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APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1941

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
UConn HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEVENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS

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COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

EDWARD T. TAYLOR, Colorado, Chairman

CLARENCE CANNON, Missouri
CLIFTON A. WOODRUM, Virginia
LOUIS LUDLOW, Indiana
MALCOLM C. TARVER, Georgia
JED JOHNSON, Oklahoma

J. BUELL SNYDER, Pennsylvania
JAMES MCANDREWS, Illinois
EMMET O'NEAL, Kentucky
GEORGE W. JOHNSON, West Virginia
JAMES G. SCRUGHAM, Nevada
JAMES M. FITZPATRICK, New York
LOUIS C. RABAUT, Michigan
JOACHIM O. FERNANDEZ, Louisiana
MILLARD F. CALDWELL, Florida
DAVID D. TERRY, Arkansas
JOHN M. HOUSTON, Kansas
JOE STARNES, Alabama

ROSS A. COLLINS, Mississippi
CHARLES H. LEAVY, Washington
JOSEPH E. CASEY, Massachusetts
JOHN H. KERR, North Carolina
GEORGE H. MAHON, Texas
HARRY R. SHEPPARD, California
BUTLER B. HARE, South Carolina

JOHN TABER, New York

RICHARD B. WIGGLESWORTH, Massachusetts
WILLIAM P. LAMBERTSON, Kansas
D. LANE POWERS, New Jersey

J. WILLIAM DITTER, Pennsylvania
ALBERT E. CARTER, California
ROBERT F. RICH, Pennsylvania
CHARLES A. PLUMLEY, Vermont
EVERETT M. DIRKSEN, Illinois
ALBERT J. ENGEL, Michigan
KARL STEFAN, Nebraska

FRANCIS H. CHASE, South Dakota
DUDLEY A. WHITE, Ohio
CLARENCE J. MCLEOD, Michigan
FRANK B. KEEFE, Wisconsin

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATION BILL, 1941

HEARINGS

CONDUCTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE, MESSRS. MILLARD F. CALDWELL (CHAIRMAN), EMMET O'NEAL, JOHN M MAHOUSTON, GEORGE H. MAHON, WILLIAM P. LAMBERTSON, KARL STEFAN, AND LOUIS C. RABAUT, OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN CHARGE OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATION BILL FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1941, ON THE DAYS FOLLOWING, NAMELY:

54

MONDAY, MARCH 11, 1940.

Mr. CALDWELL. We have with us this morning the Commissioners of the District of Columbia and will be glad to have the President of the Board or each of the members make a general statement if you wish.

STATEMENTS OF MELVIN C. HAZEN, PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD
OF COMMISSIONERS; GEORGE E. ALLEN; LT. COL. DAVID
McCOACH, Jr., ENGINEER COMMISSIONER; AND DANIEL J.
DONOVAN, AUDITOR

GENERAL STATEMENT ON ESTIMATES FOR 1941

Mr. HAZEN. Mr. Chairman, this is a summary gotten up by the Commissioners for the benefit of the committee, which gives the total receipts for the District of Columbia, the total estimates submitted by the Commissioners and approved by the Budget, and also tells how much we have had to cut the various estimates by the Departments, to come within our revenues.

It is customary at the outset of the annual hearings on the District appropriation bill for the Commissioners to make a brief general statement concerning the District budget. This statement will not undertake to consider any individual item contained in the bill pending before the committee, as full detailed information relating to all the items will be supplied the committee in the justifications which have already been submitted to the committee and in the testimony of department heads of the District government as they appear before the committee.

I am attaching to this statement a memorandum prepared by the Budget officer of the District showing appropriations contained in the District Appropriation Act for the current fiscal year of 1940 and estimates of appropriations as requested by the several municipal services for the fiscal year 1941 and as approved by the Commissioners and the Budget Bureau.

By reference to this memorandum it will be noted that the 1940 appropriations total $48,069,207, and the total of the bill before the committee is $49,435,008, or an increase over 1940 of $1,565,801.

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It will also be noted that the departments submitted recommendations for budget needs for 1941 of $62,916,577, or $13,315,777 more than the pending bill. The Commissioners, because of revenue limitations, had to reduce the departments' total to $49,590,800, and this amount was further slightly reduced by the Budget Bureau to $49,435,008. This latter sum is divided into three revenue classifications, as follows:

General fund of the District.
Gasoline tax and highway fund.
Water fund..

$42, 044, 878 4,847, 150 2, 542, 980

The Commissioners are aware that the District could advantageously spend a much larger sum for municipal services than the pending bill carries, but they were necessarily confronted by revenue limitations in preparing the local budget for next year, and for this reason practically every municipal service had to suffer material reductions in budget needs.

