpended by the operation of this section shall not be used for any other purposes, but shall be impounded and returned to the Treasury, and a report of the amounts so impounded for the period between the date of the approval of this act and October 31, 1932, shall be submitted to Congress on the first day of the next regular session.

SEC. 3. No appropriation under the Department of Agriculture available during the fiscal years 1932 and/or 1933 shall be used after the date of the approval of this act to pay the compensation of an incumbent appointed to any position under the Federal Government which is vacant on the date of the approval of this act or to any such position which may become vacant after such date: Provided, That this inhibition shall not apply to absolutely essential positions the filling of which may be approved in wirting by the President of the United States. The appropriations or portions of appropriations unexpended b the operation of this section shall not be used for any other purposes but shall be impounded and returned to the Treasury, and a report of all such vacancies, the number thereof filled, and the amounts unexpended, for the period between the date of the approval of this act and October 31, 1932, shall be submitted to Congress on the first day of the next regular session.

COMPLIANCE WITH PARAGRAPH 2a, RULE XIII

In compliance with paragraph 2a, Rule XIII, there is submitted the following statement indicating specific amendments of statutes:

EXISTING LAW

That there shall be printed ten thousand five hundred copies of the report on field operations of the Division of Soils, Department of Agriculture, of which one thousand five hundred copies shall be for the use of the Senate, three thousand copies for the use of the House of Representatives, and six thousand copies for the use of the Department of Agriculture: Provided, That in addition to the number of copies above provided for there shall be printed, as soon as the manuscript can be prepared, with the necessary maps and illustrations to accompany it, a report on each area surveyed, in the form of advance sheets bound in paper covers, of which 500 copies shall be for the use of each Senator from the State, two thousand copies for the use of each Representative for the congressional district or districts in which the survey is made, and one thousand copies for the use of the Department of Agriculture.

Approved, March 14, 1904 (33 Stat. L. p. 583).'"

PROPOSED CHANGE

On page 8, line 12 of the bill, in connection with the printing of soil surveys:

"Public Resolution Numbered 9, Fifty-eighth Congress, first session, approved March 14, 1904, is hereby amended by striking out all after the resolving clause and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

""There shall be printed as soon as the manuscript can be prepared with the necessary maps and illustrations to accompany it a report on each soil area surveyed by the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, Department of Agriculture, in the form of advance sheets bound in paper covers, of which not more than two hundred and fifty copies shall be for the use of each Senator from the State and not more than one thousand copies for the use of each Representative for the congressional district or districts in which a survey is made, the actual number to be determined on inquiry by the Secretary of Agriculture made to the aforesaid Senators and Representatives, and as many copies for the use of the Department of Agriculture as in the judgment of the Secretary of Agriculture are deemed necessary. The total congressional and department edition shall be held for three years by the Superintendent of Documents, who shall distribute the soil surveys within the above limitations according to the requests of the said Senators, Representatives, or department, and at the expiration of the threeyear period the residue of the edition shall be turned over to the Department of Agriculture.'

MINORITY VIEWS

I can not join in all features of the majority report. The subcommittee handling this bill held hearings for four weeks, followed by several days spent in "writing up" the bill. It was the judgment of the five members of the subcommittee that the Budget recommendations could be reduced $1,299,591. Personally, I favored larger cuts than have been made in some items. I shall offer additional reducing amendments from the floor. It was also our judgment that transfers, new items, and increases in Budget estimates totaling $182,833 were essential and should be made. In addition, we provided for the transfer of the benefits of $500,000 for the Forest Service from one group of forests to another, and reappropriated an unexpended balance of $50,000, making it available for use in 1933 for the same purpose for which it is now available. The new items, increases and reappropriations, totaled $232,833. So that our recommendation to the main committee and to the House would have resulted in a net reduction of Budget estimates of $1,116,758, exclusive of Federal-aid highway appropriations. The items we eliminated we believed unnecessary. The items included we believed essential.

Our work was completed-we were ready to report to the full committee when we received a request from the chairman of the whole committee that we should not include any items in this bill not recommended by the Budget and should increase no items in the bill over Budget figures. That request gave no consideration to the merit or demerit of the proposed new items, increases, or transfers. That "request" was complied with by a majority of the subcommittee. All new items and additions and restorations have been eliminated. By the application of the rule the building of trails to enable the Forest Service to better protect the forests from fires will be delayed; wheat farmers of the western central States are denied funds for barberry eradication that the subcommittee believed should be granted; the sheep men of Texas are denied funds to study a weed, the poison of which caused the loss of over 150,000 sheep last season; farmers in Washington and Tennessee are denied marketing news service that heretofore they have received; the Interior Department appropriation subcommittee may properly grant the continuance of an agricultural experiment station for the farmers of the Virgin Islands, but this committee is denied the right to grant a similar continuance of the agricultural experiment stations in Alaska and Guam; the farmers of South Dakota are to be denied an experiment station they now have, while the construction of three soil-erosion stations ordered by the Congress last year will be delayed, to the detriment of three sections of the Nation.

