Evening star., 1925-01-26
COMMITTEE D. KS
S15O,OOO,o)O BILL
Provides for New Federal
BuiIdings-Memorial
Bridge Endorsed.

Favorable report was ordered today
on the Elliott bill carrying authorize
ton for s150,o0o,o0O for Government
buildings during the next six years, one
third of which is to be spent in housing
Federal activities in the National Capt.
tai. Favorable report was also ordered
on the bill which has already parsed the
Senate authorizing an appropriS ion Of
s14,75o.0o0 for the Arlington Menor.al
Bridge between the Lincoln MeNorial
and Arlington National Cemetery. link
ing the North and South and giving
Washington the finest approach Of any
city in the world.
This action was taken by the HSuse
committee on public buildings and
grounds following executive sessions for
two days and two days for public hear
ings.
ADOPT Four Amendments.
Before reporting the public build
ings bill the committee directed
Chairman Elliott to make four
amendments. The first of these
would give the Postmaster General
joint authority with the Secretary of
the Treasury in selecting sites and
in deciding which of the projects
should have priority in order to best
Federal service.
Another amendment authorizes the
closing of such streets in Washing
ton as may be necessary to provide
a sufficiently large site for some of
the buildings to be erected. This was
designed especially to permit erec-
tion of a building for the Office of
the Controller General and the In
ternal Revenue Bureau on parts of
the seven squares west of Seven
teenth street and north of B street.
which the Government purchased
several years ago, that each of these
buildings might house all activities s
under one roof.
A third amendment was adopted to
meet the wishes of the American So
ciety of Architects, providing that the
Treasury Department may obtain the
services of the best architectural tai
ent of the country to work under the
supervising architect of the Treasury,
rather than. as the bill now stands, to
have all such outside help actually
serve in the office of the supervising
architect.
Practical Side Stressed.
The fourth amendment was adopted
on the motion of Representative
Frank Oliver of New York and pro-
vides that as far as practicable these
new buildings shall be designed for
utilitarian and practical purposes,
so that the Government employe will
have an adequate and suitable workshop
rather than that these buildings be
monumental in character.
During the hearings Lieut. Col. C
o. Sheriff., engineer officer in charge
of public buildings and grounds, who
Is executive secretary of the public
buildings commission emphasized that
the Arlington Memorial bridge Ats in
as an integral part of the public
buildings program for the Nationa
Capital and will really be the frs
big step in development of the Nal
as recommended to Congress in ar
exhaustive report in 1901, by a spe.
cial public buildings commission
Essential to the erection of thi!
| memorial bridge will be the widen
ing and Improvement of B street from
the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol
| which will be lined on either sid,
with Government buildings and which
| is expected to greatly relieve tn,
| traffic situation.
u0IIcC ADDD0UCc Dill