AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT
APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1934

HEARING

BEFORE THE

UNIV. OF

SUBCOMMITTEE OF HOUSE COMMITTEE
ON APPROPRIATIONS

CONSISTING OF

MESSRS. JAMES P. BUCHANAN (CHAIRMAN),

JOHN N. SANDLIN, MICHAEL J. HART, ROBERT G. SIMMONS,
AND JOHN W. SUMMERS

б

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

JOSEPH W. BYRNS, Tennessee, Chairman

561

A6

72d

AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATION BILL, 1934

HEARINGS CONDUCTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE, MESSES. JAMES P. BUCHANAN (CHAIRMAN), JOHN N. SANDLIN, 'MICHAEL J. HART, ROBERT G. SIMMONS, AND JOHN W. SUMMERS, OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN CHARGE OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATION BILL FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1934, ON THE DAYS FOLLOWING, NAMELY:

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1932.

STATEMENTS OF HON. R. W. DUNLAP, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE, AND W. A. JUMP, BUDGET OFFICER

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. BUCHANAN. Mr. Secretary, the committee would like to have a general statement including, among other things, the effect of the provisions of the economy bill as shown in this year's Budget, and any other matters you wish to present to the committee in a general way.

COMPARISON OF APPROPRIATIONS, 1933, WITH ESTIMATES, 1934 Mr. DUNLAP. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I have some statements here which I would like to have incorporated in the record. Our Budget estimates for 1934 total $118,814,909. The decrease this year is more than the total amount of the Budget for 1934. In fact, the decrease amounts to $80,000,000 more than the total Budget for 1934. The reduction is $199,068,327. The appropriation for the department last year was $317,883,236. These reductions were briefly as follows: Reduction of $3,991,237 on the ordinary activities of the department. That includes legislative-furlough deductions amounting to $3,275,360.

Miscellaneous reductions, distributed through the various bureaus, including reductions on account of compulsory retirements under the economy act, savings in rents, further curtailment in land purchases, economies under the air commerce weather service, etc., $1,050,277. That makes a total of reductions in ordinary activities of $4,325,637.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Those are reductions

Mr. DUNLAP. Those are reductions under the ordinary activities. Mr. BUCHANAN. And does that include the savings under the various sections of the economy act?

Mr. DUNLAP. Yes; that includes that, in so far as they are reflected in the estimates.

Now, offsetting these decreases in a slight degree, we have increases as follows: In the office of the Secretary, $83,300. That is for main

tenance and equipment expenses in connection with the new building now under construction.

Plant Quarantine Bureau, $125,000 increase distributed as follows: Pink bollworm control, $25,000; gypsy moth control, $75,000; and Japanese beetle control, $25,000.

The Forest Service, for planting on national forests, $125,800. These make a total of increases in general activities of $334,100. We have a reduction of $313,577 under the heading "Payments to States:

Mr. BUCHANAN. Payments to States on what funds?

Mr. DUNLAP. The law provides for increasing payments for the Puerto Rico experiment station, $5,000; the Hawaii experiment station, $2,000 and extension work in Puerto Rico, $10,000.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That is in accordance with the statute, is it? Mr. DUNLAP. Yes. That makes a total increase of $17,000 under "Payments to States."

Then, we have decreases as follows: Forestry cooperative and receipt funds, $319,960, and legislative furlough $10,617, or a total of decreases of $330,577.

REDUCTION IN ROAD FUNDS

We have a reduction in road funds of $194,763,000. That includes the following items:

Dropping of nonrecurring items in the emergency relief and construction act, $132,000,000.

Reduction on Federal-aid highway funds, $60,185,613.

Reduction on forest road and trail funds, $2,447,600, and reduction on road and trail estimated expenditures from forestry receipt funds, $130,000. That makes a total reduction of $194,763,213 on all road funds. There is no authorizing act as yet for 1934 covering Federal aid and forest roads. There is $46,271,787 estimated for 1934 to be spent under the 1933 authorizations. As I say, there is no authorizing act for 1934 and that is the reason, of course, there is no money in here for 1934. The $46,271,787 in this Budget is exclusively the money that will be spent under the unappropriated balance of the 1933 authorizations.

Mr. BUCHANAN. And that is on what roads?

Mr. DUNLAP. That is on all roads; Federal highways and forest roads and trails.

Mr. BUCHANAN. And you say there is no authorization for 1934? Mr. DUNLAP. No.

Mr. SANDLIN. That is the balance that has been authorized?

Mr. JUMP. It is not the entire balance. It is however approximately within $10,000,000 of the entire authorization.

Mr. BUCHANAN. If that is to be spent in this fiscal year, why was it not carried in a deficiency bill?

Mr. JUMP. Only $13,000,000 of the $46,000,000 is contemplated for expenditure during this fiscal year unless some unanticipated demand should require cash withdrawal of a larger part of it prior to July 1. It is intended primarily for payments during 1934 under the 1933 authorization. Of course these road funds are available for expenditure, if required, anytime after passage of the appropriating act, and since presumably this bill will become a law before March 4 no deficiency item would be required.

ADVANCES MADE TO STATES THROUGH RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION

Mr. BUCHANAN. While we are on this subject, gentlemen-I suppose the Bureau of Public Roads would have the information-does any of you gentlemen have any idea of the amount of the public highway fund that has been obligated to pay off the debts of cities and towns contracted with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, as security, in the event that they did not repay those loans?

Mr. JUMP. I do not know the answer to that question.

Mr. BUCHANAN. The act authorizes the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to loan money to cities and towns and States to take care of charitable work, to feed the poor, and it provided that if those cities and towns and States did not pay back those sums, then it should be taken from their pro rata allotment out of the public highway fund.

Mr. JUMP. I did not know that. I know that in the $120,000,000 appropriation for advances to the States for Federal-aid roads, that was included in the emergency relief construction act, there was a provision that beginning with the year 1938, deductions would be made from the apportionments to the States over a period I think of 10 years, to repay the advances made under the $120,000,000.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That is in the highway act itself?

Mr. JUMP. That is in the emergency relief and construction act. Mr. SANDLIN. That was two years ago.

Mr. JUMP. The one 2 years ago was for $80,000,000, in the emergency construction act. It provided that beginning with 1933 the Federal Government would draw back one-fifth or roughly $16,000,000

a year.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That was to pay up the credits that the various States had procured for emergency construction of highways?

Mr. JUMP. Yes.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That was not what I had in mind.

funds to be used for charity purposes.

Mr. JUMP. I do not know anything about that.

Mr. SANDLIN. This is in the economy act.

Mr. JUMP. I do not know about the provision Mr. Buchanan has in mind but the subject he refers to is in the emergency relief and construction act.

Mr. BUCHANAN. It was in one of the bills passed late in the session, I believe.

Mr. JUMP. I can only tell you about the $120,000,000 that was in the emergency relief and construction act. There was $120,000,000 of advances to the States, just like the $80,000,000 that was appropriated for the same purpose two years ago and in the case of the $120,000,000 there was a provision that beginning with 1938 deductions would be made by the Federal Government over a period of 10 years.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That was money advanced to the States for the construction of highways?

Mr. JUMP. Yes; for the relief of unemployment.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Then it is proper that the highway fund should pay for that. But this other that I am referring to is money advanced for charity purposes.