existing limitation and, after consultation with District officials, the committee has concluded that it should be possible to secure advantageous contracts without increasing the limitations as proposed. In collaboration with officials of the District government, a provision has been drafted authorizing transfers between limits of costs in the various buildings involved. In no event would the limitation on any one building be increased by more than 10 percent on such transfer. All of these projects are needed at the earliest practicable date, and it is reasonable to expect that the authority granted will permit early contracting.

National Guard.-The deficiency estimate of $29,578, against which the committee recommends appropriation of $20,000, represents a wanton disregard of law. The officials of the District National Guard. made no effort to allocate their funds as required by the Anti-Deficiency Act, proceeded to expend as they saw fit, and now present no adquate excuse for their action. These very necessary functions must, of course, be maintained, and the committee therefore recommends the appropriation of $20,000, but wishes to make it abundantly clear to the commanding general and his associates that this fund, as well as all future appropriations, must be apportioned and expended in strict compliance with the statutes.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION ADMINISTRATION

The committee recommends an increase of $75,000,000, against the budget estimate of $175,000,000, in the amount which the Rural Electrification Administration may borrow from the Secretary of the Treasury for the making of loans to Rural Electrification Administration cooperatives. At the present rate of allocation of funds and approval of loans, the $75,000,000 allowed, added to the balance now on hand, will provide every requirement during the remainder of the fiscal year. For the fiscal year 1949 the regular bill, as passed by the House, provides $100,000,000 more than proposed by the budget, so the total amount recommended by the Committee on Appropriations for the 2 years is equal to the sums proposed by the President.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

For administration of export controls and related activities, the budget estimate proposed an appropriation of $1,500,000 for the remainder of the year. This estimate contemplated a very rapid increase in personnel by the employment of 628 additional persons in the next few weeks. The committee is doubtful whether any such number is necessary but, in any event, if such a force is to be employed they should be brought in at a much slower rate in the interest of efficient operation. The committee therefore recommends an appropriation of $750,000 and suggests that the whole question of staffing of the activity be restudied before the estimate for the next fiscal year is submitted to Congress.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Salaries, Office of the Secretary.-The committee has disallowed a supplemental request for this Office in the sum of $20,000 to augment funds presently available for the Secretary's program staff for the purpose of assisting the Secretary to discharge responsibilities in connection with Public Law 395, approved December 30, 1947, dealing with the stabilization of commodity prices and otherwise stabilizing the economy of the United States. In denying this request the committee wishes to state that it is of the opinion that any additional work which may be required for this purpose should be performed by existing personnel. Also in view of the fact that the existing program staff for which the Secretary has earmarked $80,000 from presently available 1948 funds was not established with the knowledge or approval of the committee, additional funds should not be provided until the regular subcommittee has had an opportunity to consider the proposed continuation of this staff in connection with the 1949 estimates.

Oil and Gas Division.-A supplemental estimate of $65,000 was considered by the committee for this activity in connection with the discharge of duties assigned to the Interior Department under Public Law 395, the so-called Anti-Inflation Act. During hearings on the bill the committee was advised that if the appropriation measure was not to be enacted into law until April 1, it would not be possible to recruit the right kind of staff on the basis of $65,000, and that $45,000 would be the maximum required. Since the pending bill will not become law until considerably later than April 1 the committee is of the opinion that $25,000 will be sufficient for the remainder of the current year and has so recommended.

Contingent expenses, penalty mail costs.-The committee has included in the bill $35,000 in lieu of a budget estimate of $65,000 for this purpose. Delay in passage of the bill considerably beyond the period on which the estimate was based, and the demand of the committee that the use of the mails be restricted to the most essential purposes, has guided the committee in its recommendation for a substantial reduction in the estimate.

