Mr. PAGE. Yes, sir; I budgeted myself. Mr. JoчNSON. How much? Mr. PAGE. I think I could use about $10,000. Mr. SHANKS. If I remember, $50,000 was based on $15,000 for expenses of operating the shop for leather, hair, and other materials, hardwood, and so forth, around $10,000 for furniture, and about $20,000 or $25,000 for new rugs and carpets. Mr. JOHNSON. If you did not get any money to buy new furniture in fiscal 1948, in what position would that leave you? Mr. PAGE. Just about as it is now. (After discussion off the record:) AVAILABILITY OF FURNITURE FROM WAR ASSETS ADMINISTRATION Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Chairman, shortly after the 21st day of April, when the appropriation that was put in the deficiency bill passed the House, I contacted Mr. Page and Mr. Lynn, the Architect of the Capitol. Under the law, the Architect passes on the design of the furniture. He does not have anything to do with purchasing of the same, but he passes on the design. So I had a meeting with Mr. Page and Mr. Lynn to contact the War Assets Administration to ascertain what they had in their warehouses throughout the country. Mr. Page received this memo from Mr. O'Connell, dated June 5: Object, office equipment and miscellaneous furniture for House Office Building, Washington, D. C. This is in reply to your verbal request for pricing information in connection with the subject matter. The following prices are on an as-is-facilities-platform basis. It lists the various types of furniture, executive-type desks, typewriter desks, tables, chairs, typists' chairs, davenports, and some rugs and clocks. He also has here lamps, but the lamps are purchased by the Architect of the Capitol. The letter continues: I understand this office has requested inventory reports in connection with this equipment from several of our regional offices and, upon receipt of the same, we will advise you accordingly. Mr. JOHNSON. Is that from War Assets? Mr. ANDREWS. That is from War Assets; yes, sir. Mr. SHANKS. From how many regional offices? Mr. ANDREWS. I believe there are 21 regional offices, and they have sent out this general disposal letter to the 21 regional offices to ascertain the information. (After discussion off the record:) MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS Mr. JOHNSON. If there are no further questions on this item, we will proceed to the next item, "Miscellaneous items," for which $175,000 is requested. How much did you have in 1947? ALLOCATIONS FOR MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS Mr. ANDREWS. First we submit for the record a chart listing 10 various allocations which were set up by the clerk's office in connection with the appropriation for this purpose for the fiscal year 1947. We have listed the amounts allocated, the amount expended up to April 30, and the balance remaining May 1, 1947, although in reality the expenditures really only cover up to March 31, as the April bills were not paid until sometime during the month of May and accordingly such payments are not reflected on this table. These figures, that is the amounts allocated, are more or less arbitrary and must be changed from time to time during the fiscal year as conditions may require, as it is, of course, impossible to forecast at the beginning of a fiscal year the exact amount which may be necessary for each allocation. We will proceed with the paragraph for "Miscellaneous items." For miscellaneous items, exclusive of salaries unless specifically ordered by the House of Representatives, including the sum of $27.500 for payment to the Architect of the Capitol in accordance with section 208 of the act approved October 9, 1940 (Public Act 812, 76th Cong.); the sum of $1,200 for the exchange, operation, maintenance, and repair of the Clerk's motor vehicles; the sum of $500 for the exchange, operation, maintenance, and repair of the folding room motortruck; the sum of $2,200 for the purchase, exchange, maintenance, operation, and repair of the post office motor vehicles for carrying the mails; the sum of $600 for hire of automobile for the Sergeant at Arms, and materials for folding, in all, $175,000; provided that no part of this appropriation shall be used to pay the salaries of three additional laborers authorized in section 2 of the House Resolution No. 385 of the Seventy-eighth Congress, adopted December 17. 1943. The item of $27,500 specifically specified to be paid to the Architect of the Capitol in connection with the operation of the House restaurant is the amount appropriated each year as provided by law. Also the various sums which we just mentioned for exchange, operation, and maintenance of motor vehicles, Clerk of the House, folding room of the Doorkeeper's department, office of the Postmaster and Sergeant at Arms, are the same amounts which have been provided for a great many years past, although each item was carried separately in the appropriation paragraph under the departmental head as "Salaries, officers and employees." This year we considered it would be more practical and better business procedure to pay such amounts out of "Miscellaneous items" and not out of the appropriation "Salaries, officers and employees." By taking into consideration these several specific amounts will leave us a balance of $133,000 for other purposes as may be allocated. Of course, as you undoubtedly know, that whenever the House creates any new positions or increases any salaries it is always provided that such amounts shall be paid out of the contingent fund of the House until otherwise provided by law and such disbursements can be made only from this particular appropriation of miscellaneous items and any such disbursement will automatically require further funds in order to carry out the increased pay acts, but it will be noted that we are not estimating any particular amounts for any such increases in compensation but will let the full appropriation absorb the same. Appropriated: Amount allocated Amount expended July 1, 1946 to Apr. 30, 1947 Balance May 1, 1947 $7,000.00 $6, 020, 07 2, 101. 21 85,000.00 66, 164. 41 2,000.00 1, 082.73 12,000.00 6, 788.45 22,000.00 31, 000. 00 18, 497. 57 2, 492. 76 27, 500.00 507.24 1. 426, 46 27, 500.00 $979.93 398.79 18, 835. 59 917.27 5, 211.55 3, 502. 