The adoption of this policy means that the Committee on Appropriations proposes to recommend to the House, in whole or in part,

HR-72-1-VOL 1-16

only those items favored by the Budget. Our function hereafter is to eliminate and reduce or approve Budget estimates, and nothing

more.

This leaves to the Committee on Appropriations of the House only a veto in whole or in part of Budget estimates. If accepted by the House this policy leaves the Senate the body of the Congress that can and will function in the making of appropriations-and that in the face of the traditional policy that the House is the body that originates and functions on appropriations measures. This committee proposes to surrender a part of the functions of the House to the Budget-a part to the Senate-retaining only a small part to itself.

This committee is charged with recommending to the House the appropriation of moneys. I conceive it to be not only our right but our duty to recommend the expenditure of those moneys that we deem necessary to the proper operation of the Government. The adoption now of a policy that we will favorably report only items that the Budget has recommended is to surren der a part of the prerogatives and duties of this committee as a part of the legislative branch to the will of an administrative body. To the extent to which this policy is carried out this committee becomes merely the mouthpiece of the Budget. Members of Congress who desire to recommend the expenditure of funds that Congress has authorized must understand that this committee proposes to function only where first the Budget Bureau has approved-and that without the Budget approval it is useless to appear before this committee, a servant of the Congress, but rather they must go, hat in hand, and plead their cause before an administrative body and there secure permission to do that which the Congress has an inherent and absolute right to do. It is an humiliating surrender of our powers and responsibilities.

This committee permitted Members of Congress, representatives of farm organizations, and others to appear before it and urge the appropriation of moneys for which no estimate was made. One delegation came halfway across the continent to request funds that this subcommittee decided should be granted. We heard them all, we investigated their claims, and now this committee proposes to tell our colleagues of the House and all others that it was all child's play, and that no matter how meritorious or necessary their requests are that they will not be considered favorably.

The Budget Bureau has an essential, important, and proper function to perform. Congress, likewise, has its duties to perform. The curtailing of expenditures is essential. I yield to no one in a willingness to restrict and reduce Government expenditures, but it is also essential, yes, vital, that the independence of the Congress be maintained. The subcommittee was reducing expenditures more than $1,000,000 without surrendering its independence of action, and I believe we can best reduce expenditures by maintaining the use of our independent judgment.

Last week, the House, with much cheering, proposed to take from the Tariff Commission and the President the power now vested there to raise or lower certain tariff schedules. This week, this committee,

at the behest of its chairman, grants to the Budget Bureau, an adininistrative body, the right to forbid the Appropriations Committee to recommend expenditures to the House of Representatives-and to the extent that the Congress accepts our recommendations this committee proposes to place in the Budget Bureau the power to prohibit appropriations by Congress, for purposes which Congress has already authorized, and directed expenditures. In effect the Budget is given the power to veto acts of Congress directing expenditures. This committee has had the respect and support of the House because of its determined maintenance of an independent judgment in recommending expenditures to the House. To the extent to which we now surrender that independence of judgment we must also surrender the confidence and support of the House.

Let us assume that the House accepts the bill and approves the action of this committee. The bill goes to the Senate. That body undoubtedly, will exercise its constitutional powers and revise, add to, and probably put in new items. The House conferees, having been denied the right to exercise their independent judgment on these appropriations in the committee, will be compelled to exercise their independent judgment in the conference-but limited entirely to Senate proposals. If we yield to the Senate in any respect on new items, increases or alterations, we will be doing in conference that which we are now forbidden to do in the committee. The Senate will become the appropriating body of Congress.

Nothing that I have said should be construed as an expression of antagonism to the Budget Bureau. They render an essential, valuable service. They do not desire to supplant or control the independent action of this committee or the Congress. The action taken by this committee (in abdication of its functions) is not at the request or bidding of the Budget Bureau.

Neither can I approve the cut in the appropriations for Federal aid to roads from $109,000,000 to $100,000,000. Allocations to the States are made, not on the basis of appropriations but on the basis of the authorizations in the highway act. So long as that law exists the obligation of the United States is fixed. This cut in the Budget of $9,000,000 makes a fine showing of economy, but it is a paper saving, not one cent will be saved to the United States by this cut, nor will one cent remain in the Treasury that would be taken out by the appropriation of $109,000,000. It will be necessary at the next session of the Congress and during the fiscal year for which we are now appropriating for the President, through the Budget Bureau, to again ask for this $9,000,000 and it will be necessary for this Congress to appropriate the money. The figures will show that Congress appropriated $9,000,000 less than the President asked for, but the figures will mislead, for not one cent of that paper saving will be an actual saving to the taxpayer.

Congress appropriates on an annual basis. This entire amount. will be needed during the fiscal year 1933. It should be appropriated on an annual basis as all other items in this bill are on an annual basis, and as this item has been for the past four years on an annual basis.

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