Bonneville Power Administration.-The committee has allowed $625,000 of an estimate of $725,000 for this activity and has approved the total proposed contract authorization request of $1,475,000. The reduction of $100,000 in the estimate has been applied to the request for an additional $200,000 for operation and maintenance, which was substantially reduced in the 1948 Appropriation Act. The amount approved by the committee ($100,000), will enable this agency to employ personnel on a substantially increased basis for the remainder of the current year and should provide for all necessary services in this connection. The additional funds and contract authorization recommended will provide transmission facilities to conform with the accelerated Grand Coulee generator-installation schedule, provide power when and where it is most urgently required, and improve power service to the Hanford atomic plant.

BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

Emergency work program, Navajo and Hopi Indians.-The committee has denied all funds requested in the estimates, totaling $1,500,000, for a proposed emergency work program for this group of

Indians. The effect of the committee's action in this connection will be to defer the launching of this program for a few months only, and until the Congress can have the benefit of consideration and study of the 10-year long-range program of Navajo rehabilitation which was presented to it recently. The Third Supplemental Appropriation Act, 1948, included $500,000 for welfare of Indians, which will meet the relief needs of the Navajo and Hopi Indians for the balance of the present fiscal year and, therefore, no hardship will result from deferment of the program. Also, the committee is of the opinion that some of the proposals contained in the presently denied program are unsound and that the whole program should be deferred for consideration by the subcommittee in charge of the regular 1949 Interior Department appropriation bill.

In this latter connection the committee has been advised informally by representatives of the Interior Department that an estimate in a substantial amount is being processed and, it is expected, will be forwarded to the Budget Bureau in the near future. The proposed 10year program contemplates the expenditure of $90,000,000 over the 10-year period which must be given very careful scrutiny.

Salaries and expenses, reservation administration. The committee has inserted in the bill an additional sum of $1,000 for this purpose, this amount being provided for salaries and expenses for additional policemen for the Winnebago Indian Agency in Nebraska during the remainder of the fiscal year 1948.

Welfare of Indians.-In connection with House Joint Resolution 355, which contained $125,000 for the relief of needy Indians, passed by the House of Representatives on March 22, it is the desire of the committee that $6,000 of this sum be allocated for relief purposes on the Winnebago Indian Agency in Nebraska.

Construction, Flathead project, Montana.-The committee considered a supplemental estimate of $150,000 for the fiscal year 1949 for the extension of electric service to 485 customers in the Flathead project area who are in urgent need of such service. Funds are required to construct service lines for these customers at the earliest possible date. The committee has allowed $125,000 to be immediately available for this purpose, which will be sufficient to carry work forward during the remainder of the current fiscal year and until additional funds can be provided in the regular 1949 appropriation act.

Construction, Mount Edgecumbe Sanatorium, Sitka, Alaska.-A supplemental estimate of $716,000 has been included in the bill to enable the Bureau of Indian Affairs to award a contract for the construction of an Indian hospital for tubercular patients on the island of Sitka, which is located off the mainland of Alaska. The sum of $1,696,400 heretofore has been provided for this purpose and the amount recommended in the bill will provide the remainder required to enable the Bureau to award the contract. The committee is advised that it is to the Government's interest to accept the low bid as the price is very reasonable for the construction to be performed.

BUREAU OF RECLAMATION

Construction, reclamation fund.-The committee has allowed supplemental estimates for continuation of construction in the sum of $700,000 for the Anderson Ranch Dam, Boise project, Idaho, and

$800,000 for the Payette division of the same project. These sums are required to meet contractors' progress payments and to provide funds for work which should be contracted for or performed during the current fiscal year. The estimate of $109,500 for the Rathdrum Prairie project, Idaho, which is included in the bill, is for emergency rehabilitation work on an existing deteriorated section of woodstave conduit serving the Hayden Lake unit.

Colorado River Dam fund, Boulder Canyon project. In effecting a reduction of $6,000 in the estimate of $55,000 for this purpose the committee has disallowed funds requested for the Office of River Control. It is the opinion of the committee that presently employed personnel should be able to perform the small additional amount of work involved.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Gaging streams.-The committee has recommended $485,000, a reduction of $150,500, in the estimate of $635,500 for this purpose. In support of its reduction in this item the committee wishes to point out that substantially all funds requested in the supplemental estimate are for repairs, replacements, the purchase of passenger-carrying vehicles and other equipment and that no part is required for personnel for the operation of existing gaging stations, and that, therefore, no hardship should result from the deferment of a portion of such items until the fiscal year 1949.