The public-school authorities asked an increase for 1941 over 1940 of $5,846,115. This bill carries $13,259,402, a sum $109,756 less than the appropriations for the public schools for the current fiscal year.

The Health Department recommended an increase of $1,092,480 over 1940. The pending bill allows $2,574,200, which is only $65,340 in excess of 1940 appropriations.

The Board of Public Welfare asked for 1941 a total of $9,772,415, an increase of $2,421,590 over 1940. This bill provides a total sum of $7,430,555, which amount is but $79,730 in excess of 1940 appropriations.

This comparison could be extended to nearly all other District services. But what has been said shows that it is not possible to provide for all District needs at this time, whether those needs are in the public schools, the Health Department, the Department of Public Welfare, or in other departments, if the District is to continue to operate on a pay-as-you-go basis and within the limits of current revenue as is required by existing law.

Just how rapidly many or all of these needs can be met depends, of course, upon the District's income. Members of this committee may recall that in 1937, and again in 1938 emergency revenue laws were passed by Congress to increase District revenue. In 1939, a third and what was presumed to be a permanent revenue law was also passed. This latter law is now in effect, but even under this law the District will not be able to raise sufficient funds to meet but a relatively small part of the accumulated capital needs, provide for new capital needs, and at the same time take care of the constantly increasing cost of operation and maintenance of the municipal establishment.

And in this connection it might be well to call attention to the large expenditures made by the District in recent years for capital improvements from moneys received by the District from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, commonly known as the W. P. A. Under an act of Congress approved June 25, 1934, as amended by an act approved May 6, 1935, the District was authorized to obtain from the P. W. A. a sum not exceeding $10,750,000, 70 percent of which amount, or such part thereof as the District received, to be repaid from the District revenues. The District actually received $6,375,000. Of this amount $4,325,000 was expended for a

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sewage treatment plant and work incidental thereto; $1,950,000 for an adult tuberculosis hospital; and $100,000 for construction and other work at the Children's Hospital, a private institution. The final payment by the District to extinguish this debt will be made in the current fiscal year of 1940.

Under another act of Congress approved June 25, 1938, the District was authorized to obtain from the P. W. A. a further sum of $18,150,000, 55 percent of which is to be repaid from District revenues, with interest, over a period of not exceeding 25 years. The following capital improvements are being provided for out of this money:

New Municipal Court Building-
New Juvenile Court Building -
New Municipal Center Building....

Additional buildings and new construction at the Gallinger Munici

pal Hospital and the District Jail, including a new morgue building..

Additional public school construction_

New building for the District's fre-alarm system, etc.

Divorcement and repair of sewers, and a new garage for the city refuse division__

Workhouse and Reformatory, sewer facilities..

District training school, hospital and administration building..

Total.

$1,350, 000 550, 000

5, 680, 000

2, 925, 000 1, 018, 000 610, 000

5, 517, 000

250,000 250,000

18, 150, 000

In addition to the foregoing capital outlay the District is also proceeding under the Capper-Crampton Act of May 29, 1930, under the terms of which $16,000,000 is authorized to be appropriated for expenditure by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission for the acquisition of park land and playgrounds within the District of Columbia. While it is provided that this entire amount shall be initially appropriated from the Federal Treasury, the District is required to reimburse the Treasury for the entire cost in annual payments, not exceeding $1,000,000 in any one year. Through the fiscal year 1940 the District will have repaid to the Federal Treasury the sum of $5,231,212. On the theory that the entire $16,000,000 will be appropriated and expended for land purchases, the District still has confronting it the further repayment to the Federal Treasury of over $10,000,000.

These several matters are mentioned to show that the District has been spending large sums during recent years for capital improveoments, sums far in excess of the District's ability to provide on a pay-as-you-go basis. And the fact should not be overlooked that during this same period, between 1935 and 1940, the District will have also expended from its own revenues for capital improvements a further sum of over $40,000,000 for new school buildings, construction of sewers, new hospital construction, new buildings for public welfare institutions, paving streets, construction of bridges, and so forth.

During the years beginning with 1930 and ending with the present fiscal year of 1940, the maintenance and operating costs of the District Government have increased from $30,900,000 to $40,200,000, or an average annual increase of approximately $900,000. The cost of operating the District Government represents a constant annual increase which must first be provided for before any revenue may be allocated for capital improvements. The result of this constant increase has been an encroachment upon the District's ability to provide adequate sums annually for capital improvements. This is

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