The estimated cost of these two groups totals $59,998.20 for the months of April, May, and June. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has indicated that a total of $60,000 should be available during these months to care for these patients, stating that $10,000 of the amount can be supplied from funds on hand. The appropriation of $50,000 proposed by the committee is to provide the additional amount required. Even if the 44 and 65 cases are admitted for April, May, and June, there will still be a known backlog of cases of tuberculosis among these Indians totaling 124. The committee was advised that the entire Indian population has not been completely surveyed with the X-ray, but that when the survey is completed a number of other cases of tuberculosis will be uncovered. The committee was further advised that a twin attack on tuberculosis by X-ray surveys and hospitalization of discovered cases will bring about a marked reduction in tuberculosis within a 5-year period, but that if this is not done the case load will increase and the eventual cost to the Government will be greater. Attention is directed to the fact that in the fiscal year 1948, the Indian Service provided care for a daily average of 1,096 cases of tuberculosis at its own hospitals and under contract. BUREAU OF RECLAMATION SALARIES AND EXPENSES (OTHER THAN PROJECT OFFICES) ADMINISTRATIVE LIMITATIONS The 1949 Interior Department Appropriation Act placed a limitation of $7,800,000 on the amount which the Reclamation Bureau could transfer from other reclamation appropriations to the salaries and expenses account for operation of the Denver, Colo., office. Likewise, the 1949 act placed a limitation of $48,000,000 on the amount of reclamation appropriations that could be used during the fiscal year 1949 for administrative personal service and other personal services. Subsequent to the passage of the 1949 Interior Department Appropriation Act, Congress passed the act of July 3, 1948, providing pay increases for Federal employees. The amount of pay increases involved in personal services connected with the $7,800,000 limitation is $610,000. The committee does not favor the repeal of the $7,800,000 limitation as proposed by the House, but inasmuch as the Congress did not intend that the Pay Act increases should be included within the limitation fixed prior to the passage of the Pay Act, the committee does recommend that the limitation of $7,800,000 be increased to $8,410,000, or an increase of $610,000. Likewise, with respect to the $48,000,000 limitation, the Congress did not intend that the Pay Act increases should be included within that limitation. The amount of the pay increases involved in personal services connected with the $48,000,000 limitation is $3,695,000. Furthermore, in a decision dated October 1, 1948, the Comptroller General ruled that trust funds advanced by water-user organizations to the Reclamation Bureau under contracts executed in pursuance of the reclamation law for operation and maintenance of projects and funds transferred to the Reclamation Bureau from other Federal agencies were to be included within the $48,000,000 limitation. The total amount of trust funds advanced by water-user organizations to the Reclamation Bureau for operation and maintenance on some 19 projects during the fiscal year 1949 totals $2,210,492, of which $1,300,000 is earmarked for payments for personal services. The contributed funds from other agencies during the fiscal year 1949 amount to $647,406, of which $381,000 is for personal services. The committee does not recommend repeal of the $48,000,000 limitation. However, inasmuch as the Congress did not intend that the limitation of $48,000,000 should apply to trust funds advanced by water-user organizations and to funds contributed to the Reclamation Bureau by other Federal agencies, it is recommended that the $48,000,000 limitation be increased by $1,300,000 and $381,000, together with an increase of $3,695,000 due to the Pay Act, making a total increase of $5,376,000, or an increase from $48,000,000 to $53,376,000. The committee does not recommend repeal of the limitation in the 1949 Interior Department Appropriation Act providing that the total number of employees in the Bureau of Reclamation holding a permanent, temporary, or other appointment in grades CAF-9 and P-3, or above, shall not exceed 3,500 at any one time during the fiscal year 1949. The committee has accordingly deleted from the bill the provision in the bill as passed by the House proposing to repeal this limitation. NATIONAL MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY-CIVIL FUNCTIONS RIVERS AND HARBORS The committee has approved a total appropriation of $10,509,000 under this heading, a reduction of $991,000 under the budget estimate. The budget estimate for the maintenance and improvement of existing river and harbor works was in the amount of $11,500,000 and the House has allowed $10,500,000. The budget estimate contemplated an appropriation of $8,000,000 for McNary lock and dam; $1,500,000 for Ice Harbor lock and dam; and $2,000,000 for Chief Joseph Dam. In its report, the House committee stated it did not wish to earmark funds for either of these three projects and left it to the Corps of Engineers to effect the best possible utilization of funds allowed. The committee has been advised by the Office of the Chief of Engineers that the Acting Director of the Bureau of the Budget has stated that "allowances for rivers and harbors and flood control do not include any funds for the planning of construction of fish ladders and related