Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-04-03
THE DEFICIENCY BILL.

The necessity for passing, at each session of Con-
gress, Deficiency Bal, as it is now called, but
which was formerly designated as partial Appro-
priation Bill" was supposed to have been remeded
by the establishment by Congress, some nine years
ago, of rule by which the fiscal year was made to
run from the LIST of July in one year to the 1st of
July in the next for the purpose of making appro
priations for each year in to meet any de-
mands upon the Government for the following year
before the expiration Of the year that is current.
And that objectwould have been readily accomplished
if Congress had fact appropriated for the expenses
of the fiscal year the moneys which the several De-
partments of the Government had estimated to be
necessary to meet its expenses instead of cutting
down the estimates, without rhyme or reason SO as
to withhold from the Executive Officers Civil, Mill
tary, and Naval, certain essentially requisite
to carry into execution existing laws and contracts.
The authors of the Deficiencies, to supply which
bill has just passed one branch of Congress, were
not therefore, the heads of the several Executive
Departments comprised in the general term of the
Adnainisration-bu of the two Houses Of Congress,
and especially Of those who refused the appropri-
atoms, which, in the exercise of duty imperative
upon them, the Administration had estimated for.
There may have been cases, doubtless, in which
just reason for reducing the appropriations below
the estimates But, as general position, it will
hardly be denied by any candid man that the de-
fciencies which have resulted from the curtaiment
of the estimates made by the Departments must be
laid at the door of the last Congress- and not of the
Administration. This is position which will, we
think, be admitted to be generally true by those
who have familiarized themselves with the constitu
tional duties of the different branches of the Gov
eminent, and the establishments recognised by the
Constitution and the Legislature of the country
Without supplying such deficiency by supplement
tary law it is plain to every observing and reasoning
mind that the wheels of the Government must have
come to stand-st and its credit have been serious
ly compromised, before the end of the fiscal year.
If readers of the Opposition presses would i'm
pIcitly confde in statements which have been made
by them upon this subject, they would believe that
the idea of Bill to supply deficiencies in the An.
nual Appropriation Law was new one for which
the People are indebted to this Administration
The Union," for example, had paragraph, on
the day following the passage Of the pending partial
Appropriation Bill by the House Of Representatives,
dilating, with conscientious earnestness, upon the
ccih Of anticipating appropriation bills to supply
deficiencies arising from the necessities of the SER
vice." and expressing its trust that the Executive
branch Of the Government would not again furnish
a precedent so much at variance with the puards
thrown around the public treasury" &c. A aprc-
cedent," Ell? Why, our contemporaries more than
usually at fault to the facts of history when he
supposes this Deficiency Bill to be an original sin,
either on the part of Congress the Administration
or even Of the Wings. To go no further back than
the Administration of President Polk, who came
into Office in March, 1S45: Congress met in the
December following, and, if the worthy but errine
Editor Of the "Union" will consult the Statute
.ook, he will find that on the 9Th Of May 1916, an
Act passed Congress " to supply deficiency in III,
appropriation for cerstn objects made for the ser
vice of the fiscal year ending the 3Oth of June
1885," one item Of which act was $780, 900 70,
the Quartermaster' Department, for which an add
tional appropriation is now vehemently denounced
He will also further find that in every other ven,
of Mr.. Folks Administration, 1S47, lS4S, 1S49
and in each intervening year, 1850 and 1851, ap
preparations made to supply Deficiencies in the
Annual Appropriation Bills Of the preceding years
Again: In the discussions which have taken place
in the newspapers and elsewhere on the nancalques
ton, an attempt has been made to hold the present
Administration responsible for an alleged large in
crease of the Expenditures Of the Government
With the growth Of the Government, and the add