Mr. LUDLOW. As I understand, Mr. Bloom, you are not asking for additional funds? Mr. BLOOм. No. Mr. LUDLOW. You just want to cover objects that you were unable to cover under the other resolution? Mr. BLOOM. Yes; and this does it. Mr. LUDLOW. And you do not want another dollar? Mr. BLOOм. No, sir; not yet. Mr. LUDLOW. Leave out the "not yet." Mr. BLOOм. I do not want to have it on the record that I will not come later and ask you for more money. Mr. WOODRUM. I do not understand the language. You are talking about its authorizing you to be reimbursed for entertaining people. It seems that language would authorize you to "receive per diem allowances in lieu of actual expenses of subsistence within or outside the District of Columbia." Mr. BLOOм. That is what the General Accounting Office informed me should be in the bill for me to be reimbursed. Mr. WOODRUM. It would seem like subsistence allowance of employees working for you, if you were paying them an allowance. Mr. BLOOM. No; that is not for employees. Mr. WOODRUM. It is a very indefinite allowance. Mr. TABER. How much money is embodied in these disallowed items? Mr. BLOOM. I do not know up to date what it is; this goes back some time. There is one item of the clipping bureau in the amount of $613.24 that they have in this one item to the Burrell Clipping Bureau. Of course we continued that service right along. Mr. TABER. You have quite a lot of items down there [indicating]. Mr. BLOOM. Yes. Mr. TABER. The total you have down to that date is about what? Mr. BLOOM. It would be about $1,500 or $2,000. Mr. TABER. And that was down to about what date? Mr. BLOOM. I say August 25, 1936, in this. But I am talking about up to date it is about that sum. Mr. TABER. It is about $1,500 or $2,000 to date? Mr. BLOOM. Yes. Mr. LUDLOW. You say that the profits from the receipts equal the amount of this appropriation? Mr. BLOOM. It more than equals it. Mr. WOODRUM. Is it the intention of the Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission to place on sale any documents, publications, or exhibits that you are getting up? Mr. BLOOм. Yes. Mr. WOODRUM. Do you expect to realize any consideration from those sales and will there be a profit from them? Mr. BLOOM. I expect to realize the cost of production of the different articles and books and pamphlets that the Commission is issuing and there will be a profit for the Government. Mr. WOODRUM. Will that profit substantially take care of the cost of the celebration? Mr. BLOOM. It will. Mr. WOODRUM. Those funds will be covered into the general funds of the Treasury and will not come to you? Mr. BLOOM. No, we would not handle any money. All checks are made payable to the Treasurer of the United States and the cash which comes in the office of the Commission, a check is made out, a double check, and cash registered, and that cash is deposited every day to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States. Mr. WOODRUM. As I understand it, the necessity for this legislation is that in the language making the appropriation they failed to set out those general items. Mr. BLOOM. Yes. Mr. WOODRUM. And there is a general law to the effect that no funds can be expended for these items unless they are set out in the appropriation. Mr. BLOOM. Absolutely. Mr. WOODRUM. If they had been set out in the appropriation bill that would be all right. Mr. BLOOM. Yes; and we would not be here today. Mr. TABER. Do you figure that you could pay for all these items under this resolution? Mr. BLOOM. Yes; the General Accounting Office gave me these different items and told me practically what I should do. I have sent different things up on a preaudit and they have sent it back to me. Here is one which they sent back, and here is one for the clippings that they would not approve. Mr. TABER. I think, in regard to those official cards that you would like to have, that if you inserted in the resolution the words "official cards" after the word "newspapers", that would take care of that particular item. Mr. BLOOM. Yes. Mr. WOODRUM. Are there any further questions? If there are not, we thank you, Mr. Bloom. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1937. ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL STATEMENT OF DAVID LYNN, ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL IMPROVING THE CAPITOL GROUNDS-SEWER RECONSTRUCTION Mr. WOODRUM. Mr. Lynn, we shall be glad to have a statement from you on this item of reappropriating the unexpended balance of $25,000, for improving the Capitol Grounds. In that connection, you forwarded a letter to the chairman of the committee, which will be put in the record at this point. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Hon. EDWARD T. TAYLOR, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. APRIL 19, 1937. