AUTHORIZING THE SECRETARY OF WAR TO USE FUNDS FOR ADJUSTMENT OF CONTRACTS HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS FIRST SESSION ON H. R. 3022 A BILL TO PROVIDE AUTHORITY TO THE SECRETARY OF 88467 JUNE 23, 24, 25, AND 29, 1943 Printed for the use of the Committee on Military Affairs UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1943 COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS SEVENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS ANDREW J. MAY, Kentucky, Chairman R. EWING THOMASON, Texas CARL T. DURHAM, North Carolina E. C. GATHINGS, Arkansas JOHN EDWARD SHERIDAN, Pennsylvania PHILIP J. PHILBIN, Massachusetts WALTER G. ANDREWS, New York CHARLES E. CLASON, Massachusetts ANTHONY J. DIMOND, Alaska JOSEPH R. FARRINGTON, Hawaii JULIA WATTERSON, Clerk TABLE OF CONTENTS Page William L. Marbury, chief counsel, Purchases Division, Army Service Forces, accompanied by Col. R. A. Cutter and Col. John Mecham 2-20 Lt. Col. H. A. Friedlich, Office of the Undersecretary of War- Lt. John A. Gilchrist, Bureau of Supplies and Acounts, Navy Depart- Col. Kenneth C. Royall, Deputy Fiscal Director, War Department_- 73–80 Thomas J. Lynch, assistant general counsel, Treasury Department-- 81-82 Thurman Hill, Chief Procurement Officer, Treasury Department_--- 82-83 TO AUTHORIZE THE SECRETARY OF WAR TO USE FUNDS FOR ADJUSTMENT OF CONTRACTS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1943 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., Hon. Andrew J. May (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. The first bill we have for consideration this morning is H. R. 3022, a bill to provide authority to the Secretary of War to use funds now or hereafter appropriated for adjustment of contracts, and for other purposes. (The bill referred to is as follows:) [H. R. 3022, 78th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To provide authority to the Secretary of War to use funds now or hereafter appropriated for adjustment of contracts, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any funds now or hereafter available under any appropriation contained in this Act, or hereafter made available for the Military Establishment, may be utilized by the Secretary of War, in connection with the termination of War Department contracts, under such regulations as he may prescribe and without regard to any provision of law relating to the making, performance, amendment, or modification of contracts, for advance or partial payments to contractors with the War Department, or to subcontractors or suppliers directly or indirectly under such War Department contractors, or for loans or guaranties of loans to such contractors, subcontractors, or suppliers, or for the purchase of the rights of such contractors, subcontractors, or suppliers to such amounts certified by them to be due in connection with any such termination and upon such terms as the Secretary may permit by such regulations. The CHAIRMAN. It is my information that this bill is requested by the War Department in order that they may adjust a large number of suspended contracts that are still in operation with small businessmen throughout the country. I think it is the direct result of a program which the Congress has been insisting upon all the way through this war effort of trying to spread business among small businessmen, particularly as to the letting of subcontracts by the principal or prime contractors. As a result of that there are several thousand contractors, most of them small ones, who have completed contracts, and the War Department thinks they do not have adequate authority to adjust and settle those contracts. Is that about the situation? 1 |