BUREAU OF MINES

Salaries and expenses, and economics of mineral industries.-The committee has disallowed supplemental estimates in the sum of $52,000 for salaries and expenses, and $260,000 for economics of mineral industries, requested for use in connection with Public Law 395, the so-called Anti-Inflation Act. The funds were requested for cooperative work with the coal industry and, primarily, for the collection of coal statistics. The committee is not impressed with the proposal and does not believe that the collection of additional statistics will solve existing or anticipated difficulties. Also, it is not in favor of providing additional funds for the collection of coal statistics formerly carried on in connection with the Bituminous Coal Act which the Congress refused to extend several years ago. It is undoubtedly true that these statistics are of value to private industry, but the committee is of the opinion that such statistics should be collected by or paid for by private industry which is the beneficiary of such information.

GOVERNMENT IN THE TERRITORIES

Construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, and trails, Alaska.— A supplemental estimate for $7,370,000 in cash and a contract authorization of $4,000,000 for construction of the Turnagain Arm Road in Alaska, connecting Seward on the Kenai Peninsula by road with Anchorage, has been approved by the committee. The construction of this road will permit abandonment of the lower section of the Alaska Railroad which is in dangerous condition and which, in future years, would be most expensive to rehabilitate and maintain. Construction of the road is also of value from a military standpoint. In commenting on the strategic importance of the proposed highway,

the Secretary of the Army, Mr. Royall, in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, dated Februray 3, 1948, stated in part as follows:

This letter will confirm that the Department of the Army considers the project for development of the road connection between Seward and Anchorage, including the proposed section from Potter to mile 58 south of Hope (referred to as the Turnagain Arm section) to be of major importance to the planned military program in Alaska.

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

Clothing and equipage. The estimates proposed $26,670,000 for the purpose of providing a distinctive uniform for the Air Corps. The departmental officials have agreed that this item can be drastically reduced by changing the basis of distribution of the new uniform to a more gradual change-over without losing any of the advantages to be gained. Therefore the committee recommends an additional appropriation of $10,000,000 which will be a sufficient amount to carry the program during the remainder of the year.

Penalty mail: Funds are provided for penalty mail payments for the first time by the Department of the Army, as well as the Department of the Navy, for the fiscal year 1948 inasmuch as the act requiring payments for this purpose by the defense departments became applicable to them on July 1, 1947.

Miscellaneous items.-Appropriations for "Engineer service, Army"; "Pay of cadets, Military Academy"; "Flood control, general"; and "Rivers and harbors" to meet contingencies not anticipated at the time of the original appropriations are included in the amount of the budget estimates. The "Rivers and harbors" item, $1,865,000, is composed of two projects: $265,000 for emergency work that was required in the Illinois River to keep it open for transportation of oil, etc., during the recent severe winter weather, and $1,600,000 for needed emergency construction on the St. Lucie canal and waterway in Florida.

Government and relief in occupied areas.-The committee recommends an appropriation of $143,000,000 against an estimate of $150,000,000 to carry the program to the end of the fiscal year. Subsequent to the hearings the committee was advised by officials in charge of the program that there are possible savings to the extent of $7,000,000 in pay, travel, and so forth of civilian employees. These savings will be available for the objects included in the supplemental estimate so the committee has made a reduction on that basis.

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

Bureau of Naval Personnel.-The estimates proposed $285,000 for the training stations at San Diego and Great Lakes, $114,000 for the Naval Academy, and $9,100 for the Naval Home. The committee has approved these amounts, except for the Naval Home where it has made a reduction to $3,800, but has provided that the funds be transferred from an available balance in another appropriation rather than appropriate new money.

Bureau of Ships.-This Bureau presented to the committee information to the effect that it was under the necessity of canceling $20,000,000 worth of contracts entered into under 1946 appropriations which it would be required to repurchase out of current funds if these