43 13, 927.68 1,066.30 "Legislative Appropriation Act 1947," Public Law No. 479 approved July 1, 1946. "Increase Pay Act, fiscal year 1947," Public Law No. 25, approved March 29, 1947. Mr. JOHNSON. This table shows for 1947 you had appropriated for this purpose $192,000. Mr. SHANKS. Which consists of $186,000 by direct appropriation and $6,000 increased compensation which was payable under the resolution to all employees paid out of the contingent funds until otherwise provided by law. RATE OF EXPENDITURES Mr. JOHNSON. Up until May 1 you had a balance left of $44,839.54? Mr. SHANKS. That is correct. Mr. JOHNSON. What do you anticipate that balance will be at the end of this fiscal year? Mr. SHANKS. We have outstanding about $10,000 obligated for the purchase of typewriters. Bills have not been rendered as yet. We also owe laundry bills, ice bills, newspapers, and have pay rolls to be taken care of. We have pending in the disbursing office three deceased employee gratuities which will call for disbursement of about $7,500 under the 6 months gratuity allowance, for which resolutions have not been passed in each case, although I believe one was introduced the other day. Also not reflected here in connection with the Office of Coordination of Information which provided that the expense and salaries shall be paid out of the contingent fund until otherwise provided by law, we figure roughly, $44,000, and we might have left about $5,000 for other contingencies which might arise between now and June 30. ADEQUACY OF ESTIMATES FOR 1948 Mr. JOHNSON. Do you believe for the fiscal year 1948 that the $175,000 will be sufficient? Mr. SHANKS. That $175,000 seems a little high, but prices are going up all the time. The Clerk of the House is just preparing to advertise for bids for laundry, as well as ice, for the next fiscal year. Of course, the OPA is out the window and I do not know exactly what the prices of laundry are going to be; but, from all indications, they are going to be considerably more than we are paying at the present time. I even notice that the bids by the procurement for ice have tremendously increased. We are getting ice at 33 cents a hundred, but the price they are paying at the present time is 35 and 40 cents a hundred. If you notice from the exhibit, we have $22,000 set up for gratuities, where we show a balance of $3,500, but $4,000 has to be added or a total of $26,000 to meet the outstanding obligations. We have 10 different allocations set up, and we are going to increase them. No. 10 the House restaurant is specifically provided for in the appropriation paragraph, something like a subsidy. We turn that amount over to the Architect of the Capitol in one lump sum, and he places that in a special deposit account in the Treasury to operate the House restaurant. For the miscellaneous pay roll we have an allocation of $31,000 and out of the same we may be able to save $3,000 or $4,000 which will be transferred over into gratuities and funerals of deceased employees. These figures are arbitrarily fixed by the Clerk's office to meet conditions as they arise from time to time. At the beginning of the fiscal year we set up a certain amount; and in about 6 months, we may have to revise them. In addition to these allocations, there are going to be four more set up in the next fiscal year, because we transferred, for example, from the Clerk's office $1,200 for operation and maintenance of the Clerk's motor vehicles, including the stationery truck, $2,200 for the Post Office; and $500 for the folding room motortruck, and $600 for the Sergeant at Arms. They were disbursed heretofore out of salaries O and E and they will be transferred into this miscellaneous item account. This time we did not set up any amount for increased compensation, because we did not know how many employees might be put on by resolution. We thought it would be advisable to put in this total figure and we will absorb whatever increase may come in during 1948 out of the amount which may be allowed by House resolutions. Mr. JOHNSON. The amount requested here is $17,000 less than the amount for 1947? Mr. SHANKS. Altogether, yes. Mr. JOHNSON. And you think it will be sufficient? Mr. SHANKS. Yes, we do, absolutely. Mr. JOHNSON. At the proper place I wonder if it would not be well to insert this chart showing the contingent fund? Mr. SHANKS. It has already been inserted. STENOGRAPHIC REPORTS OF HEARINGS Mr. JOHNSON. If there are no further questions on that item, the next item is "Reporting hearings." Mr. ANDREWS. For stenographic reports of hearings of committees other than special and select committees, $65,000. For the current fiscal year of 1947 we have had appropriated both regular and by a supplemental appropriation, a total of $57,500 for this purpose which we anticipate will be sufficient but if not we will, of course, have to secure a further supplemental appropriation, but in order to avoid the possible necessity, although we cannot be exact on this point, we feel that an increase of $7,500, or a total of $65,000, should be appropriated for the fiscal year 1948. SPECIAL AND SELECT COMMITTEES Mr. JOHNSON. If there are no questions on that item, gentlemen, we will pass to the next item, "Special and select committees." BREAK-DOWN OF INVESTIGATIONS AUTHORIZED BY EIGHTIETH CONGRESS Mr. ANDREWS. We also desire to submit for the record a tabulated statement showing the various investigations which have been either continued or authorized by the Eightieth Congress, which table will show the amounts authorized, the amounts expended to April 30, and the balance as of May 1, 1947, although it will be noted from this table that three committees which were recently established have not, as this statement is being written, received any authorization as to the amount of this funds. (The statement referred to is as follows:) House of Representatives, special_investigations continued or authorized by the Eightieth Congress Unexpended balance of approximately $25,000 at the close of the Seventy-ninth Congress, continued by the Eightieth Congress, plus $50,000 additional. Investigating resolutions passed May 12, 1947. No funds authorized as yet. Resolution passed May 12, 1947, continuing the transportation investigation from the Seventy-ninth Congress, but no unexpended balance or any other funds as yet authorized. It will be noted that we have requested $600,000. For the past few years our appropriation, including supplementals, have amounted to $500,000 a fiscal year, although for the current fiscal year 1947 our |