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: It is respectfully requested that the following language be included in the deficiency bill now under consideration: "Capitol Grounds: The unexpended balance on June 30, 1937, of the $25,000, portion of the appropriation of $120,963, for improving the Capitol Grounds, contained in the Legislative Branch Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1937, and available for the fiscal years 1936 and 1937 is hereby continued available for the same purposes until June 30, 1938." The amount of $25,000 was allotted for the reconstruction of a sanitary and storm water sewer, together with incidental repairs, on the north side of the Capitol Grounds from the Supreme Court Building to an outfall sewer on the west side of the Capitol grounds. A contract was let through the sewer department of the District of Columbia and work was completed on the rebuilding and relining of the main portion about January 15, 1937, this work being pushed ahead to completion so as not to interfere with movements of crowds through the grounds during the inaugural ceremonies. The balance of the work, relining the existing sanitary sewer across the west terrace, rebuilding adequate catch basins and manholes, replacing broken terracotta laterals, remains to be completed. This work has progressed slowly due to the large volume of sewage in this sewer during the sessions of Congress and through the winter months, as well as the storm water drainage from the Capitol Building being carried by the sanitary system. In the south driveway, just west of the plaza, a storm-water sewer has been found to be in very bad condition. Estimates were prepared and submitted for the reconstruction of the entire drainage system of the Capitol Grounds and the repaving of the drives and plaza, which included this sewer, but was not approved. Some urgent, temporary repairs were made, but it becomes necessary, in view of a possible failure of this sewer, to defer the balance of the work originally contemplated on the north side and to make these repairs, replacing this portion with a new sewer line of about 250 feet from the manhole, just west of the House subway, to a point in the south roadway where it will be joined to another grounds sewer. This work is urgent as the sewer beyond the temporary connection has already failed and water 10 feet deep is standing in the old brick sewer under the steam tunnel and the high tension electrical ducts running from the Capitol power plant to the Capitol Building. As this work will necessitate closing, or at least obstructing, the south driveway and a portion of the roadway to the House Office Building, it is considered advisable, in view of the traffic conditions at these points, to delay this work until after the adjournment of the Congress, and the request for the continuation of the unexpended balance is accordingly made. Respectfully, DAVID LYNN, Architect of the Capitol. Mr. LYNN. As stated in my letter to your committee, in the south driveway, just west of the plaza, a storm-water sewer has been found to be in very bad condition. Estimates were prepared and submitted for the reconstruction of the entire drainage system of the Capitol Grounds, but were not approved. Some urgent temporary repairs were made to this sewer consisting of a storm-water connection and construction of a manhole, but further investigation shows that some replacement and repair must be undertaken as soon as possible to prevent the failure of this portion of the system. It will be necessary to defer part of the work originally contemplated on the north side of the grounds in order that these repairs may be made which consist of replacement of about 250 feet of the sewer running from the manhole just west of the House subway to a point in the south roadway where it will be joined to another grounds sewer. Part of the work to be deferred consists of relining the existing sanitary sewer across the west grounds, rebuilding adequate catch basins and manholes and replacing broken terra-cotta laterals. The appropriation was $25,000, of which $16,250 has been expended leaving a balance of $8,750. This emergency work is estimated to cost $6,000, leaving $2,750 to complete work already in progress and yet to be done on the original plan. This is simply to take care of the emergency work after July 1 and any balance remaining after that is completed, will be available for expenditure on the north and west sides of the Capitol Grounds to continue the work already authorized in those areas. Mr. WOODRUM. How much is the balance? Mr. LYNN. $8,750. I have a break-down of the $25,000. Mr. WOODRUM. Will you put that in the record? (The statement referred to is as follows:) Appropriated___ Expenditures: Repair and reconstruction of sewer (District of Columbia) – Pipe Construction of 2 manholes. Manhole covers.. Emergency repair, District of Columbia: Storm-water sewer con- $25,000 15, 482 80 225 80 383 Total expended to Apr. 19, 1937-- Balance, Apr. 19, 1937. 