facilities in any authorized structure in the Columbia Basin above McNary Dam." In view of this, the committee is of the opinion that no construction or other funds should be expended on the Ice Harbor lock and dam until the prohibition against fish passage structures has been removed and a determination has been made as to the effect of the Snake River dams upon the salmon runs. The committee directs the Corps of Engineers to utilize the funds appropriated under this heading, $10,500,000, for construction of McNary lock and dam and Chief Joseph Dam only. The information upon which the committee has acted was not before the House committee when its report on this subject was prepared. The remaining $9,000 allowed by the committee under this appropriation is for deepening from approximately 3 feet to about 7 feet the small-boat harbor at Havre de Grace, Md., just below Concord Point at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. FLOOD CONTROL, GENERAL (EMERGENCY FUND) The House allowed $2,500,000 under this head for flood repair in the Columbia Basin caused by the disastrous floods of May-June 1948. Subsequent to the House action, the Senate received in Senate Document 23 an estimate in the amount of $22,500,000 to meet a potential flood hazard of critical proportions expected to result from the unprecedented heavy snow cover produced by record blizzards occurring during the winter of 1948-49 in the western part of the United States. The supplemental estimate for $22,500,000 was dated March 2, 1949, and the committee had a hearing on the item on March 4, 1949. Subsequent to the receipt of the estimate and the hearing, the committee was advised that the flood hazard is not as great as it was at the time the estimate of $22,500,000 was prepared. The committee accordingly recommend an additional appropriation of $17,500,000 in lieu of the full additional amount requested, namely $22,500,000. The additional amount of $17,500,000, together with the $2,500,000 allowed by the House and approved by the committee for the Colum bia Basin, provides a total of $20,000.000 in the bill under the heading "Flood control, general (emergency fund).' With reference to this appropriation, the committee recommend that the following language be added to the bill: : Provided, That not to exceed $2,000,000 shall be made available under the provisions of and for the purposes enumerated in section 205 of the above Act Section 205 of the "Flood Control Act of 1948," approved June 30, 1948, Public Law 858, Eightieth Congress, second session, provides as follows: SEC. 205. That the Secretary of the Army is hereby authorized to allot from any appropriations heretofore or hereafter made for flood control, not to exceed $2,000,000 for any one fiscal year, for the construction of small flood-control projects not specifically authorized by Congress, and not within areas intended to be protected by projects so authorized, which come within the provisions of section 1 of the Flood Control Act of June 22, 1936, when in the opinion of the Chief of Engineers such work is advisable: Provided, That not more than $100,000 shall be allotted for this purpose at any single locality from the appropriations for any one fiscal year: Provided further, That the provisions of local cooperation specified in section 3 of the Flood Control Act of June 22, 1936, as amended, shall apply: And provided further, That the work shall be complete in itself and not commit the United States to any additional improvement to insure its successful operation, except as may result from the normal procedure applying to projects authorized after submission of preliminary examination and survey reports. The committee has approved the foregoing language in order to avoid confining expenditures to repair or restoration thereby allowing the expenditure of funds for emergency construction when property and human life is involved. The committee recognizes it is impossible to know in advance where a problem might develop. It is a good investment to have emergency funds available to conserve human life and property. INCREASES AND LIMITATIONS The changes recommended in the amounts of the House bill are as follows: Legislative branch: Senate: Payment to Vera C. Bushfield, widow of Harlan J. Payment to Alice W. Broughton, widow of J. Mel- Administrative and clerical assistants to Senators: The committee recommend the inclusion in The committee recommend that the following Office of Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper: The effect of the foregoing amendment rec- sents a decrease in basic pay of $780 and a $12,500.00 12, 500. 00 H INCREASES AND LIMITATIONS-continued Legislative branch-Continued The committee recommend that the following provision be added to the bill: Commencing March 1, 1949, the appro- The effect of the foregoing amendment is to A total of $10,000 was requested for The increase recommended provides for The committee recommend inclusion in Commencing January 20, 1949, the provisions of existing law relating to long-distance telephone calls for Senators shall be equally applicable to the Vice President of the United States. Purchase of typewriters: The committee recommend that the following provision be added to the bill: Notwithstanding the provisions of the Treasury-Post Office Appropriation Act, 1949, the appropriation "Miscellaneous items, contingent expenses of the Senate", shall be available for purchase of new or used typewriters at prices which do not exceed prices established under the provisions of the Treasury-Post Office Appropriation Act, 1949. $6,000.00 225.00 |