16, 250 8,750 Obligations: Estimated cost of work in progress on north side to be completed___ 1,000 Repairs to paving, in connection with sewer repairs, south side of 5, 000 1,000 Total.... 7,000 Balance (estimated) to continue work on north and west sides as Mr. WOODRUM. How much is the balance? 1,750 Mr. LYNN. We have expended $16,250, leaving a balance of $8,750. Work already started in the north side of the grounds will cost $1,000 and the emergency work that I hope to do in the south driveway will cost about $5,000 plus $1,000 for repairs to paving in connection with these sewer repairs, leaving a balance of $1,750, which I hope to use on the west side of the grounds to take care of some defective sewers. TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1937. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS STATEMENT OF DR. HERBERT PUTNAM, LIBRARIAN Mr. WOODRUM. We have an estimate in House Doc. No. 148 for the Library of Congress, for the fiscal year 1937, in the sum of $7,500, as follows: Legislative reference service: For printing the "Digest of Public General Bills" for the first session of the 75th Cong., prepared in the Legislative Reference Service, fiscal year 1937, $7,500 (U. S. C., title 2, secs. 136, 140, 141, 150; act Feb. 11, 1936, 49 Stat., p. 1110; and act Apr. 17, 1936, 49 Stat., p. 1227). $7,500 Will you explain what that item is, and the necessity for it? Dr. PUTNAM. This [indicating] is the document, Mr. Chairman The first issue, and the fourth issue, cumulative, of this present session. This project originated with this committee a couple of years ago, and we were given what was considered an adequate personnel for it but no appropriation for printing. At the last session, the second of the Seventy-fourth Congress, there was a deficiency appropriation of $3,800 to cover printing. That could be only estimated very roughly. We had to add to that about $3,000 from the general appropriation for printing in order to get out the 11 issues of the last session. Now the next year will be properly taken care of both as to personnel and to printing, if the bill for the next fiscal year, which you passed last week, stands as it is. But we are still without an appropriation for printing these issues for the present session. We have issued four already, but the bills have not been paid. Mr. WOODRUM. Were they paid by the $3,800 which we gave you? Dr. PUTNAM. No; that was exhausted on last year's issues. For the present year we have had none. Mr. WOODRUM. Could you just use it out of the general appropriation? Dr. PUTNAM. Legally; yes. But the general appropriation is hard pressed for the routine printing and binding of the Library. We could not get this $7,500 out of that account without neglecting emergency administrative documents that we ought not to neglect. Mr. WOODRUM. You cannot absorb it, or any part of it? Dr. PUTNAM. No, sir; we ought not to. Of course, in a sense some things can be postponed. We have $35,000 of printing arrears we would like to do now, if we had the money. We have $1,000,000 of binding arrears that we would like to do. This digest is a distinct project close to Congress, originating in the desires of Congress, and while to start with it was an experiment it is now firmly established in the favor of Congress. Mr. WOODRUM. How many copies of it do you print? Dr. PUTNAM. We print an edition of 850 copies and a copy of each issue goes to every Senator and Member. Then a few extra copies go I think to the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House, and then again a few people subscribe for it. Mr. BOYLAN. How much of it? Dr. PUTNAM. Anyone who wishes to receive it deposits $5 with the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, and he gets the issues as they appear. The first issue costs him only 10 cents, but as it develops and as it is cumulative, you can see, comparing the first and the fourth issues that the final copies may cost as much as 40 cents apiece. Mr. BOYLAN. How many subscribers do you have? Dr. PUTNAM. I do not have that information with me. The Documents office handles the sales. Mr. BOYLAN. In whose hands is it, who directs it? Dr. PUTNAM. It is in the direct hands of Mr. W. C. Gilbert, of our Legislative Reference Division. He is an experienced indexer and a digester of long experience in our service, having been with us for over 20 years. Mr. BAYLOR. He is one of your legislative staff of the division? Dr. PUTNAM. Yes; he was author of the Provisions of the Federal Laws Held Unconstitutional, this other document. He has four men under him, all members of the legislative reference service. |